Appadurai A, Country Manager – Indigo and inkjet business solutions, HP India, discusses expanding possibilities with HP Technology, as focused at the recent Labelexpo India 2024 in an exclusive talk with PRESSIdeas.
Jacob George (JG): What new is HP showing at this expo for the label printers?
Appadurai A (AD): HP always wants to do/show something new and that is exactly what we are doing here at Labelexpo India 2024 too. It is not ‘new’ machines and technologies that only count, but ‘new application possibilities’ by the same machine and technology often exceed the significance of ‘just the new’. What a technology can do, what new product can we show our customers and so on is a novel approach we bring here.
As for seeing the machine live at trade exhibitions, it surely provides the opportunity to a customer to touch and feel the machine, but he also always has the option of seeing the same inside out at his leisure via video. So, this time we are showing the ‘digital supermarket’ at the Labelexpo India 2024.
Let me give you an example: suppose a detergent manufacturer starts with a label on a plastic bottle or a container. Next, he may ask for a stand-up pouch or may be an in-mould-label (IML). Thereafter, he may feel that the present label is only covering 30% of the available area of the package and would like more coverage. Now, he may want to shift to shrink sleeves. Now the obvious question for us would be how should the service provider answer the changing demands of his detergent manufacturer customer. Should he invest in different technologies for each demand or will a single investment do all for him and even more in future? Our answer is ‘just one technology’, HP INDIGO. You see a huge range of products displayed here at our stall. These all can be produced on one machine Every product being displayed at our stall can be produced on the HP Indigo 6K. The machine can even produce lamitubes. All these capabilities are being shown live at this show.
JG: Which is the fastest growing segment of packaging among the Labels, IML, Stand-up-pouches, Shrink sleeves and Lamitubes?
AD: Presently, it is undoubtedly the stand-up-pouches. With the recent installations of five monster B1 presses, it is the red-hot product as far as we are concerned and the market is pretty huge for this in our country.
JG: What about start-ups mushrooming in our country? Are they your market too?
AD: Start-ups are an amazing storyline and let me assure that digital is godsent for them. For example, I have an idea or a product which I wish to launch. When I need to test it in the market – since it can be done in small lots only – it could be quite unaffordable if done on flexo/gravure. Here, HP Indigo series of machines provide a perfect answer. I will certainly go for a technology which can give me the desired minimum volumes at a price of my choice. Moreover, I can have many variants of my product too to check which option passes the test perfectly before its final launch.
JG: How do you actually reach out to these start-ups?
AD: HP today has ‘Market Creation Managers’ who find ways and means to identify the markets where our products can be used. Talking about start-ups, we have made inroads into the incubation centres set up by government of India like Atal Incubation centres for start-ups. HP is now acting as professional consultants to 12 such incubation centres for start-ups providing solution to them for their packaging needs and has been highly successful in helping them out with their varied needs. Coffee & Tea board of India which incubates about 400 candidates at their incubation centre are also taking our services for their packaging needs. We have had MoUs signed with them for exactly this purpose.
JG: That’s about start-ups but how do you help a small time juice manufacturer in say Himachal Pradesh with his packaging? Any comments?
AD: Indeed yes, we can be of much help to the small time HP juice manufacturer too. We are convinced that he may be able to hire the big design agencies of the world for their design. We are in touch with Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) for structural part of the packaging and then comes the design aspect and let me tell you, AI is going to play a massive role in the designing part of any product in times to come. We have products already on display which have been made with the help of AI at the show. Structure, design and printing – we are doing massive work in integrating the three for the benefit of all concerned in our industry. Anyone who wishes or needs such help can contact us for more guidance.
JG: Where do you see the Indian label industry today?
AD: The Indian label industry is continuing to grow and it will keep growing too considering the boom in the retail and FMCG industry from an innovation point of view. But, we as printers and service providers must note and seriously understand that what worked 5 years ago will not work today. Constantly adapting to the changing world and mending our ways to align with the changes is probably the only way to keep climbing the ladder of growth. Opportunities are aplenty, just that we need to see them and then grab them with both hands.
JG: Any special installation done by you in India, not necessarily from the label industry?
AD: Well, Silverpoint in Mumbai is one such installation. They have installed their second B2 press Indigo 100k just a couple of weeks back. The first machine to be installed in India, the Indigo 100K has completely revolutionised the digital book printing industry by tipping over the crossover point between offset and digital in the B2 space. Times are now changing for the book publishing industry and with presses like Indigo 100k, the traction towards digital will only increase. We already have about 32 B2 size presses running successfully in the country and there are more in the pipeline to be announced soon. Our focus now is on cost optimisation for commercial printing and also to enhance applications pertaining to commercial printing.
JG: Anything you wish to message to the label industry from Labelexpo 2024?
AD: Well, I feel there are three kinds of visitors to a show who are interested in Digital Printing. First group asks for the speed and compare it with flexo presses. Second come those who are only interested in the pricing, to know about click charges etc. Third ones are aware of both the speed and the click charges but are still at the fence unable to decide which way to go. We don’t compete with the inkjet or flexo or even offset. In fact, we are here as a reliable partner in progress, filling the application void that already exists in the industry. For example, in a typical printing environment – be it commercial, packaging or labels – 70% of the jobs are long run jobs which are most suitable for the particular setup. 18% are jobs that are painful jobs which a printer is forced to comply in order to retain a regular customer. The remaining 12% are jobs that are ‘on the edge’; these may make some money or could lose some money or even it may break even at times. We can target these 30% (18+12) and printers can easily as profitably shift to digital here. That is exactly why I said that digital can be a reliable companion to your existing setup and it only compliments the existing portfolio as explained.
