Apex International gets a positive response at IndiaCorr Expo

Apex showcases anilox solutions and glue-roller sets at Greater Noida

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Mangesh Bhise (L), general manager sales, Apex International and Mahesh Kode (R), vice president sales, Apex International at the company's booth in IndiaCorr Expo. Photo IPP

Apex International is a global enterprise supplying anilox, glue set, and metering products and print maintenance solutions to the corrugated and flexographic printing industries. Its Accora glue-set solutions help corrugators worldwide to add finishing touches to their corrugated boxes. It also provides flexographic anilox solutions to the flexographic printing market.

Apex has a global presence with plants in The Netherlands, Italy, Brazil and the US. Apex International recently opened its Asia Pacific manufacturing plant and FlexoKITE experience center in Sinnar near Nashik in India. The FlexoKITE center is the fifth plant of Apex International that services the entire Asia Pacific region right from Australia and New Zealand to Southeast Asia, China, and India. The Sinnar plant has been designed to provide live training, support, and education about flexo technology and the latest equipment.

At the recently concluded IndiaCorr Expo, Apex showcased aniloxes for all soft printing segments and technologies such as offset printing, corrugated printing, label printing, and flexible packaging using CI flexo presses. At the show it was exhibiting and taking orders for aniloxes and glue roller sets for making corrugated board.

The Covid-19 pandemic situation has had a profound impact on the corrugation industry worldwide. Mahesh Kode, vice president sales, Apex International, who was present at the firm’s booth at IndiaCorr Expo, commented on the state of the industry, “The Covid-19 situation has been prevailing for the last one and a half years. I think the industry is generally recovering from it, and going forward, things should only get better.

“I joined four months back but I think Apex has been doing fairly well. In India, at least we have had good numbers. Asia Pacific, and as a region Southeast Asia has been a little slow in the recovery but I think things will start getting better from now on,” added Kode on the economic recovery for Apex International during the global pandemic.

IndiaCorr Expo was the first event in India since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns bringing the Indian corrugation industry together, physically. Though a little apprehensive about the footfalls in the exhibition, Apex International received an optimistic response from the event. Kode observed, “We thought, let us test the waters and take part in this exhibition and see whether people start venturing out. I would say that compared to previous shows that were organized by the event organizers, the footfall is less. However, it is not disappointing as we have found some right customers and even though the footfall is lower, we have had fairly good sessions with a lot of important customers.”

Sharing the company’s future expansion plans Kode concluded, “We have recently acquired additional land next to where we are operating in Sinnar and we will be adding one more factory there.”

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.

– Naresh Khanna

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