From 5,000 Rental Machines to a More Scalable Business Model

In Shuangbai County, Yunnan, China, there is a small copier rental company called Zhengchao Technology.
Their core team consists of only around 4–5 people — the owners and 2–3 technical staff.
Yet, despite operating in a local market with a population of around 120,000, they have built a rental fleet of approximately 5,000 Ricoh A3 devices.

For years, their strategy was simple:
New machines + Original toner = reliability.

This approach helped them reduce machine failures, maintenance frequency and technical workload, while providing stable print quality to their customers.

But as the fleet continued to grow, another problem became increasingly obvious:

The cost structure was limiting further expansion.

Especially for color printing, relying entirely on original toner made it difficult to offer more competitive rental prices.

That was when our cooperation began.

Instead of simply replacing one consumable with another, we worked with Zhengchao Technology to develop a more complete solution for their rental business.

1. Reducing Equipment Investment with Gestetner

One part of the solution was to introduce Gestetner equipment.

For example, the Gestetner GS3030C is based on the same Ricoh platform as the IM C3000, with many similarities in components, consumables and toner compatibility.

Because of the different brand positioning, Gestetner equipment can provide a more competitive equipment cost.

The objective was simple: Lower the initial equipment investment without sacrificing the stability required by a rental business.

2. Developing a Rental-Focused Drum Solution

The second part was the drum.

We developed a rental-focused drum using a recycled original structure combined with a new OPC developed for rental applications.

Compared with an original drum, the cost is significantly lower, while the expected service life is approximately 10–15% shorter.

More importantly, the drum is designed to be easy to replace, allowing rental companies to keep spare units in stock and quickly replace them when needed.

Brand-New OEM OPC Drum — Specially Designed for Rental Applications

For a rental business managing thousands of machines, a lower-cost and easier-to-maintain consumable can have a much larger impact than its unit price suggests.

3. Rental-Focused Toner for Color Printing
The biggest change came from toner.
Many copier rental companies traditionally charge customers based on the number of pages printed.
This model works, but color printing can become expensive when original color toner is used.
After years of operating their rental business, Zhengchao Technology already had a good understanding of the approximate monthly printing volume of each customer.
That gave them an opportunity to rethink their pricing model.

A fixed monthly fee, with customers having much more freedom to print — including color documents.

The goal was not simply to make toner cheaper.
The goal was to make the entire rental business model more flexible.
From Cost Reduction to Business Model Optimization
The cooperation can be summarized in three parts:
More competitive equipment → Gestetner
Lower-cost, easy-to-maintain drums → Rental-focused drum
Lower color printing cost → Rental-focused toner
Together, these solutions helped Zhengchao Technology move beyond simply reducing the price of individual consumables.
They could start thinking about their rental business from a different perspective:
How can we reduce the total operating cost and create a more competitive service model?
This is also how we see rental-focused consumables.
They should not simply be an alternative to original products.
They should help rental companies operate more efficiently, control their costs and build a business model that can scale.

Copier Rental | Ricoh | Gestetner | OEM Toner | Rental Solutions
Kolit × Zhengchao Technology — Strategic Partnership