Sichrovsky, Xerox Romania CEO: Market could see a slight increase this year

The domestic printing services and equipment market is likely to register a slight increase this year, as a result of a rebound in demand from clients trying to optimise costs and improve productivity, says Petr Sichrovsky, CEO of the domestic subsidiary of Xerox.
“The market is still tough in Romania because, against other CEE countries, the economy is hurting more. But this is a local reality and we must get better results even under these circumstances. The first and particularly second quarter showed us there are several lights at the end of the tunnel, that some things are moving,” Xerox Romania and Moldova head told ZF in an interview.
“There’s a slow recovery, which will continue until yearend, but will be hurt by the tough economic conditions. Under the circumstances, we’ll have zero or very modest market growth. Services will fare much better than equipment sales, which are also picking up, but will not reach the 2008 level soon”.
In 2008, Xerox Romania and Republic of Moldova had generated revenues worth above 72m dollars, up 18% year-on-year. How much did the company’s turnover slide last year? Sichrovsky says the decline was lower than that of the market, but did not provide exact data.