‘Geopolitical type of issues’ made Epson Group include India in its global supply chain network, says Junkichi Yoshida, global president & CEO, Seiko Epson Corporation

India is increasingly becoming important for Epson globally, especially because of the geopolitical type of issues that keep coming to the agenda of Epson Group management and subsequently, markets overall are turning ‘unpredictable’ said Junkichi Yoshida, Global President & CEO, Seiko Epson Corporation.

‘’Recently, because of the geopolitical type of issues coming to the agenda of Epson Group management, India is becoming more important for us, ‘‘ he told The Hindu in an exclusive conversation.

He indicated that not just Epson, all global companies were affected by frequent changes in geopolitical situations and have been exploring suitable options to protect their markets and supply chains. “Markets are unpredictable also because of the U.S.-China stress and the U.S. tariff policy situation. All the companies are affected and are under negotiations,’‘ he observed.

He said the company has been preparing to face the market challenges. “But nothing can be fixed, so we need to be responding, to the change. We are already prepared to minimise the impact on our U.S. market, now we want to grow regions other than the U.S. as much as we can. And, India is a very important geography in this regard.’‘

Mr. Yoshida was in Bengaluru as part of the company’s maiden foray into production in India by setting up a plant in Chennai to manufacture Eco Tank (Ink Tank) printers. He said, Epson was a 50-year-old brand of Seiko Epson Corporation, set up 83 years ago, and the brand’s marketing and sales had a solid presence in India since 2000.

Mr. Yoshida said, his personal experience with India was also quite long, and he knew the markets closely for over a couple of decades now.

“I used to work in Singapore to cover Southeast Asia and South Asia, responsible for marketing in the region. Since then, I’ve been quite committed to developing the market in India. But now, India has become extremely critical for us due to changing global market conditions, and we decided to start manufacturing here,’‘ he stated.

On the India market outlook, he said, the economy was showing positive trends toward growth, although not always high growth, and this growth would continue at least in the next decades. Epson in India has been growing at 11.9% CAGR over the past five years, against the industry growth of 5%, and reported a turnover of ₹2,574 crore in FY2024 contributing to the group’s global revenues of $9.1 billion. The brand also commands a 50% market share in Ecotank (ink tank) printers, an innovation of Epson over a decade ago.

Commenting on global markets, Mr. Yoshida said Epson’s largest markets included Latin America, China and Asia Pacific, while it has huge factories in the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Brazil, with consumable manufacturing units in the U.S. and the U.K.

“Our global expansions depend on the kind of world economic situation. We are focusing more on emerging markets such as Latin America and India. The Asian countries are also growing and the Middle East and Africa have huge growth potential. U.S., Japan and Europe remain quite important markets for us. We are tracking markets and geographies, depending on their GDP growth, so our strategy for each country is different,’‘ Mr. Yoshida added.