The Indian digital printing market is evolving and spreading to the entire length and breadth of the country according to Kuldeep Malhotra, vice president, sales division, Konica Minolta India. The Indian printing market is not limited by its geography. Konica Minolta India has had an excellent year so far and drupa 2016 was a fantastic opportunity to meet Indian customers.
The first quarter for Konica Minolta India has been excellent so far compared to the same period in the last financial year. “We have sold more than 100 units in the first quarter which is a big achievement for us. The order list for the second quarter of the year looks pretty solid at the moment so we can expect another good quarter. Overall, we are on track to meet our targets at the moment,” Malhotra says.
In April 2016, Konica Minolta announced it would invest an additional stake in MGI Digital Technology (MGI), the Frenchbased leading decorative printing equipment manufacturer, with which Konica Minolta has had a financial and strategic alliance since January 2014. The stake investment of a further 30.5% of MGI’s shares increases Konica Minolta’s stake in the company to 40.5% and adds MGI’s products for commercial print, labels and packaging to Konica Minolta’s existing and growing portfolio.
Malhotra says, “The JETvarnish 3D from MGI takes digital spot UV coating to a new dimension, featuring increased throughput for flat spot UV jobs and amazing 3D raised effects. Its iFOIL technology eliminates the need for films, dies and makeready, allowing you to produce hot foil stamping and embossing jobs from one to thousands of sheets with both very high profitability and ease of use. This kind of a value addition is really needed we feel and it is sought after by Indian printers at the moment. We are hopeful of installing three to four MGI presses in this financial year.”
At drupa 2016, Konica Minolta showed the new and much anticipated AccurioJet KM-1 inkjet press. The KM-1 press was first shown at the IGAS print exhibition in Japan in 2015. The KM-1 now further incorporates the AccurioJet brand name. Malhotra explains, “Accurio is a common and unified new brand for all of Konica Minolta’s inkjet digital press and digital workflow solutions. The Accurio name reflects the advanced, automated and, most of all, accurate nature of Konica Minolta’s technology. Henceforth Konica Minolta’s commercial printing solutions will be known as AccurioPro, while the KM-1 will become AccurioJet KM-1.”
There is certainly a market for inkjet presses such as KM-1 believes Malhotra. He says, “The KM-1 could be a correct option for commercial printers with the right amount of print volume. There is certainly a segment of the market where big offset printers could opt for such a machine. Its B2+ size is ideal for printers and it can print 3,000 simplex sheets of B2 size in an hour.”
Although the Indian digital printing market is showing growth, there are no reliable statistics or data that could help indicate the overall size of the market says Malhotra. “We do know that as a company we are growing but it is very difficult to say whether we are growing at a similar pace along with the industry or have actually exceeded the industry growth rate.”
Notwithstanding the Indian digital industry growing or not, a printer has to have a good print volume at the moment to sustain itself in the long term. “One of the problems at the moment is that a few printers are generating low print volume. To sustain and improve your ROI, the print volume has to be improved. The market is not easy but that’s why, we believe, machines such as the MGI JETvarnish or the AccurioJet KM-1 help deliver so much of value addition which could help a printer stand out in the market,” Malhotra says.
