IPEX South Asia 2011 concludes

By Print & Publishing Last updated Apr 14, 2019

Taking the Indian print industry by storm
Marking 8 percent increase in number of visitors
Offering affordable new products

IPEX South Asia 2011, the 3rd satellite edition of the globally renowned IPEX in India was held from 16-19 September at BEC Mumbai. The show was formally inaugurated by Vijay Chopra – president NIPA & MD Punjab Kesari, Manoj Mehta – president AIFMP and Trevor Crawford – director Print Group Informa by the traditional lamp lighting and ribbon cutting ceremony. The dignitaries praised the efforts of the organizer for bringing in the global IPEX brand to the region.

Formal inauguration by Vijay Kumar Chopra, chief editor and CEO, Punjab Kesari Group and others.IPEX South Asia is an effective gauge of the state of the graphic art industry in the region. In 2009 the show helped to stimulate a renewed optimism in the industry in the wake of recession; while this year IPEX South Asia was marked by the significant impact made by visitors from the region to the show.

Visitors from throughout India have long been a driving force behind the event’s rising attendance figures, but never before have had they made such a substantial impact on the atmosphere on the show floor. With the visitors footprint towering to 9,349 the industry has endorsed it’s loyalty to the show. It was pre-conceded though as the pre-registration of the visitors was up by 30 percent compared to the last edition.

The VIP Buyer initiative or the IPEX Distinction Programme, which has been responsible for gathering the top printers in India, yet again scored well with the count of 367. The programme has been well received by the exhibitors as it guarantees the distinguished buyers to show.

Participation from the leading brands

For rather than a significant increase in attendees from the region, this year the Indian printers made their presence felt by spending money. The show floor was continuously awash with news of fresh deals signed, as most of the major manufacturers, including Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Autoprint Machinery, HP, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm India, Future Graphics, Colorjet, Paper Bind,– as well as pre/post press suppliers such as RSG Solution, Sai Enterprises, Reprographics India – reported orders gained from IPEX South Asia. Web offset segment Goss International and TPH were also present at the show and happy in networking with prospects. Sheth Printograph used this platform to promote their thermal laminating machines. Other prominent exhibitors at the show include: Apsom Infotex Ltd, EPSON India, HCL, Chennai-based Monotech Systems Ltd, Neopost India, Zesta Technology, etc.

Leading industry suppliers’ commitment was reinforced with the signings or announcements of a number of deals. Ricoh had at the end of the first day had gained six orders for its newly launched Pro C751 press. The total orders swelled by ten which included Pro C901 and a wide format printer.

Xerox, who launched DC8080 at the show, opened the account just after the launch. Exhibitors at the show revealed to the show team that the number and quality of the visitors from the region justified its strategy of attending the event purely to target that audience.

Puneet Datta of Canon India feels that IPEX has been carving a niche for itself as an exhibition of Indian graphic art and digital printing industry. He further added that IPEX SA has offered quality and serious business visitors.

Sai Enterprises confirmed four orders, whereas Reprographic India measured in excess of seven conveys Akram Mohammed, regional manager Reprographic India. He said, “We have never had a better exhibition than at IPEX South Asia this time around.”

“This Mumbai edition of IPEX South Asia 2011 has surpassed all expectations and has proven to be the best edition yet,” comments Trevor Crawford, Director, Informa Print Group. “The wide range of products, accessories and services on offer and the high quality of both local and national visitors has reaffirmed IPEX South Asia’s position as the leading industry event and the gateway to the booming printing industry in India.”

Khushru Patel of Jak Printers described IPEX South Asia as a convenient and termed the digital foiling applications at the show as impressive. Firoze Rashamvala of Lucid Prints termed the exhibition as an impressive digital show. On the other hand Virender Kasana of Amit Electrostat said that the show was good and he got to see what he came for.

To further reinforce its objective the exhibition enjoyed the endorsements from North India Printers’ Association (NIPA), Delhi Printers’ Association (DPA) and Screen Printers’ Association of India (SPAI).

Ricoh India launches Pro C751 press At Ipex South Asia 2011

Ricoh India Ltd announced its developmental strategies for India in the fast-emerging digital colour production printing segment at the IPEX, 2011. This was disclosed by Nobuaki Majima, managing director, Ricoh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd whose recent visit to India was an important reiteration of Ricoh’s commitment to Indian market. Speaking at the IPEX South Asia 2011, Majima remarked, “India ranks very high in our list of priorities and our participation at the IPEX, 2011 is particulary strategic as we showcase our new offerings to customers. It is an outstanding event to meet and do business with important decision makers from across India and the sub continent.”

Tetsuya Takano, managing director and chief executive officer conveyed, “Keeping our core strength of offering worldclass products in line with global standards, “We present Ricoh’s global launch of a new series of Production Printer lineup : the RICOH Pro C651EX/ C751 Ex / C751 with a print speed of 65 and 75 pages per minute in Colour/BW, and. These new models, as well as the RICOH Pro C901 Series (90 pages per minute), which was released in January 2011 in India and has received good reviews for its high print image quality and ability to handle a variety of media sizes and weights.”

