Leveraging its efficient, compact, and precise innovation since 1942, global technology leader Epson marks 80 years since its establishment, and 40 years in the Southeast Asia region today as the company reflects on its successes over the past eight decades, and key milestones achieved together across four decades in Southeast Asia.
Vision Beyond
To commemorate the 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-honor. Titled ‘Vision Beyond’, it represents 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.
Anchored as the regional Southeast Asia headquarters since 1982, Epson heralded the launch of its new regional headquarters office last year at Alexandra Technopark in Singapore, alongside two Solution Centers to display new corporate and industrial products to customers across the region.
With Southeast Asia poised to become the 4th largest market in the world by 20301, this presents significant market potential that the wider ecosystem can tap into for a myriad of business benefits. Similarly, Epson has 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. More recently, 2022 saw the launch of local Epson Solution Centers in Indonesia and Vietnam, and soon in the Philippines.
The progression 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 foray and commitment to B2B innovation is exemplified in its key product launch milestones across Southeast Asia, including introducing the World’s First Ink Tank Printer in 2010; and 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 papermaking system.
This year, 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.
In lieu of ever-evolving workplace norms, 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. Available in the Philippines soon, 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 decentralization 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 optimization with higher output, precision, and accuracy while reducing environmental impact.
The achievements and products highlighted exemplify how Epson has established their dominant market leadership across B2C product categories and made significant headways to capture salient market opportunities in B2B categories. The 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.
Transforming the industry with sustainable solutions
At the core of Epson’s solutions to drive customer’s businesses forward is sustainability. 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 realized 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 minimizing consumables.
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.
Enriching communities and co-creating value for a sustainable future
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 , 9 , 12 , 13 , and 17 . 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 program 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 program.
“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 recognize 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.
