Francistown — A fascination for ribbons led Nigel Munro to open a business of re-manufacturing ink cartridges for printers and photocopiers.

Munro, an electrical engineer by profession, tries to move away from using the word recycling - as most people call his kind of work. Munro's business is called Eridene and its headquarters are at the Ngilichi building in Francistown.

Eridene opened its doors in 2002 and Munro says that hard work, determination, patience and educating his customers about the benefits of re-manufacturing cartridges got him where he is now. Munro explains that his business re-manufactures cartridges for all makes of printers and also carries out repairs.

They do not only deal with printers, but copiers too. Munro adds that the ink and ribbon that is used in the cartridges is from Germany while the laser is from America. He admits that business was not easy when he first opened up in Francistown, but he got through on the understanding that on any road to success there are always hurdles that one has to overcome.

As Munro tackled these hurdles, his dream eventually came true and over the last few years he has networked and now his customers range from individuals to corporate companies.

"When I opened up shop here, I went from office to office and knocked from door to door asking them to give me a chance. Once we were given the opportunity to prove ourselves, we delivered what we promised and our customers have given us a chance since then," Munro said.

He says that what people need to understand is that re-manufacturing ink cartridges does not damage printers, but that it actually prints better and is very cost efficient.

Most people say that refilled ink cartridges never give a fine print out. But Munro blames the people he refers as drillers for giving the printer industry a bad name, saying that they refill the cartridges incorrectly.

He also explains that re-manufacturing is environmentally friendly as plastic takes 300 years to decompose and the majority of cartridges are made out of plastic.

Munro confidently claims that Eridene is the only company that re-manufactures cartridges the right way, which is why they have clients all over the country, who enjoy their services.

He also adds that even from their humble beginnings, they always re-manufactured the cartridges the right way.

He admits that it was not only his fascination with the ribbon that got him where he is, as he underwent training in ink theory and various other courses including the theory behind laser cartridges.

Munro says re-manufacturers have the support of big printer manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard (HP), who allow companies like Eridene to re-manufacture cartridges for their printers.

Recently, HP senior vice president, Pradeed Jotwani said that HP makes inkjet cartridges refillable for customers who are cost conscious. However, he said that some printer models have high-end features such as ink-level monitoring that are disabled once a cartridge is refilled.

Munro says that his business has agents in Maun, Kasane and Palapye who collect cartridges for them and send them to Eridene for re-manufacturing.

The company currently has nine employees in Francistown and three in Gaborone. He says that most of the employees received training in Zimbabwe where Eridene's two sister branches are. He explains that on a regular basis, he sends some of his top technicians to South Africa whenever there is a workshop relating to the printer industry.

Munro adds that he would like to expand the Gaborone office, unlike other prospering business people who do not want to move to Gaborone.

"This is where Eridene first opened its doors and I would like to contribute towards keeping Francistown alive by not moving to Gaborone. I like this city," he said.

Munro says that in order to keep him and the company informed on the latest technology in the market, he attended a Remax workshop, where people in the industry worldwide came together and exchanged information.

He says that at the moment there is a new printer called HP2600 but they cannot re-manufacture their cartridges yet because the quality is not good enough and they have to wait a few more months.

Munro is happy that he went after his dream and glad that patience, passion, determination and hard work has finally paid off.