Epson, a global technology leader leveraging on its efficient, compact and precise innovation since 1942, they recently marked a significant milestone of 80 years since its establishment, and 40 years in Southeast Asia (SEA) region on 20th October 2022. Epson reflects on its success over the past eight decades and key milestones achieved together across four decades in SEA.
Vision Beyond – Epson Celebrates 40 years in Southeast Asia
To commemorate this special occasion, Epson held its 40th Anniversary Seminar and Solution Tour that welcomed Epson Global President and CEO Yasunori Ogawa as the esteemed guest-of-honour. This was titled, “Vision Beyond“, representing how Epson has paid homage to its long-standing heritage of excellence while demonstrating foresight into the future of the business inkjet, large format printing and robotics industry.
The Epson regional Southeast Asia headquarters is anchored here since 1982, Epson launched its new regional HQ office last year at Alexandra Technopark in Singapore, alongside two Solution Centres to display new corporate and industrial products across the region.
Southeast Asia is poised to become the 4th largest market in the world by 2030, this represents huge market potential that the wider ecosystem can tap into for a wide range of business benefits. On the other hand, Epson has also expanded its presence across Southeast Asia over the last four decades, with significant investment to the region, including office openings in Malaysia in 1991, Thailand and Philippines in 1998, Indonesia in 2000, and Vietnam in 2018. Most recently in 2022, local Epson Solution Centres were launched across Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
The progression and expansion of Epson’s regional footprint is made possible due to its track record within the industry – consistently retaining its number 1 market share in the SEA region for their Ink Tank printers, Projectors, Dye Sublimation Textile Printers, SCARA Robots, Timing Devices and many more.
Epson’s commitment and presence to B2B innovation can be seen in its key product launch milestones across Southeast Asia, such as introducing the World’s First Ink Tank Printer in 2010, Epson Industrial Robot Series in 2012. More recently, Epson welcomed the launch of the World’s First 25,000 Lumens 3LCD Laser Projector in 2016; the Line Inkjet Business Printer in 2017; the Direct-to-Fabric Printer in 2019 and the 2021 launch of PaperLab – the World’s First in-office dry paper making system.
In this year 2022, Epson SEA strengthens its EcoTank leadership position with the launch of monochrome EcoTank printers, M1170 and M2170. Powered by PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology, these compact office EcoTank printers deliver fast print speeds and enhanced productivity.
The future of work is here, workplace norms are changing and ever-evolving. Epson’s business inkjet printer series are tailored to suit hybrid work environment. With solutions that enable printing on the go as well as cloud printing that ensures confidentiality and ease of print, Epson is able to meet the changing requirements of printing to go “Beyond Boundaries”. To further complement the hybrid work and learn environment, Epson has also launched CO-FH02, a versatile projector that can accompany an office worker from day to night. This Full HD Smart projector has a lightweight and compact design, making it easy for the users to bring it to work and home.
With the theme ‘‘Beyond Transformation’, Epson has brought digital transformation impacts to industrial and commercial printing verticals like signage, textiles, labels and many more via its wide range of large format printers. With decentralisation being the key industry trend, cloud solutions are embedded within Epson’s large format printers to enable seamless business scaling across multiple sites while maintaining consistent quality and efficiency.
Going ‘Beyond Tomorrow’, Epson leads the way into the future with smart manufacturing. Its robots provide flexible configuration for end-to-end automation. This enables manufacturing floor optimisation with higher output, precision and accuracy while reducing environmental impact.
Epson’s success and achievements in the B2C market, highlights their dominant market leadership across B2C product categories and they are making significant headways to capture major market opportunities in B2B categories. Epson’s mission for “Vision Beyond” is to emulate the level of success Epson has achieved in B2C products and pivot this commitment to capture significant market share in B2B segments.
Epson’s Sustainable Solutions to Transform the Industry
Sustainability is the core of Epson’s solutions to drive customer’s businesses forward. Epson is dedicated to creating a sustainable business model via advocacy and influence in corporate responsibility – ultimately enabling socially responsible manufacturing and consumption to be realised across its comprehensive business and partner ecosystem. Leading by example, Epson promotes responsible manufacturing by incorporating more recycled material within the main unit of its printers and product packaging, while minimising consumables.
Epson is progressing towards its Global Environmental Vision, Epson’s manufacturing sites are on track to run on 100% renewable energy by 2023. The Epson factory in the Philippines is the first factory to achieve this target, with Indonesia following suit this year – entirely generated by biomass energy sources.
A Sustainable Future by Enriching Communities and Co-creating Value
Epson aims to instil a business mindset that focuses on sustainability, accomplished through tripartite collaborations involving social enterprises, channel partners and end users. This is underscored by Epson Southeast Asia’s alignment with 5 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UNSDGs), namely: UNSDGs 8 (1), 9 (2), 12 (3), 13 (4) and 17 (5). These have been carefully selected due to 3 key factors: They are most material to Epson Southeast Asia’s business operations; potential to create the biggest impact and alignment to its Global Environmental Vision.
Locally, Epson and WWF are supporting a pilot habitat restoration programme within Singapore’s Southern Islands, where research insights will be used to restore a degraded reef area. Passionate individuals are also empowered to be a part of the solution via the citizen scientist programme.
“As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we remain committed to the vision of empowering lives with sustainable innovations. With sustainability being an imperative in today’s business environment, we recognise the pressing need for collective action,” said Siew Jin Kiat, Regional Managing Director of Epson Southeast Asia. “As an industry leader, we must make tangible commitments to the communities we operate in. Thus, sustainability will always be at the core of what we do in Epson. By harnessing a cohesive ecosystem effort, we will continue to drive societal solutions with our technology that will benefit community livelihoods while contributing towards environmental conservation.”
Epson’s regional efforts mirror the company’s global commitment towards sustainable innovation. Through the establishment of closed-loop metal recycling facilities in Kita Industrial Park, Epson Global has made significant strides to pioneer pathways towards net-zero aligned towards its Global Environmental Vision 2050.
“We marked our 80th year in business in May of this year. Exercising constant creativity and challenge to deliver on products and services that continuously exceed customer expectations, we continue to be guided by Epson’s unique philosophy of efficient, compact, and precise innovation that we have evolved since our founding. Our aim is to take advantage of the tremendous value that this innovation yields to address sustainability and other societal issues, with the ultimate goal of helping to create a better world and enrich people’s lives.” said Yasunori Ogawa, Global President and CEO of Epson.
Epson’s goals are to transform the industry with sustainable solutions, to enrich communities, and ultimately mirror the position of market leadership for both B2B and B2C categories. Through collaborative initiatives with industry partners and customers, Epson envisions its ‘Vision Beyond’ by leading the frontiers of innovation for a sustainable future.
Notes:
- UNSDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- UNSDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
- UNSDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- UNSDG 13: Climate Action
- UNSDG 17: Partnerships for The Goals
* Information and picture courtesy of Epson Singapore and Hill+Knowlton Strategies *