In 2018, Brother introduced the INKvestment range with its first tank inkjet printers designed for home offices. On the back of its success, Brother recently launched two additional tank inkjet printers designed for small business customers – the MFC-J6545DW for RRP $999 and MFC-J5845DW for RRP $699.

With two years of ink included in the box and two-year warranty, the new models are designed to provide customers with a cost-effective and high-performance multi-function device.

No network set up is needed and scanning and sharing documents can be done using Brother’s iPrint&Scan app, Mopria Print Service, print-from and scan-to popular cloud apps including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and more directly from the machine.

Brother INKvestment tanks also allow users to print wirelessly from desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets, and set the printer for a variety of functions including N-up Printing, Poster Printing and Watermark Printing. Brother’s exclusive Intelligent Page Gauge technology monitors actual ink usage and displays estimated remaining page counts on the LED touchscreen.

Speaking to Appliance Retailer, Brother general manager of sales – retail, Paul Saussey said although the printer market is declining in unit terms at sub-$200 and declining even faster in the sub-$80 segment, products above $200 have remained stable and are even seeing slight growth because it is more of a considered purchase.

“Consumers are now looking for a value proposition and a balance between feature set and cost, both upfront and for the life of ownership. They don’t mind spending more upfront, as long as the product itself delivers great value.”

He said another key factor is reliability which Brother is renowned for and is proven time and time again from consumer feedback. “Brother has a local support team based in Sydney and we resolve 90% of calls over the phone, whether it’s a connectivity or set up issue.”

When asked about the shift toward ‘paperless’ offices, Saussey said the movement is yet to gain a lot of traction and there will always be a need for printing in a small business environment. “The key change we are seeing in the market is consumers moving up from the basic $30 printer or moving out of the printer market completely because they no longer have a need to print at home.”

As for the rise in online shopping, this is yet to have an impact on printer purchases. “Consumers are doing more research online, but the purchase is still predominantly being done in store as they seek advice on the right printer for their printing needs.”