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MAN Roland India opens up new doors
“We believe in selling our machines to those customers who
look for higher quality rather than just going for lower
prices,” says Dr Markus Rall, member of the Executive Board,
MAN Roland, in an exclusive interview with
P&P during his maiden trip to India to meet up
with the leading printers of India.
Print is at the crossroads of
the world and the center
of the universe. For almost
160 years of existence, MAN
Roland has carved a niche in the
print business with impeccable
calculations and tireless strives.
Today, they are the international
market leader in webfed offset
systems, and the second biggest
manufacturers of sheetfed
machines.
MAN Roland India Pvt Ltd has
been established since August
2007 with headquarters in New
Delhi where web press activities
were already been handled and
branch offices in Mumbai and
Southern India to be seen soon.
With this initiative, they are
coming closer to its existing
customers and new prospects in
India.
As a part of strengthening their
activities, MAN Roland India
recently organized seminars in
Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and
Chennai with select group of
printers. On the sidelines of
Mumbai seminar, P&P briefly
discussed with Dr Markus Rall
about the new initiatives to be
taken up by MAN Roland
specially in terms of their
shrinking market in India
significantly in the last couple
of years. Obviously, the second
immediate question went to him
was as why MAN Roland’s senior
staff member is now sent to India
that late after having set up the
office over six months ago.
Dr Markus happily shared his
views as, “Unless we equip
ourselves professionally with all
arms and ammunitions, it does
not make sense to create a chaos.
In the year 2006, only 5 units
were sold out by our distributors
which made us obviously to look
into finer details and organize
all our nuts and bolts
systematically. Soon we
discovered and did so. Thus, we
are here ourselves.”
“After opening our office in India,
we could sell out 27 units in
2007 and for the year 2008, our
target is to sell more than 50
units,” he adds further.
Dr Markus revealed that, “MAN
Roland worldwide has number 2
ranking in sheetfed market and
as such would like to maintain
this position in India.” For this,
they have already charted out
a phased programme for Indian
market. Raj Nargis, MD of MAN
Roland India and Leopold von
der Gabelentz, popularly known
as VDG who oversees Indian
market for MAN Roland for the
last 7 years, were also a part of
this discussion. VDG said, “India
is a big market with lots of
potential, geographically we
need to have people in sales as
well as service back up. Keeping
in view we have formed a team
of four sales staff and fifteen
service engineers with a new
plan.” As Raj Nargis puts it: “Our
goal is to maximize our care
and support for each and every
customer.”
The philosophy of a company
may not be same as that of others.
Dr Markus stresses more on high
quality equipments rather than
cheap products. If the equipment
is good, the buyers can make
potentially good money from
that quickly, which perhaps be
the expectations of any customer.
However, MAN Roland has
strong presence in India as regard
to web presses which is at par
with worldwide situation. To
cater to the needs of India as
a whole, they will have branch
offices in cities like Mumbai,
Chennai etc. Enquiring about the
availability of spare parts to the
printers, it was revealed that most
of the spare parts shall be stored
in New Delhi to meet the
emergency needs. Otherwise
Hong Kong is a place where from
most of the spare parts could be
arranged in a shorter time frame.
Talking about the pricing of the
spare parts in India, Nargis
assured that the prices offered
shall be at par with German
pricing. He further informed they
will also conduct technical
seminars regularly in select cities
to benefit their existing
customers and new prospects.
This will help printers to upgrade
their skill, enhance quality
standards and understand value
additions advantages.
Discussing further on the strategy
of MAN Roland to compete the
low price equipment available
now in India, Dr Markus clearly
informed that they may not
compete on price at all. “Cheap
priced equipments never prove
to be cheaper in the end,” he
emphasized. Asking specifically
whether they are going to ignore
those printers who are using low
price printing equipments, Dr
Markus denyingly added, “No,
we are not going to ignore them,
but we shall tell them the
advantages of high-priced
equipment and its value which
can give them returns on the
much higher slabs.” He further
says, “Sometimes one printing
machine proves to be favourable
than the two (little lower prices)
machines. We always believe
in Value Added Printing.”
MAN Roland’s ‘Value Added
Printing’ concept is a two-way
strategy for higher profitability: one
way is to boost print production
efficiency and the other way is
differentiation by adding value to
the printed product.
This time, under the motto WE
ARE PRINT, MAN Roland will
be in hall 6 at drupa 2008. Their
major theme will be Value
Added Printing on sheetfed
presses, applied innovation on
web presses and PRINTVALUE
for everything concerning
services. To safeguard the brand
protection, food industry
packaging requirement shall be
another major areas for them to
showcase in drupa.
Visitors in drupa will get an
opportunity to witness the
perfecting version of the super
large format XXL press, the Roland
900, in sizes, 7, 7B and 8. Roland
will also launch Plus sized
presses in its 3B Roland 700
(780x1040mm).
Concluding the discussions,
Dr Markus wanted to give the
message to Indian print industry
that printers should have a closer
look to the equipment and its
capabilities and not just the cost.
Total production cost needs to
be evaluated before finalising
the purchase decision. MAN
Roland can obviously help
printers to do so.
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