HP to consolidate its printing businesses
Print 2.0, Hewlett-Packard's transformation of its printing business, continues. The company said it is consolidating five of its printing groups into three units with an eye toward streamlining the business around certain key customer segments.The move involves folding HP's supplies group into the remaining units and combining the enterprise group with the ink jet unit. That helps HP focus on three markets: consumers and small businesses, enterprise, and commercial printing and graphics.
HP said the reorganization was not aimed at eliminating jobs. There will be a rebalancing of resources to accommodate the changes, the company said.
HP has been remaking its print business over the last year since it announced its Print 2.0 strategy. It's moving away from being just a maker of printers to being a printing company that provides a variety of hardware and solutions for all sorts of customers.
One of the big areas of growth, which this reorg addresses, is the opportunity in large graphic and commercial printing jobs, such as signs, billboards and publications. HP has said that the small-scale printing it's been known for in the past makes up only 15 percent of the trillions of pages printed each year.