Puneet Datta, Director, Professional Printing Products, Canon India
iCards Printers in Hyderabad has installed the 80 ppm Canon imagePRESS C8000VP. Speaking at the inauguration of the new machine, Mani Varghese the managing director of iCards said, “Canon is a reputed brand in the country, known for its strides in innovation in the professional printing space. With the imagePRESS C700, we were able to win the trust of our customers and grow our business exponentially. Being associated with the brand for over 4 years now, we are proud to add the imagePRESS C8000VP to our Canon portfolio today . . . . the installation is in line with our vision to expand our services and cater to a larger client base, strengthening our foothold in the region.”
iCards is a well-known establishment in Telangana and a one-stop destination servicing customers across the state of Hyderabad. Having established a firm foothold in the industry, they are known for its premium services catering to varied requirements of customers. The new digital press was inaugurated in the presence of Puneet Datta, director of Professional Printing Products at Canon India.
The imagePRESS C8000VP series has more than 75 installations since its launch in the country.
Canon India’s Datta, said, “At Canon, we are committed to lead by innovation and adapt newer technology at par with the ever changing requirements of our customers. Our flagship model, imagePRESS C8000VP echoes our efforts at revolutionizing the professional printing space and empowering small businesses in the country. Taking digital colour printing to the next level, we are happy to see the iPR C8000VP get its first footprint in Telangana, through iCards Printers. Our second association with iCards, is a testimony to the trust that has been instilled by our customers, which always drives us to do better. We are positive that the installation will prove to be an important milestone in their growth journey.”
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.
