HP Says Instant Ink Is A $500M Business With 30 Percent Growth

The disclosure comes as HP plans to expand its Instant Ink business to SMBs in 2022.

HP Inc. on Wednesday disclosed the size of its Instant Ink subscription service business for the first time, saying it’s now a $500 million business with 30 percent annual growth.

The disclosure comes as HP is planning an expansion of the service to small and medium-sized businesses in 2022, which will represent an opportunity for channel partners, HP executives have said. HP CEO Enrique Lores previously disclosed the plan to bring Instant Ink to SMBs in an interview with CRN in September.

[Related: HP Doing ‘Anything We Can’ To Fulfill ‘Huge’ PC Demand: CEO Enrique Lores]

HP projects that Instant Ink revenue during its current fiscal year will reach $500 million, up more than 30 percent from the year before, HP executives said during the company’s virtual 2021 Securities Analyst Meeting on Wednesday. HP’s current fiscal year, its fiscal 2021, closes at the end of this month.

HP executives said that Instant Ink now has more than 10 million subscribers, who pay a monthly fee to receive automatic shipments of ink. The shipments are sent once the customer begins to run low on ink, ensuring that the customer doesn’t run out of ink, according to HP.

Demand for the Instant Ink service has grown substantially during the pandemic amid the rise in needing to print at home. Subscriber count has doubled from the 5 million Instant Ink subscribers that HP had prior to the pandemic. “We’ve made tremendous progress” in the Instant Ink business, said Tuan Tran, president of the imaging, printing and solutions business at HP, during the virtual event Wednesday.

In the coming months, HP plans to expand Instant Ink subscriptions to also include toner and printing paper, Tran said.

Meanwhile, HP executives on Wednesday touted the plans to launch an SMB version of Instant Ink in 2022. The subscription will include offering shipments to offices and remote workers, Tran said.

In a call with reporters and analysts on Wednesday prior to the Securities Analyst Meeting, Lores confirmed that channel partners will be able to provide the SMB version of Instant Ink that will be launching next year.

“During 2022, we are going to be launching a solution for SMBs where rather than one contract, one customer, one printer--we are going to have one contract for multiple printers, so SMBs will be able to use it,” Lores said. “In terms of participation of channel partners, today partners that sell Instant Ink [can] participate in the business [and] participate in the reward that we get from customers. Our expectation is that this will continue to be the model for commercial channel partners.”

HP expects that Instant Ink revenue will again grow by more than 30 percent during its fiscal 2022, CFO Marie Myers said during the virtual event Wednesday.