“PAMEX 2017 is all set to see a 50% growth than last edition”

shares Tushar Dhote, chairman, PAMEX 2017, AIFMP and president, Mumbai Mudrak Sangh. Pamex 2017 will be held from December 18-21, 2017 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. Here, he tells more about the major attractions at the show and more. Excerpts. What is the growth in the Indian printing industry?

Tushar: India is one of the few countries which is growing in print. There is a tremendous growth in the Packaging sector, which is growing at a rate of 15% per annum while the commercial and books segments are growing at a rate of 5% per annum. In my opinion, the GST implementation will definitely result in optimistic growth in the near future, once the process settles down.

What according to you are the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian printing industry?

Tushar Dhote,Tushar: The biggest strength of the Indian printing industry is that they are very quick learners in adopting new technologies and innovative printing techniques. They crave to learn new things and fearlessly implement them at work.

The biggest weakness I think is the shortfall in trained shop floor workers and supervisors. Also, the Indian printers need to understand their workflow properly and plan their print shops in a very systematic way. Their selection of equipment should be very precise to their job profile and should not be haphazard. They should have more tools to control a seamless operation of the press.

What is the total expanse of the fair? Is this in sync with your targets?

Tushar: Well the PAMEX‘15 had sold 7,400 sqm net. We expect PAMEX 2017 to close between 10,000 and 11,000 sqm. This would mean a growth of 50%, which by any standards is not bad. We had kept our target at 12,000 sqm sight, which we may or may not achieve before the close. GST has had impacted the industry as

it is still in its nascent stage and exhibitors are hit with orders which are not materialising due to banking problem. I am sure things will settle down by this financial year end.

What can the visitors expect at the fair?

Tushar: There is a proper mix of exhibitors ranging from Digital, Offset, Pre-press and Post-press equipment, live demonstrations and product launches. Also, there will be a good international participation of exhibitors from China and Japan. So, we will see a lot of running equipment in the Press and Post- Press segments.

How many visitors are you expecting at the show and from which areas?

Tushar: The last PAMEX saw a footfall of around 44,000 visitors, especially from the West and south. This time we plan to do road shows across 54 towns in all over India and two international road shows in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, inviting participation from international visitors too. We definitely expect around 75,000 footfalls in PAMEX 2017.

What other efforts are taken by the organisers to make it a best-in-class show?

Tushar: PAMEX 2017 had participated in major printing exhibitions worldwide such as drupa 2016, Print China 2016, Label Expo 2016, Printing South China, Sino Corrugated and Folding Cartons, China Print 2017, Carton Tech etc.

Besides, AIFMP organised an International Media Week from August 4-8 at Holiday Inn, New Delhi. Media and printing association presidents and secretaries from eleven countries were invited to learn more about printing industry in India so that we get more visitor participation from abroad.

Press release and PAMEX Advertisements were seen in almost all commercial and association magazines. PAMEX 2017 was also well promoted in International Media.

Besides, the Ground arrangements are much better as we open two more Halls with much better facilities for the exhibitors as well as the visitors.

Any message for our readers….

Tushar: My message to visitors would be to welcome them to Mumbai for a fantastic show of latest trends working live. For visitors, it will be a complete gamut of print to witness.

A special conference is being organised by the NPES and BMPA on December 16 at the Lalit Intercontinental, Andheri East, Mumbai. The theme of the conference is “What Next” and there would be international speakers from all around the world.

Besides, NAEP Awards function on December 20 evening at the JW Marriott, Sahar Airport, Andheri East, Mumbai will also be a star attraction. Visitors can visit the Print Award Gallery at the Hall No 1 BEC on all the four days of the exhibition.

NAEP Awards continue to honour print excellence

–Two new categories @ NAEP Awards this year

Anand LimayeNational Awards for the Excellence in Printing (NAEP), a flagship event of the All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP), will be held on December 20 along with PAMEX 2017.The 12th edition of NAEP will be hosted by Printers Guild, Nagpur. Here, Anand Limaye, then honorary general secretary of AIFMP and Head at India Printing Works, shares more about these awards. Excerpts.

Tell us something about the upcoming NAEP awards?

Anand: This year onwards, the All India Federation of Master Printers has decided to hold the NAEP Award distribution ceremony every alternate year, to coincide with PAMEX. This would facilitate printers to send more entries as they would get two years instead of one year as in the past; besides a display gallery of the nomination entries would be displayed at the venue of PAMEX, which would be a major attraction at the show.

How have these awards grown over the years?

Anand: 20 years ago, these awards used to be distributed by Government of India by holding the Pan India competition among printers. The awards were conferred by the President of India and were popularly known as President Award for Excellence in Printing. Later on, the same were stopped on the grounds of security. Thereafter, the All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP) constituted this award to encourage Indian printers to keep bettering their work in their journey towards excellence.

This year, the organising affiliate association, Printers’ Guild – Nagpur, has introduced two more categories for the first time: (1) Non Woven Carry Bags, (2) Less than 50 GSM paper. These categories have been introduced to motivate many printers from their home district Vidarbha as many printers execute massive production in these categories.

How many entries were received this year? Which category got the highest number of entries?

