Yesterday (18 October) KM said in an update that Tatsuno would restart on 18 November – 10 days later than initially envisaged. 

After Printweek queried the delay, the Japanese manufacturer confirmed there was an error in the communiqué and that it was in fact still aiming to restart Tatsuno on 8 November, per the original plans it outlined in September. 

The firm stated: “When this notice was first published on October 18, the date for Tatsuno Factory to restart production was incorrectly noted as November 18. The correct date of Tatsuno Factory’s resuming production is November 8.”

UK customers expressed some relief at the news. However, UK users are also mystified about why the situation regarding toner availability in the UK appears to be far worse than in other territories, including France, Germany, the US and India. 

Germany is home to Konica Minolta’s European HQ, while Konica Minolta Supplies has a French facility that bottles toner for KM’s multi-function printers.

“It’s quite apparent that none of these other countries seem to be as concerned as we are here – because there isn’t a shortage there. It’s led me to believe there isn’t an issue with toner supply elsewhere,” one customer told Printweek.