Epson sees recovery in Philippines, Southeast Asia sales

MANILA, Philippines — Technology firm Epson is seeing recovery in demand for its products in the Philippines and Southeast Asia following a dip last year amid the ongoing pandemic.

“Not just Philippines, but across Southeast Asia, we suffered a significant dip in demand around the start of the pandemic last year for the first half of our fiscal year which runs from April to September. However, I am pleased to say it has now recovered significantly in the Philippines and other markets around Southeast Asia, especially for our ecotank products which command a very high share in the Philippines and across the region. And I would say it is almost approaching normal levels again now,” Seiko Epson Corp.president and chief executive officer Yasunori Ogawa said in a virtual group interview.

He said the company has benefited from demand coming from individuals working or studying at home due to the ongoing pandemic.

While Epson has encountered challenges in meeting demand for certain products in various regions due to difficulty in procuring parts and the logistics issues given the pandemic, he said the company’s manufacturing facility in the Philippines is operating normally.

As part of the firm’s efforts to promote sustainability, he said, the company earlier made an investment to transition the entire manufacturing facility of Epson Precision (Philippines) Inc. to renewable electricity.

He said the company is aiming to do the same for all its other facilities around the world by 2023.

Furthermore, Epson plans to shift to using sustainable materials.

“We are planning to transition to recycled plastic for 30 percent of the plastic we use and we are now preparing to do that. So, 30 percent of all our plastic will be recycled plastic by 2030,” Ogawa said.

Earlier this month, Epson unveiled a new product called PaperLab, an in-office paper making system that allows businesses to reduce their environmental impact by using recycled paper.

The product, which is being made available in Singapore, will also be launched in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

Epson’s Climate Reality Barometer in Southeast Asia, which covers experiences and perceptions of climate change, showed a significant gap between the climate reality and people’s understanding of its effects.

A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report noted that cities intensify human-caused warming locally, and further urbanization, together with more frequent hot extremes, will increase the severity of heatwaves.

Despite this, Epson’s survey showed 56.4 percent in Southeast Asia are optimistic a climate disaster would be averted in their lifetime.

Survey respondents with a positive outlook cited awareness of climate change dangers (35.8 percent) and the opportunity to use science and technology to solve problems (29.2 percent) as reasons for their optimism.

Meanwhile, the majority of those who are pessimistic are driven by the belief people are unaware of the dangers posed by climate change (41.4 percent) or lack of action by government (22.4 percent).

In terms of who should take action, 32 percent of those in Southeast Asia believe addressing climate change is the responsibility of the government, while 14.7 percent are of the view that such should be handled by businesses.

Some 27.5 percent said they are personally responsible, while 19 percent said governments, businesses, and individuals alike all have to be involved in tackling the climate emergency.

“The discovery of the climate reality deficit shows that awareness, coupled with action, will be critical to tackling the emergency. Epson’s goal is to bring this awareness and the technologies needed – by our company, other businesses and consumers – to action transformational change. Sustainability is central to our business plan and backed by significant resources – because while we know there is a long way to go, we believe we can build a better future,” Ogawa said.