Xerox Sees More Color In Future

Compiled ByDeborah Austin Despite slowing overall sales, Xerox's color-related revenue is soaring -- and the firm intends to build on this strength. It has outlined a strategy to drive large-scale migration from black-and-white to color documents, fueling a transformation in its core business, announced Xerox president/COO Anne Mulcahy this month. Xerox's strategy includes several new color offerings, including a 21 page-per-minute office color printer said to be three times faster than the competition and a roll-fed, continuous-feed color Web press that runs 2,000 pages per minute. Xerox also acquired the color printing division of Textronix, and launched a $2 billion alliance with Sharp and Fuji Xerox. Stamford, Conn.-headquartered Xerox has a 70% market share position in digital production color and 25% in office color printing. Color revenue doubled from $1.5 billion in 1997 to $3-billion-plus in 2000; 2000 color revenue topped 1999 by 62%. Fourth-quarter 2000 revenue represented 17% of Xerox's total, up from 10% in same-quarter 1999. Of this year's $1.7 million research-and-development budget, Xerox and Fuji Xerox -- a joint venture with Fuji Photo Film -- plan to invest about 40% in color.