L to R - Ashok Kalra
and Mohit Kalra,
owners of Bhawna
Trading with Naveen
Gupta, sales
manager, Ricoh India
alongside the Ricoh
Pro C 9100
Established a decade and a half ago by Ashok Kalra, Bhawna Trading focuses primarily on commercial printing output such as brochures, catalogs, fliers, posters as well as customized printing for corporate gifting.Indian Printer & Publisher met Kalra along with his son, Mohit Kalra, who assists his father in the business. Located in the busy Karol Bagh area of Delhi, Bhawna Trading recently upgraded their Ricoh – C651 EX with the Ricoh Pro C9100 press.
The Ricoh – C651 EX was installed in 2013 but Kalra felt the need to upgrade it owing to the demanding productivity challenges. With the upgrade coming within a span of just four years, it indicates the robust growth that the company enjoys. While Ashok Kalra brought in traditional commercial printing business that he had handled all throughout, his son Mohit was more interested in newer segments like corporate gifting. He indicated that he doesn’t want to rely entirely on traditional commercial printing and would instead focus on expanding the business portfolio. Through his own network, he found a foothold in the corporate gifting niche and today it has grown to occupy around half of Bhawna Trading’s overall business revenue.
The need to upgrade to the Ricoh Pro C9100 press is also linked to the varied requirements of Bhawna Trading’s corporate gifting business. Compared to the C651 EX, the Pro C9100 is around 50% more productive and also offers better quality output. Mohit shared the cost advantage of the machine which allowed him to win back a few customers that he had lost. With competitive prices that he can offer with the new machine, Mohit is also able to produce better quality products and ensure higher productivity.
In terms of servicing support, Mohit shared that although there is room for improvement in the way Ricoh engineers respond to complaints, he is nevertheless happy with the way certain automation features of the machine work. For instance, if the ink runs out, the update is automatically logged with Ricoh India’s customer service, or in case of technical glitches, the error is identified automatically and a complaint logged in at Ricoh India’s customer care center. On a scale of 10, Mohit rated Ricoh with a generous 8, which does leave some scope for improvement although he feels this gap could be found in all OEMs.
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.
