Where is the growth in the storage market in 2010? Shall we see the market recover?

M.C.  Recording media market growth is mainly driven by Flash, HDD and high capacitiy optical products. This provides Verbatim with a lot of opportunities, as our business is equally based on these three main product categories. In 2010 we aim to solidify our position as the No. 3 in the total recording media market, which includs USB, Flash, Tape and external HDD, a position we achieved for the first time in 2009 according to The GfK, while Verbatim has been the European and worldwide No 1 brand in the optical market with DVDs and CDs for seven subsequent years. In order to maintain this target, we have outlined a growth in revenue of 10% for this year.

How will Verbatim cope with erosion on the optical market?

M.C. Due to the massive installed base of hardware for CD-R and DVD-R media we expect the market for these products to remain very high. According to Santa Clara Consulting Group the Total Available Market (TAM) for CD-R and DVD-R products in Europe is expected to be at 1.3 billion units. The consolidation of brands in the optical market will continue.
Despite the declining market Verbatim has increased its market share in 2009 and even plans to grow  its DVD market share to 50 per cent in 2010. On top to this, Blu-ray sales have tripled in Europe from 2008 to 2009 (GfK) and is expected to triple again in 2010. It is particularly in the optical market where  we benefit from the strong Research and Development part of our Japanese parent company Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), enabling us to deliver premium quality and to drive the business with the latest technology.

Verbatim is relatively a newcomer in the external HDD business. What are your plans for 2010 for this market segment?

M.C. We launched our HDD business in the summer of 2007, and in 2009 we had a very successful year with very high HDD growth rates in both units and revenues all over Europe. Our focus is on 2.5” HDDs as this segment is expected to develop most dynamically, and we aim to achieve a 10% market share. Today, Verbatim offers one of the broadest portfolio of products with different formats, interfaces, capacities and colours. Furthermore we will increase the product range by providing various opportunities to customers in the Networking and Security business segment.

We launched our pocket 1,8” HDD in December 2009 and a new NAS HDD for the SOHO market in the beginning of this year. Our 2.5” Encrypted Hard Drive 500GB and PowerBay RAID/NAS Storage,
esigned with a hot swapable HDD cartrige system for SMB, to mention just two products, are scheduled to be launched by April 2010. The acquisition of Freecom by MKM last year was a further important strategical step in strengthening our market position. We see a  lot of synergies for our hardware business in the future with Freecom as a strong and innovative HDD brand.

How will Verbatim cope with the giants in the flash market?

M.C.Having been around for over 40 years, Verbatim has one of the highest reputations in removable storage. Our brand is known for premium technology in recording media. We will offer a wide seletion of state-of–the-art flash-based storage including high performance flash memory cards, micro USB SIP technology and SSD technology. More over, we have replaced our blister pack by paper card packs and have reduced the plastics in the packaging by 90 %. With this new enviromentally-friendly packaging we have also optimised production and transportation costs.

While talking about our Flash business, let me make a reference to our Secure ´n´ Go security range. Data security is becoming a priority for businesses as well as for private users. Verbatim offers one of the best and wide-ranging portfolios for secure storage, which includes 256bit AES hardware encrypted USB Drives and SSD Secure Express Cards as well as encrypted Hard Drives and DVD Media. All of these products will help to strenghthen our market position in this business segment and reinforce our company slogan, ‘Technology you can trust’.

What value add does Verbatim offer to its partners?

Verbatim offers a wide range of high quality and innovative storage product at fair prices. We are proud to be successful  for more than 40 years now in this highly competitive and price driven market. Verbatim is a solid and healthy company, owned by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Despite the financial crisis Verbatim has increased its overall revenue in 2009. We offer a reliable business partnership to our customers in a market with real opportunity for growth. Verbatim supplies a wide range of storage solutions from one source with a clear focus on products with strong market growth. To help our important retail customers we provide planogram services to optimise our product positioning in the shelves. Furthermore we have a highly qualified customer service team with native speakers from all over Europe supporting our customers with their daily business requirements. Verbartim has a very efficient logistic system in place with fast deliveries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. We provide strong marketing tools offering a lot of information and sales support for our partners. I ‘d like to highlight our website, which we are running in 18 European languages, our electronic brochures and product videos enabling our customers to quickly and easily understand the features and benefits of our products. All in all we offer our business partners a lot of support to grow with us and with the market. 

Pictures of Maria Csilics can be found at:
http://newsletter.komm-passion.de/newsletter/verbatim/Maria_Csilics_2.jpg

About Verbatim
Since 1969, Verbatim has been shaping the development of data storage technology – from Floppy Disks and Magneto-Optical storage media, CD and DVD formats to the latest High Definition media Blu-ray.  Moreover, Verbatim offers high quality products in the field of Portable USB Drives, Flash Memory Cards, SSD and External Hard Drives in 4,57cm (1,8“) Pocket, 6,35cm (2,5“) Portable and 8,89cm (3,5“) Desktop-Format as well as a broad variety of computer Accessories. Verbatim is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group and benefits from the outstanding research and development department. With these innovations Verbatim has played a key role in shaping the storage media market.  Ultra-strict quality controls during the manufacturing process ensure the high quality of Verbatim’s products, which have been the winners of numerous international comparative tests.  The company is the worldwide market leader for Optical Media.  For more information, please visit www.verbatim-europe.com.

Press Contact:
Maria Csilics
Verbatim GmbH
Frankfurter Straße 63-69
65760 Eschborn
Tel: +49 (0)6196-9001-30
mcsilics@verbatim-europe.com