PRINTER CONSUMABLES: ORIGINAL OR REMANUFACTURED CARTRIDGES
In the dim and distant age of the typewriter, dealer’s shelves were packed with everyday names such as Pelikan, Kores, Geha and many other leading compatible manufacturer brands with little or no evidence of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) branded consumables. Most printer manufacturers like Brother, Canon and IBM had a range of supplies, but tended to be more interested in the lure of the large value and high profit margins that capital equipment sales and maintenance contracts offered as opposed to lots of small orders for lesser value consumables. Following the decline of the typewriter into today’s more modern printer technologies of Ink Jet and Laser Toner this trend has been reversed in favour of the OEM, more commonly known as ‘Originals’.
The first question is what bought about this change? Previously consumers were quite happy to buy whichever brand the dealers offered them without a second thought about originals – whatever they were!!!
Early attempts to produce satisfactory equivalent toner products were tarnished somewhat by the so called ‘drill and fill’ toner suppliers who simply took an empty toner cartridge, drilled a hole into the toner hopper and tipped in new powder. 
This coupled with the perception of invalidating their warranty tended to make users somewhat skeptical when it came to the purchasing decision. Alongside this there was the ‘syringe refill’ kit for topping up the ink jet cartridge that proved time consuming and messy!
However, it was not long before the third-party ink and toner manufacturers stepped up their game, but by this time margins were tumbling in the printer market leading machine manufactures to virtually give the sophisticated printer away and review their consumable policy. 
This ultimately lead to printer ink being one of the most expensive liquids to buy, being compared unfavourably to the price of Dom Perignon Champagne or Chanel perfume as cartridges were over-priced and shrinking in volumes! Indeed BBC’s Watchdog programme worked out the price of one Original black ink cartridge to be the equivalent £1,410 per litre!
With Consumers becoming aware of expensive supplies combined with the economic down turn there was a big opportunity for genuine quality remanufactured product. Despite the introduction of silicon chips on cartridges to deter third party remanufacture, with alternative or the resetting of chips, innovative recycle schemes and replacement parts this has largely been overcome by offering the end user large cost savings
Most aftermarket producers counter the threat of warranty invalidation by offering their own guarantee, in some cases covering up to three years, quashing the need for the OEM guarantee. 
The other reason we are told for using OEM supplies is it designed, developed and rigorously tested specifically for use with their own brand paper and whilst this might be true, it is not very relevant as the vast majority of everyday prints are done on the 80gsm copier paper in the printer and not on an OEM’s branded paper. On top of this, the use of third party cartridges saves huge amounts of landfill and so are far more environmentally friendly.
In summary, high priced originals face stiff competition at a time when savvy consumers have to budget very tightly for their home and office consumables. Just about every child and student has access to a printer and with the economy and internet in mind, they are not only the future for the remanufactured market but indeed the present, once more proving the compatible market is alive and healthy!
Guest article from Martyn Green, Business Development Manager, JetTec
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SO DO YOU AGREE WITH MARTYN? WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCES?
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