Mannesmann Tally UK Ltd of Wokingham, Berkshire, the West German computer printer manufacturer’s British sister, has announced a 24% increase in turnover to UKP44.6m compared with the 18.5% growth in the printer market in 1989; the number of units shipped rose 43%, three years ago it shipped 30,000 units, the figure is now 82,000. These results are the company’s best ever and Tally hopes that the upward trend will continue. Managing director Rod Saar has set a target of UKP50m turnover for 1990 in which he hopes to ship over 100,000 printers. Tally has 35 products covering a wide range of printers including laser, dot matrix and line printers and attribute its success to its sales channel policy, a network of 23 distributors were appointed during the year. Another factor was the launch of entry level laser, dot matrix and ink-jet products. Part of the sales strategy was to establish the brand by focusing on the lower end of the market, and then use it as a hook to pull through the other markets. It is aiming at 10% stake in each section of the printer market. At present it has over 6% of the UK dot matrix market, 3% of the bottom end of the laser market and 10% with its higher quality lasers. The laser market is the fastest growing segment and Tally sees more and more laser printers in the office in the future. As part of Tally’s drive to capture 25% of the market for under 600 line per minute line printers a new 450 line per minute printer was introduced which is relatively quiet and designed specifically for personal computers. The Japanese are the printer manufacturers’ major competitors and Tally believes it has to fight them on a broad front. It aims to fill gaps in the market while continuing to strengthen its exisitng markets. Now the company plans to increase its presence in the laser printer market by broadening its range whilst still reinforcing its dot matrix products with special emphasis on the 24 pin. It will also introduce a new nine pin printer. The one advantage that Tally believes it has over its competitors is the quality of support and maintenance that it provides in the UK from its centres in Wokingham, Sheffield and Scotland. Saar believes that since the many of the Japanese companies have moved to multichannel distribution the support cannot be as good. Mannesmann Tally, formed in 1979, supplies to Europe and the Middle East and employs 1,800 people, 170 in the UK. It has plants in Austria, Germany and the US and spends a modest 6% of turnover on research and development.
