Seiko Epson Corporation

Epson Sales Japan and Canon Marketing Japan Team Up on Distribution to Reduce CO2

– TOKYO, Japan, November 11, 2009 –

With an eye to reducing its overall CO2 emissions and raising efficiency of its logistics operations, since June 2009 Epson Sales Japan Corp., the domestic sales and marketing arm of the Epson Group, has been sharing some distribution routes for retail stores with Canon Marketing Japan Inc.

Currently, each company operates logistic centers in the Tokyo metropolitan area and each major city, however, for deliveries of printers to large electronics retailers both the destinations and delivery conditions are the same, so discussions had been held on the possibility of combining deliveries. As a result, by utilizing the distribution network and information security systems of Nippon Express Co. Ltd, which both companies use for deliveries, improvements in truck load efficiency and the environmental burden could be verified, and it was decided to proceed with the joint distribution program.

The two companies decided to roll out the new system in Sapporo city in the northern island of Hokkaido, and are planning to gradually expand it to the Tohoku region, the Tokyo metropolitan area, and then the Kinki, Central, and Kyushu regions. Through this initiative, it will be possible to reduce combined annual CO2 emissions arising from these logistics operations by an estimated 26%.

Despite Epson Sales Japan and Canon Marketing Japan being competitors in the marketplace, the two companies are at the same time developing cooperative ventures in order to deal with environmental issues, such as with the "Ink Cartridge Home-Coming Project"^*1, and will continue to actively pursue similar initiatives.

^*1 A collaborative effort between 6 printer makers (Epson, Brother, Canon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Japan, and Lexmark International) and Japan Post Holdings to collect consumer ink cartridges.