“Short run will become a thing of the future”

says Gido van Praag, vice president and general manager, HP Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, in conversation with Varsha Verma.

There are amazing opportunities in India. The photo market in India is very strong and PSPs in India are making best use of the HP Indigo technology. Infact, all categories of printing are doing well in India. We are also focusing on the publishing market and are talking to leading publishers and educating them on the digital switch advantage as it has tremendous opportunity in the supply chain estimation. Short-run will become a thing of the future. Inkjet web presses were launched by HP four years back and have been accepted in China, Australia, Japan and are now been introduced in India. The market is still naïve and we hope to soon see a installation of HP web press, said Gido van Praag, vice president and general manager, HP Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.

“HP is leading in large format production and we see tremendous opportunity in the labels and packaging segment. Our HP Scitex machines are already being used in corrugated segment. While, the latex printers are increasingly being used in the decorative or wall paper sector,” he added.

On asking about the efforts HP is making to educate the masses, Gido replied, “We organize lot of conferences and events and do face-to-face interactions with brand owners or brand agencies. Infact, we have been innovation leaders in brands. We have a special channel for labels and packaging in tier 2 cities.”

Replying to a question on the issue on high click charges, Gido replied, “As we grow, we will benefit our customers as well. We will share economies of scale but it will be evolutionary, not revolutionary. Besides, click charge is not an issue if the PSPs do different jobs and add more value to their offerings.”