Anand: Till today we have received more than 1000 entries. Due to Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Diwali festivals, on printers’ demand, the host association – Printers’ Guild of Nagpur, has extended the date of submission till 31st October 2017. Hence the exact figure can’t be given right now. But we are expecting more than 2000 entries as the major players viz JAK, Pragati, Parksons etc are yet to send the entries.

How will the awards help the printers?

Anand: Such recognition from the national level apex body will certainly give immense pleasure and satisfaction to the winners. At the same time it will motivate the young and new printers to produce best quality jobs.

I thank my predecessors in AIFMP who have shown the vision to constitute such awards.

In your opinion, how is Indian printing industry faring as compared to global printing industry standards?

Anand: I am proud to observe that from entries received, it can easily be said that the best in India are comparable, if not better, than the best in the world.

Anything else you would like to add…

Anand: I extend my compliments to the Printers’ Guild President and his Team, as well as Team PrintPack to extend tremendous support to organize this Award Distribution Ceremony. It’s a real challenge to organise such a grand multidimensional programme which involves coordination with printers Pan India, collecting their entries which really needs perseverance and arranging the transparent judging process. We also admire the spirit of PG members which is utmost essential for ogranising this 12th Edition of the National Awards for Excellence in Printing (NAEP) 2017 on such a grand scale, that too at a distant place like Mumbai.

Pamex Road Show @ Kottayam

– More Than 400 Printers Were Present
The third regional road show for PAMEX 2017 was organised by Kerala Printers Association at CSI Retreat Centre, Kottayam on 15th October, 2017. More than 400 printers attended the event.

The event was inaugurated by former Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy. All India Federation of Master Printer’s president AMSG Ashokan invited all the printers from Kerala to visit Pamex 2017. Vice president (South) O Venugopal, former president R Suresh and former general secretary CD Kumaravel were also present at the event.

Road show @ Ernakulam

As part of publicity campaign for PAMEX 2017, to be held from December 18-21, 2017 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai, a Road show was organized in Kochi by Kerala Master Printers Association (KMPA) on Saturday, October 14, 2017 at Grand Hotel, M.G Road, Ernakulam. Around 120 members were present at the Road show. The newly elected president of AIFMP, AMSG Ashokan inaugurated the function. Hon. gen. secretary of AIFMP, Arvind Mardikar and vice president (South) of AIFMP, O Venugopal was also present at the road show. Chairman of PAMEX 2017, Tushar Dhote, gave a detailed presentation of PAMEX 2017 to the members of KMPA.

Amritsar hosted the inaugural road show of PAMEX 2017

The promotional campaign for the most celebrated show in the printing industry PAMEX 2017 kick started off with it’s very first road show at Amritsar on 17th September 2017. AIFMP in association with Offset Printers Association- Ludhiana in support with several regional printing associations including Jalandhar Printers Association, Amritsar Offset Printers Association, Pathankot Printer Association, The Association of Printers – Batala and Printing Press Association-Mukatsar Sahib launched its first road show out of many.

The Press Conference was organized to create awareness about Pamex and to create awareness on the major issues faced by Printing Industry. The coverage was wide spread and issues like GST, Ongoing Paperless Drive, Digital India & Printing, Growth in Printing Industry, Status of Printing Industry etc. were focal point of discussion. During the road show, Tushar Dhote, chairman, PAMEX enlightened the gathering with the updates and opportunities at PAMEX 2017.

AIFMP has termed campaigns to go paperless as ill-conceived. Its office-bearers maintained that digitalization was itself large source of pollution, adding e-garbage to the fragile ecology, whereas paper was a biodegradable.

Tushar Dhote added, “Paper dissolved in the environment on its own without any negative impact. The world is battling with the menace of disposing of e-waste and printing would survive the digital onslaught.”

He added that paper mill owners were aware of the loss of trees for raw material of their industries. So they were equally keen on planting more trees as they were aware that their business would not be possible without trees.

Kamal Chopra, then AIFMP president, said, “Printing was rapidly growing industry across the world and the Indian printing industry is offering the second most employable industry in the world after China.”

Currently printing industry is clocking annual growth between 15 per cent and 17 per cent last year and commercial printing has grown by nearly four per cent.

PAMEX 2017 through road shows is all set to cover over 50 grassroot towns in Maharastra, Gujrat, Andhra, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. At the regional level, promotional events are planned at Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, Banglore, Chennai, Hyderadabad. It will also go international with the events in Dhaka and Colombo.

Yet another successful road show at Kudal

After the successful roadshow at Ichalkaranji, one of the several grassroot towns to be covered in Maharashtra, Mudrak Association Sindhudurg organised the next Grassroot Contact Programme at Kudal on October 30, 2017. Eknath Pingulkar, president of Mudrak Association Sindhudurg and Tushar Dhote, chairman of PAMEX addressed gathering. Printers showed keen interest to attend PAMEX 2017 in large numbers.

Pamex’17 is travelling to 10 towns in Maharashtra!!

Pamex 2017 is all geared up to host 10 Grassroot Contact Programmes in Maharashtra. It will be bringing together the printers from that area under one roof and talk about technical advances in the Indian print industry. It will also disseminate information about latest happenings at PAMEX 2017 which will be held from December 18- 21, 2017 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. Below are the places where Pamex’17 shall be travelling.