About Print-Image

The Backstory

Back in 1975, Canon developed the first compact laser printer. That milestone paved the way for laser printing to go mainstream, and in 1984 Hewlett-Packard, in collaboration with Canon, released the most successful laser printer of its era under the LaserJet brand. In 1988, the first mass-market inkjet — the DeskJet — followed. At the time, the laser-printing market was dominated by giants like Xerox, IBM, NEC, and Diablo, whose equipment carried hefty price tags.

Printer manufacturers earned most of their revenue from hardware. That changed when affordable printers entered the market: profit shifted from selling devices to selling consumables. This effectively opened up a new market niche, and from the late ’80s into the early ’90s many companies launched their own production of compatible consumables for printing equipment.

One such company was the German firm Berolina, which started its own production of laser cartridges in 1992. What set Berolina apart wasn’t just having its own product — it was a unique marketing strategy: the customer doesn’t need a cartridge, they need a printed page; and that page can be delivered as a service for less than competitors charged. The strategy worked, Berolina’s revenue grew rapidly, and the company opened branches across Germany.

One such branch was opened in Bremen, and its manager later founded his own company, Schriftbild, Service & Technik Bremen GmbH. It was at SST in 1994 that the future founder of Print-Image started working — and saw firsthand the enormous potential in selling consumables and providing related printing-equipment service. That’s when he began encouraging his brother in Kirovograd to bring consumables to the local market.

Back in 1995, laser printers weren’t nearly as widespread in Ukraine as they are today. The market was just emerging — dot-matrix printers still dominated, and there were even local manufacturers of consumables for them. Despite all the obstacles, we took our first steps and earned customer loyalty — and most of those first customers are still with us!

Here are some milestones from the early years of our story:

• 1996 — start of consumable sales under the Berolina, SST, and later Print-Image brands
• 1997 — opening of our own service center for printer repair and cartridge refills
• 1998 — start of partnership with Minolta (later Konica Minolta)
• 2000 — product expansion: start of computer and telecom-equipment sales
• 2001 — product expansion: start of interactive-equipment sales