Better Market Shares for Verbatim Europe in 2010 and 1Q11

For Verbatim Europe, 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 brought positive results in both the optical and USB flash markets.

The brand remains a market leader in the optical media sector and aims to stabilise the number 3 position in the USB drive storage market.

• Number 1 brand worldwide on the optical storage market for the 8th time in a row (Santa Clara Consulting Group)
• Number 3 brand in the overall storage market
• Number 3 in Europe on the USB drive storage market in Q1 2011 (Santa Clara Consulting Group)

Optical storage media
For the eighth time in a row, Verbatim has confirmed its leadership in the field of optical storage media. In 2010, the company expanded its market share further with high-quality DVD-Rs, CD-Rs and Blu-rays, according to the Santa Clara Consulting Group.

In view of the high number of optical drives installed, sales remain at a high level, despite the shrinking market. Total sales of DVD-Rs fell from 1.3 billion in 2009 to 1.07 billion in 2010. Despite this, Verbatim was able to increase its market share by 1.6 percent to 44.6 percent. Consequently, more than four in ten DVDs on the market in Europe are from Verbatim. In Q1 2011, Verbatim’s market share increased significantly by 6 percent to 50.4 percent and the company is aiming to maintain this share throughout 2011.

Similar good results were achieved in the CD-R market, with Verbatim selling three times as many CD-R’s compared to the second biggest-selling brand. A total of 922 million CD-Rs were sold in the European market in 2010 with Verbatim accounting for more than one third of these sales. In Q1 2011, Verbatim’s market share strengthened by 4 percent.

USB drives are the engine of growth
Development in the USB drives sector has also contributed to Verbatim’s growth last year. According to the Santa Clara Consulting Group, over 65.4 million USB drives were sold in Europe, representing a 13.3 percent year-on-year growth. Verbatim increased its market share from 5.4 percent to 9.3 percent in 2010, reaching fifth place, and a better jump was achieved in Q1 2011, with the company recording a 5% growth, positioning itself with 14% market share as the third biggest-selling brand. With a range of hardware-encrypted USB drives, and with the focus on SSD technology, the company will continue to strengthen its position in the flash market in 2011 and beyond.

Strenghening position
"Furthermore a broad portfolio of high-quality, reliable and innovative HDDs strenghtens our market position. Since 2010 Verbatim has also started to participate on the global lighting energy-efficient LED/OLED lighting market, based on core technologies provided by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. Meanwhile we have established a European Network for LED and are selling a wide range of high quality LED products. With high levels of stock availability locally, expert and personal retail partner support and the use of state-of-the-art sales systems we provide an excellent service for our partners. Our goal is to expand our range of products even further in the removable storage media and lighting markets," says Rüdiger Theobald, Marketing Director EUMEA at Verbatim. "The high numbers of objective magazine test awards that have been won by Verbatim products in 2010 and 2011 underline our tagline ‘Technology you can trust’. In 2011, the premium quality is again the key to our success and the further expansion of our position as the all-rounder of the storage media market."