The unstoppable rise of TSC Auto ID to one of the most successful global players in the Auto ID world began in 1991 when Taiwan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. founded its own thermal printer division in Taipei. The company worked with Eltron at that time to develop is first desktop label printer which was launched on the market a year later. 1995 saw the introduction of the first direct thermal printers under the TSC brand, followed the next year by the TTP-242, the company's first thermal transfer printer. TSC Auto ID Technology Co., Ltd. became a separate entity with branches in Europe, China and the US in 2007 and is now one of the world's top ten manufacturers of thermal printers. The company has every reason to be proud of its achievements and will be celebrating its success over the next few days.
"We have launched more new printer models onto the market than any other manufacturer over the past five years. We were even able to increase our sales and so our market share considerably despite the economic downturn. We are in particular enjoying above-average and continuous growth in the healthcare market," confirmed Michael Sloup, managing director of TSC Auto ID's European branch in Zorneding near Munich - also founded in 2007.
The increasing popularity on the market is due to a varied and wide range of innovative and rugged printers developed to meet the demands of individual customers. All products are manufactured in the company's own factories (certified to DIN EN ISO 9001 and 14001) in Taiwan and China and are subject to stringent quality controls. Distributors such as Anastasia Gorskaya and Anton Zheludkov from Compass C in Russia were also visibly impressed on their second visit to the TSC factory in Yilan: "We were particularly impressed by the internal organisational structures and the quality-assurance equipment. TSC has high production standards and can offer outstanding products."
Sam Wang, Vice President of TSC Auto ID in Taipei, added: "Our highly trained cooperation partners provide one of the foundations for our success. They show commitment to the market and their expert support makes them real partners for our customers." TSC markets its products exclusively through its network partners and provides its distributors and resellers with tailored and perfectly engineered printer solutions at extremely attractive prices.
The thermal transfer printer TTP-2410M, for example, was developed to meet the highest demands on industrial labelling and can offer a faster print speed, a higher memory capacity and lower prices together with interfaces such as Ethernet or PS/2 as standard which are either not available with comparable printers or can only be supplied at an additional cost. The printers can also be operated as stand-alone units with an external keyboard without any problems. A further indication that TSC is frequently ahead of the competition not only in handling, but also in performance features and costs. Thomas Rosenhammer, Sales Manager D-A-CH at TSC: "More specifically: While the thermal element of 6 inch printers such as TSC's TTP-268M cost 311 euros, for example, you will have to pay around twice as much for comparable parts from the competition. A significant difference."
TSC has sold a total of around 1.5 million units to the market to date and currently produces around 20,000 printers a month on average. The portfolio includes desktop printers, industrial printers and also portable printers, accessories such as cutters, dispenser modules, scanners, keyboards and label software, and also thermal transfer ribbons for the most varied applications in industry, trade, logistics and healthcare. "The healthcare sector with its focus on patient identification offers huge potential for us because we put greater emphasis on print solutions for clinics, laboratories and general practitioners and developed new products here over the past few years. One example for this," Michael Sloup, commented, "is the TDP-225W which was especially developed for printing identification wristbands."
TSC has enjoyed a number of bestsellers over the past few years such as the compact TTP-245C, but is not willing to rest on its laurels and continues to work on further updates and new developments. New milestones will be the industrial printer ME240 and a new portable printer model which will be launched to the market in autumn 2011.
TSC is also maintaining its success in sales. More and more companies all over the world are taking up the high-performance printers of the Taiwanese company to round off their own ranges. Two key areas of huge market potential are Russia and the Middle East since the increased pace of process automation there has released a pent-up demand for efficient solutions.
Not to forget: "We have been listed on the Taiwanese stock exchange since November 2008," Sloup emphasises. "This gives us additional financial room for manoeuvre to continue to invest heavily in the development of new products, in the highest quality standards and in our service. A good foundation for untrammelled success over the next 20 years."