Prakash Chopra, senior vice-president sales, Arrow Digital with the Canon Colorado 1650 roll-to-roll inkjet signage printer at the Media Expo New Delhi 2022. Photo IPP
Arrow Digital showcased the Efi Pro 32r+ and Canon Colorado 1650 roll-to-roll inkjet signage printers at the Media Expo New Delhi held from 1 – 3 September 2022 at the India Expo Center, Greater Noida in the Delhi-NCR.
Prakash Chopra, senior vice-president, sales, Arrow Digital said to Indian Printer & Publisher, “We have displayed the Efi 32r+, which is a roll-to-roll UV printer. For the first time, we are launching the Canon inkjet printer at Media Expo. It is again a UV gel roll-to roll 5-feet printer. It has several special features such as high speed and FLXfinish+, which is a combination of glass and matt finish that can be achieved in one go without using varnish. This unique point of the Canon inkjet printer is really creating a buzz in the show. Everybody’s amazed to see this printer.”
The Arrow stall at Media Expo 2022. Photo IPP
The company received a number of business visitors at its stall and Chopra emphasized that filtered visitors are coming. “People are switching to new technologies such as UV and UV gel and solvent is declining. People have to eliminate solvent printing because of the hazards to the environment and people. The signage industry in India is now going up, the business is also good. We are also able to sell a number of printers. Business is back on the track and it is booming. The future is very bright unless Corona happens again,” he said.
Sustainability is a key focus area for Arrow Digital. Chopra stated, “Arrow Digital is promoting all of the technologies that are sustainable. For the last seven or eight years, we are not selling any solvent or eco-solvent machines. We are always selling sustainable technology. At Arrow, everything is sustainable whether it is the narrow web, label printing, or packaging printing machines that we have developed indigenously.”
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.
