This year saw quite a few printers from Western India make a trip to drupa. Overall feedback from these printers about the 2016 edition was positive. Like always the event was extremely well organized and meticulously planned. However, the Indian printer fraternity was a little underwhelmed with the number of visitors, which it felt was much lower than previous editions. Moreover, lack of information from manufacturers’ side about running cost of digital presses in India was another negative takeaway.
Regarding the visit to drupa, Kunal Kadam of Pune-based Kadam Digital said there was a lot of focus on digital with many new presses in the B2 segment. “Since we are seriously looking to enter the B2 space our focus was to know about these presses on offer by Konica Minolta, Landa Komori, and other companies. We were highly impressed with them. We were also impressed by some postpress solutions.”
However, Kadam said that although these technologies were very impressive, the manufacturers were clueless about the commercial aspects especially for the Indian market. “I felt that a lot of manufacturers were very defensive in their approach to customers. They could not tell us about running cost in India.”
Kadam Digital managed to sign a deal for Morgana 450 PUR perfect binder at drupa. Mehul Desai of Mumbai’s Mail Order Solutions said he liked the progress on inkjet made by various companies and the promise of a cut sheet inkjet. “I was also happy that a lot more finishing options are now available which are suitable for digital printers. I was impressed with the Canon inkjet solutions with finishing lines and also the screen inkjet solutions.”
Speaking about things that disappointed him Desai said, “India and Indian printers still do not figure in the scheme of things that Western manufacturers have. It is quite disappointing. The other thing that was disappointing was the poor footfalls. I wonder how the exhibitors feel given that each one has spent a huge amount.”
Ankit Darji of the Ahmedabad based flexo prepress house Ankit Graphics also visited drupa this year. “From our business point of view there were not many new technologies that were on offer. Yes, a trend of increasing popularity of water washable plates was definitely visible at the event. However, I am not sure how much time it will take to become popular in India,” Darji said.
Darji stated that in terms of visitor count, the numbers looked on the lower side. “I definitely cannot tell the exact number of visitors but the crowd looked thin compared with what we had imagined.”
For Girish Rao of Pune-based Akruti this edition of drupa was pretty interesting as there were lot of machines for making rigid boxes. This is one area which Akruti is looking to venture into in the near future. The offset print house is seriously considering entering into packaging in order to diversify. “I was pretty satisfied with the whole show. The only let down was that the footfall was low compared with previous years and what everyone had expected.”
Kamlesh R, owner of Surat-based KCL Offset, has a positive review about drupa. During his three days visit the main focus was on digital printing technology and he was impressed with the Landa stand. “Though the stand was amazing, the information about the price and total running cost was unclear. This was the case with other digital press manufacturers as well,” he said. Other presses that grabbed his attention were – Konica Minolta’s B2 KM-1 inkjet device, the new Primefire B1 inkjet machine from Heidelberg and Komori’s Lithrone G29 B2 litho press.
Rahul Shah of Pune’s Image Offset said, “I spent four days at drupa and visited few stands. The number of visitors were less compared with previous editions. Landa grabbed the eyeballs of many printers. The focus this time was on digital presses but due to high price point I believe it will take time for Indian players to opt for them.” For Mumbai-based Rahul Gupta, owner, Globe Print n Pack 2016, drupa was eventful as he finalized a deal to buy a high-end diecutter and also stared negotiations with a manufacturer for UV offset press.
MN Pandey of Delhi-based Avantika Printers said, “drupa 2016 was about innovation in various segments, be it digital printing, print finishing or packaging. Innovative software for different jobs was also a great hit at drupa this year. I was highly impressed by different Job Format Definition (JDF) software that was shown at the event this year.” Pandey even bought a Kluge UV coater at drupa which will be installed in coming months.
“drupa 2016 was far better than 2012,” says Harjinder Singh, general secretary of Lucknow Printers Association and director of Swastika Printwell. “In 2012 we only saw or heard of many technologies and innovations that were in fact on paper – technologies that were still to see the light of the day. But drupa 2016 came with many of those technologies on floor, running live – Landa Nano Technology, for example.” Singh also appreciates the postpress equipment and technologies that were exhibited at drupa 2016.
For Hyderabad-based Pride Pack’s S Janardhan Reddy, it was his maiden visit to drupa. “It was a great show with so many new technologies on display,” says Reddy. “I believe the centre stage of the show was packaging and digital innovations.” Reddy appreciates Landa’s new digital presses displayed at drupa and is of the opinion that this kind of presses will be in demand in India too although it may take some time to come here.
