Pitney Bowes has signed a distribution agreement with a Chinese company to extend its services into China.
The company, Digital China, will distribute Pitney Bowes”™ products to small- and medium-sized companies across China.
“With this announcement, thousands of Chinese companies will be able to capitalize on our technology to become more effective direct mailers or transactional mailers,” said Eric Yves-Mahe, president of Pitney Bowes”™s operations in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. “We are very proud of our relationship with Digital China and look forward to working with them to deliver high-integrity solutions to more customers.”
Digital China is a large Chinese information technology distribution and service company, with a presence in six hundred Chinese cities.
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Yves-Mahe said the agreement will enable a much broader segment of Chinese companies to have access to the hardware and software tools and services that support effective customer communications. He said until now, high-end versions of these systems have been available only to the largest enterprises in China.
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He said among the midrange systems included in the new agreement are numerous models of letter inserters, address printers, letter openers and folders, plus PB”™s Planet Press and Flexmail software systems. The agreement does not include postage meters, which by Chinese law are not sold or leased to commercial enterprises.
According to Yves-Mahe, the mail market in China is growing as the economy expands and as more companies take advantage of the unique communication properties of consumer bills and statements.
According to Euromonitor International, there were 160 million credit cards in China in 2008, up from only 3 million in 2003, and the number is increasing by tens of millions of cards per year.
“Asia offers almost unlimited opportunities for growth as markets develop and companies work harder to develop deep customer relationships,” said Mahe. “Regular communication through the mail is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with existing customers and provide information and offers that keep them engaged and satisfied.”
This is the second major distribution agreement that Pitney Bowes has announced in Asia this year. Earlier, the company announced it had signed a deal with Canon Marketing Japan Inc. to distribute postage meters to business customers in Japan.
