L–R: Netrapal Singh, senior service engineer at TPH; SK Dixit, design manager at TPH; Jagdeep
Singh, senior vice president - domestic sales at TPH; LK Sharma, chief executive offi cer at TPH;
Vijay Pandya, managing director, QIPC EAE India; DP Dabhas, general manager - production at
TPH; Pawan Tyagi, vice president - international sales at TPH; and ND Pandey, general manager
- design and development at TPH
The Printers House (TPH) and Q.I. Press Controls – Engineering Automation Electronics (QIPC-EAE) have an association that dates back 15 years. QIPC-EAE, a specialist in measurement and control systems for the printing industry, and TPH, an Indian constructor of printing presses, recently celebrated this long-stranding partnership where TPH was presented with a commemorative figure by QIPC-EAE.
Stalwart support and bridge-building
The presentation reflected on the achievements of the past years. “TPH has always given us stalwart support in India,” said Vijay Pandya, managing director of QIPC-EAE India. “At trade fairs, for example, they’ve allowed us to demonstrate our automation systems on their presses. What’s more, they’ve always put in a good word for QIPC-EAE among their customers.”
LK Sharma, chief executive officer at TPH underlined, “We have a very special working relationship with QIPC-EAE. In the beginning, the collaboration of course was with QIPC, with the later addition of the newly acquired EAE. Our job was to build bridges between the needs of typical Indian customers and QIPC-EAE. We have always tried to convince clients of the quality inspections carried out by QIPC-EAE, because we are convinced of their value too. In turn, QIPC-EAE always tries to meet the expectations of clients as well as constantly seek out new innovations.”
Reliability at an affordable price
Pandya made reference to several projects that QIPC-EAE has carried out with TPH, both within the country and globally. “We did an installation at the National Media Group in Kuwait, the largest printing press that TPH has ever sold, complete with our automation systems. There have also been numerous installations at Lokmat Publications, as well as the system we installed on the 7-tower TPH Orient 45000 at Amar Ujala.
Both the companies are confident of the future. “Trust is an important basis for sustaining an intensive collaboration such as the one between QIPC-EAE and TPH,” said Sharma. “That trust is enshrined in a reliable product, optimum costs for the user and excellent after-service support. Furthermore, the constant quest for product improvements plays a vital role.”
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
