IKON switches to or augments canon with GPR-11 Katun toner

[Jeff]

Maybe they did this before and this is old news, but I thought it was interesting today that my contracted IKON supply order contained Katun toner instead of the usual GPR-11 canon toner I've been getting for the last 5 1/3 years.

 

[JRSC]

I got the same thing. i tried it and it is nowhere near the same quality as the canon toner. It has all sorts of density and color shift problems. I have been getting them to continue to send me the canon toner but now they are refusing to. We aren't paying for this junk on our service contracts. We are about to buy a new machine from them but I am refusing to move forward until they fix this problem.

 

[Jeff]

So far I've only run a few Katun GPR11 toners and haven't noticed any print quality variation or issues, except when my black drum failed tonight at 145% of yield it failed in a new way.

This failure was toner stuck across the drum that wouldn't clear despite a couple full auto grads - after just a few prints, got continuous black toning across the image and nonimage areas of the page again.

Usually I get about this yield up to 190% drum life, but usually drum failure is poor quality grayscales and white streaks in the long direction, low density areas in the drum. I have had a magenta drum fail in this way before, though not quite this strong of a failure.

It does seem my 3220 is running noticeably dirtier than before (although my canon usage has decreased a bit so the drums are in for a longer time duration now for the same number of prints/% yield so not quite an apples to apples comparison if time is not on their side)

We'll see how it goes.

 

[JRSC]

wow, that drum looks awful. I just had 2 black drums fail really quickly, probably 1000-2000 pages on them. They were still working but we are really picky about image quality. I don't even think that it might have been the toner because the katun toner was only in there for a little while but i guess there could have been some left in the machine.

 

[kopykat]

Ikon have been bought out by Ricoh and as a result are no longer supplied by Canon.
Hence the imitation toners.

Have they tried to push you into taking Ricoh machines yet?

 

[JRSC]

yes they have. we have a demo in now. We will probably be sending it back. It has several problems at the moment. Since we would also be keeping our canon I made it clear to them that if we are going to purchase anything else from them we need to be guaranteed OEM canon toner for our 3200.

 

[xpquickprint]

Katun probably wanted ikon's business for a couple years - after all: http://test.katun.com/aboutkatun/news20060103ceo.html

Katun Corporation Names Carlyle Singer President and CEO
Brings 25 Years of Office Equipment Experience to World’s Leading Compatibles Supplier

MINNEAPOLIS -- (January 3, 2006) -- Katun Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of OEM-compatible supplies and parts to the office equipment industry, today announced that Carlyle Singer has been appointed president and CEO of Katun, effective January 1, 2006.

In addition to leading Katun, Singer also will continue to serve as president and CEO of PNA Holdings, L.L.C., positions to which she was named in mid-2005. PNA Holdings is the parent company for Katun Corporation and Parts Now!, L.L.C. -- the world’s largest computer printer parts distributor.

“We are delighted to name Carlyle Singer to lead Katun,” said Sheryl Bartol, a PNA board member. “Carlyle’s 25-year career has been characterized by excellence, distinction and a record of consistent achievement in corporate finance, operations and management. In particular, having been involved in our industry at many levels, she brings a first-hand understanding of our customers’ needs as we begin our next quarter-century of worldwide service to them.”

Singer was most recently senior vice president of operations for IKON Office Solutions, Inc., a $4.4 billion, publicly held office equipment distributor, for which she directed supply chain and contract-to-cash operations. In other positions with IKON, Singer served as vice president and corporate controller, as well as president of IKON France. Previously, she served as a partner and vice president of operations at Basetec Office Systems, an office equipment distributor in Tampa, Fla.

A Six Sigma Green Belt, Singer holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, with concentrations in financial analysis and strategic planning, and a B.A. in history from Harvard College with a concentration in Latin American economic development.

Katun today also announced that its chief operating officer, Michael Lindseth, has left Katun to pursue other interests. “Mike made a number of valuable contributions to Katun since he joined the company in 2003,” said Singer. “I want to thank Mike for his high energy, constant optimism and his strong commitment to Katun. I wish him success in his future career endeavors.”

Must have good connections and knowledge of what ikon paid, etc. so the moment canon left ikon high and dry or put the screws to them after they became their competitor aka ricoh I'm sure katun was on the spot ready to supply the need...

Weird though that ikon wouldn't have had a good contract in place with canon from the start that would guarantee them oem supplies & parts for the longest period they planned to lease the canon machines...

 

[kopykat]

Very interesting about Katun/Ikon.

With regards to the supply of Canon parts by Ikon, it is in Ricoh's interests for Ikon not to supply Canon parts since they naturally do not want Ikon customers to have Canon machines.

As for the leasing of Canon machines, Ikon no longer lease them. Once the lease has been financed, the equipment becomes the property of the finance company, not Ikon

 

[xpquickprint]

As for the leasing of Canon machines, Ikon no longer lease them. Once the lease has been financed, the equipment becomes the property of the finance company, not Ikon

That's always been the fear -- to the customer the equipment lease and service contract go hand in hand, but on paper they're not strictly linked.

Still, a big part of Ricoh's purchase was the customer base. If they lose the happy customer base of repeat equipment leasers, they could have saved a ton of money and just started afresh. If they lose the customer base, what have the gained?

 

[Jeff]

Hmmm... Initial katun cartridges from ikon looked more like the canon oem gpr-11 cartridges. Newer katun cartridges this month have a different toner port door on the bottom and some other cosmetic differences.

However, two of the katun cartridges fail to register in my IRC3220 at all -- says cartridge missing or empty. Strangely it does work in my older IRC3200. But the OEM canon cartridge does work in my 3220. Either something out of spec in my 3220 or in the katun cartridge, but since the oem cartridge works fine...