In a freewheeling interview, PRESSIdeas talked to Mr.Deepak Walia, Managing Director, manroland Sheetfed (India) to get a feel of the situation.
It is nearly two years that Mr.Deepak Walia (MD) has been with manroland sheetfed as their Head of India operations. We met him for a one-to-one chat on an early winter afternoon at their office in Naraina, New Delhi. Talking of the journey thus far, Deepak was frank enough to admit that the path has not been a bed of roses but one with many thorns in it. Since he already expected it to be thus, he took the challenge sternly and gradually streamlined the system bringing the organisation back to smooth functioning. “The two main concerns that I faced when I took over the reign from my predecessor was of the service levels and availability of spare parts in India. Today, I am very glad to tell you that it on that level where the customers themselves openly admire us for that,” says Deepak.

Deepak had been associated with a leading German printing machine manufacturing company before he joined manroland sheetfed. His experience and knowledge helped him take on the challenge head-on as it was natural for him to reach to take on the real concerns at manroland sheetfed when he joined; be it the management or customer base per se, he had a familiar ground to play. “We could reach the present level only because of the wholehearted cooperation of the entire manroland sheetfed management as well as the amazing zeal with which the entire staff stood by me to do this in a short period of time,” remembers Deepak who proudly claims that today all their customers get service within 24-36 hours of a call and spares in the same time – even if they need to be imported from their German warehouse. “Barring a couple of exceptions, most parts are now available in our local warehouse itself which ensures our customers machines are always up and running,” he avows. For all the things that manroland sheetfed has achieved in the last two years, Deepak particularly dedicates it to the wholehearted efforts of his entire team.
manroland sheetfed today has a ratio of 5-1 service engineers, which is far better than our competition. The company deals in both brand new as well as used manroland sheetfed machines for the Indian industry and has a sizeable number spread all across the length and breadth of the country. In the last over two years, manroland sheetfed has installed many machines in the Northern and southern region. “In south India, we have installed 20 units of remarketed R 700 and in North India, we have installed 45 units of remarketed R700 machine. Another one a longest press in remarketed R700 will be installed in North India, a seven colour with double coater,” reveals Deepak.
manroland sheetfed has an extensive customer base of installed machines. “If you look at the Indian market, for every one brand new machine buyers, there are more than 10 second hand machine customers,” shares Deepak. It is a very important market with manroland sheetfed enjoying a significant share. “For us, a customer who buys a second-hand machine from us is as a very strong prospect for the new one in future. Our service and support levels to our old machines’ customers gives them full confidence to go in for their next manroland sheetfed machine. For us, service and support are of utmost importance be it an old machine or brand new,” Deepak declares. Talking further about the manroland sheetfed experience for their customer, the company operates in two different ways as far as procuring used machines are concerned. First one is for the customer to identify a machine anywhere in the world and manroland sheetfed will arrange for inspection and do due diligence on the history of the machine and recommend/reject it. The other option is getting a used machine from manroland sheetfed themselves, directly from their customer. In both cases, the company does the dismantling, shipping and installation at the customer’s premises. “There is hardly any company in the world that offers the first option. We are proud of our machines and thus sell even our used machines with pride,” Deepak emphasises. Almost all the used machines that manroland sheetfed has brought to India had run less than 80 million impressions. Such record practically makes these robust old machines almost as good as a new one.
Apart from used presses Manroland sheetfed has installed 16units of two new R700 Evolution press and two more of similar units to be installed by end of April 2025. manroland sheetfed also partners with Kolbus for sale of its machines in India and did three brand new machine installations in 2024, two in South and one in North India. “The Kolbus machine installed in northern India is DA 370R model with a speed of 65 cycles per min and has the inline capability to produce round corner hard bound books, flat back with four parts, 5 parts and eccentrics binding,” explains Deepak. manroland sheetfed is providing servicing and support to owners of Kolbus machines in India.
manroland Sheetfed India also represents Zechini, the Italian brand of rigid box making machines for sale in the Indian subcontinent. Zecchini’s long range of solutions include those for hard book covers, casing-in, rounding of spine, top and tail edge taping, three knife trimmer and board book making and covers Rigid boxes, Collapsible boxes, Cases for books and luxury packaging etc. “The first installation is due in the coming few months and we shall be releasing details shortly,” says Deepak. He expects to have two big projects for Zechini in India in this financial year.
“Busch pile turners from Gerhard Busch EBB GmbH is another product that manroland sheetfed deals in in India,” adds Deepak. In addition to this, they also represent CreaseStream from UK who are into folding and creasing machine which helps avoid cracking on the folds which is a big problem faced by printers in general all over the world.
manroland sheetfed also represents Westland Group, a German producer of very high-end rollers. “This is only for the very high-end printing presses where rollers play an extremely high role in producing very high-quality prints and one of our customers is a regular user who can vouch for it anytime,” highlights Deepak.
Talking about the coming year ahead, Deepak seemed to be pretty much excited and sees a rather interesting time ahead with all the products manroland sheetfed has in its kitty. “We are very proud of our customers who have shown increasing confidence in our products. Along with our dedicated team, we see a very bright future, and we shall only be climbing the ladder of growth,” declares Deepak Walia, MD of manroland Sheetfed India. He looks forward to inviting visitors to PrintPack 2025 at their stall at the show.
Manroland Sheetfed GmbH is a leading German producer of offset printing presses and related technologies for commercial, packaging and publishing applications. With over a century long existence in the finest traditions of German engineering excellence since its founding in 1871, every press is designed and built in Offenbach, Germany. Their facility is a world-class integrated manufacturing complex comprising the group’s global headquarters, extensive production and assembly halls, state-of-the-art foundry, training, research and development (R&D) facilities and print technology centre (PTC). The company also deals in print consumables from printcom®. printcom® supplies customers with extensively tested, certified and process-compliant system components to further refine and optimise their printing systems which includes Blankets, Coatings, Fountain Solutions, Lubricants, Printing Inks, Rollers, Silicones, Special Chemistry, Washes etc.