Alternate digital business promotions with Xerox’s developmental resources

Today everyone is struggling to achieve the business targets set by them in any industry they belong to. Whether you are in a commercial printing, packaging, or digital segment one really wants to achieve these targets. For digital printing the targets are altogether different because of fast changing technologies than any conventional processes, the ROI, duration becomes much smaller. Now, how to achieve those targets that fast? P&P happens to talk with Pankaj Kalra, head Graphic Communication Business Group, Xerox India during IPEX South Asia 2011 and he made us understand the business development resources offered by Xerox to their customers as a big helping hand.

Launched by Xerox India in the year 2007 this much beneficial programme enabled 35 percent to 40 percent growth in print volumes of different PSPs. How it works and how it helps the PSPs in larger perspective – Pankaj mentions a set of four avenues which include: Tools – which help to create the business plan and focus return on investment; offers printed samples, guides and templates for creating new applications; training to the staff for achieving profitability by adopting various digital print opportunities by way of conducting classes and seminars; and by keeping update on latest digital printing trends through brochures/magazines and books.

Xerox India has also developed a dedicated business development team, whose members, going around the market along with sales staff of PSPs make presentations to the target audience. “Xerox’s image does make a difference in the minds of end users and welcome the initiatives made collectively,” adds Pankaj. This makes PSPs too excited to follow the initiative.

Yet another tool to help the PSPs also includes education and motivations via ‘case studies’. These case studies give various examples of challenges faced by fellow PSPs around the world, solutions suggested to face those challenges and the ultimate outcome achieved. PSPs in India have been able to make use of these case studies very frequently and there has been a very good success rate. Pankaj further informs that Xerox India has been able to sign up at least two such contracts month after month. Even business development team is also excited with this growth and will continue to do so vigorously. It was interesting to know further from Pankaj that the organizations from government sector are also participating in this programme quite enthusiastically apart from corporates and MNCs.

Resultantly, PSPs with digital equipments from Xerox have been able to achieve ROI much faster as a result of such initiatives.

Canon India to target book printing and transactional segments

As the first outcome of alliance between Canon and Océ, in India the focus is planned now to tap ever growing demand in book printing and transactional jobs. This was conveyed by Dr Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice president, Canon India in one-to-one conversation with SK Khurana, editor, Print & Publishing. Canon India, one of the major exhibitors at IPEX South Asia 11 recently concluded in Mumbai, displayed their flagship products in monochrome category Océ Varioprint 6000 series apart from ImagePRESS 7010 and ImagePress 1135.

Being upbeat on the current scenario, Dr Bharadwaj was happy to inform that globally and in India too the situation is very cheerful, and they have set a target of installing another set of 75 numbers of high-end production printers by the next IPEX South Asia in 2013. (Canon has already sold 75 such machines since its launch in India during IPEX South Asia 2007).

Answering to a question of exploring the possibilities of developing altogether new customers from out of the relevant fields, Dr Bharadwaj says it does not make such sense as it would be quite challenging. Rather retaining the existing customers and expanding their portfolio would be more comfortable for them. It was also revealed that 65 percent of sales have been coming from existing users of such printers. And since the changing trends in today’s book printing field where print orders are shrinking, make digital print process more than appropriate. With the positive note on collective efforts and favourable equipments available from the portfolio of Canon and Oce, the focus obviously goes towards book printing. Transactional printing is yet another area, where Canon India is pretty hopeful to acquire some share of pie because of decentralisations happening in producing such documents regionwise, where medium size PSPs are going to handle such assignments. Range of equipments available under Canon and Oce seems to be just perfect to handle these jobs.

Talking about the area of growth happening in specific digital equipments, Dr Bharadwaj admitted that at present the mid segment has been seeing 100 percent growth, where a large number of machines are being installed by smaller organisations. And by the way, Canon does not have products matching to such range. He further did inform that they hope to develop some printers in near future to offer for that segment as well.

HP Indigo press 5500 dazzles at IPEX South Asia 2011

HP exhibited its consistently innovative digital printing technology and solutions through a creative display of state-of-the-art applications. Emphasizing on the benefits of print-on-demand, short runs, mass customization, and promotion capabilities, HP Indigo Press 5500 dazzled the show. The commercial print market is expected to grow exponentially, largely due to the increasing demand for small-volume, reduced inventories, and mass customization & promotion capabilities. Keeping in line with trend, HP is embarking on a new high with HP Indigo. HP Indigo enables high-definition digital printing and an evolution in commercial market ecosystem where personalized short-run prints delivered on-demand, linked to a customized web-to-print workflow.

“The HP Indigo Digital Presses range reinforces the profitability of our PSPs and Customers operating under medium or small business. We have grown to become the world leader in digital commercial presses that delivers unmatched quality and offers versatile printing. HP Indigo Press 5500 is already winning wide acceptance among commercial printers for its print-on-demand (POD) capabilities. At IPEX South Asia 2011, we are happy to showcase the press and demonstrate the benefits of POD, such as higher speed of response, reduced inventories, variable date printing and personalized printing, and web-to- print – making it the preferred digital press for print service providers,” said Puneet Chadha, director – graphic solutions business-imaging & printing groups, HP India. “We run multiple demos of the HP Indigo press each day during the expo for the target audience and this will lead to next-gen printing experience to reach out to maximum customers to prove our effort. We at HP thrive on the innovation and our rich research pipeline. Along with deep-rooted understanding of the customer pulse, we have a realistic perception of our business partners and their needs which help us bring forth, innovate and invent newer products like the HP Indigo Press 5500,” said Appadurai A, country manager, HP Indigo & inkjet web press solutions.