Printers small and large are losing jobs in an open market to their equipment suppliers as they grow separate print operations and win tenders, in some cases leaving their customers’ presses lying dormant.

Some suppliers are executing twin approaches to the print industry, supplying their digital presses to printers, while at the same time competing in their market though their print management businesses.

Fuji Xerox Document Management Solutions (FXDMS) division is landing major contracts across its eight Australian locations. Ergo owned by Konica Minolta is also active in Australia. Both compete in open tenders against many print businesses that use digital printers supplied by their supplier arms.

An industry source tells ProPrint Fuji Xerox DMS in Ravenhall, Victoria printed the direct mail correspondence for the Liberal Party’s Murray electorate – a mailing list of some 60,000.

The Murray electorate includes the townships of Shepparton, Echuca, Cobram, Yarrawonga, Boort and Bridgewater.

[Related: Proposed Xerox mega merger scrapped]

Industry members say there are four-colour digital presses sitting idle in these areas, while the supplier’s FXDMS arm took the job, causing much ire amongst local printers

In 2013 FXDMS also won a mammoth Australian Tax Office (ATO) printing contract, contracted to print $4.1m of outbound correspondence between March 2013 and September 2014.

Fuji Xerox also operates DMS branches in Moorebank and Newcastle in NSW, Parkinson in Queensland, Darwin, Bassendean in Western Australia, Torrensville in South Australia and in Barton, ACT.

ProPrint contacted Fuji Xerox for comment; however no one was available at the time.

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