In May 2015 I wrote on this blog that the verdict from the
Indian label industry, after I had interviewed some leading printers was, “Digital
for labels has to wait”. In the concluding part of my article I mentioned, “The
time frame before digital printing becomes largely visible and used in label
printing in India varies between three to five years.”
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Amar Chhajed Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech |
I must here appreciate
and commend Amar Chhajed of Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech labels for his foresight when
he said digital printing in labels will become evident in 2-3 years. He said
this in May 2015 and two years hence as we enter the third year since then, we
note that some big time investments are being made in digital printing in
labels. Digital printing in labels has been registering continuous growth in
Europe, followed by that in North America.
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I and Adrian Tippenhauer MD Rako Etiketten |
In my reporting on the last DRUPA, I
had quoted Adrian Tippenhauer Managing Director of Rako Etiketten Germany. According to
him the last 36 label presses acquired by them out of the 100s that they have,
are all digital presses. If the Labelexpo-Europe and Drupa are indicators, the
visitors to these shows can very well imagine the way forward. Digital was the
most predominantly exhibited technology at these events. HP became the biggest
exhibitor at DRUPA with an almost 5000 square meter hall showcasing their
digital offerings. Other leading
suppliers of digital label presses were all there. The writing was on the wall
that it would not be long before the trend starts to flourish in India. Indian
label printers have been very cautious towards investing in digital printing of
labels. However as they say, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come. When
I researched and estimated the size of digital label market in India, the
findings became interesting. By latest count the population of leading brands
of digital label presses in India has reached 22 in number. This is besides the
small low value small printers that some companies may have acquired. Now this
is a fairly impressive figure when just a year back we had the industry largely
saying that digital has to wait. Estimating the size of the digital label
market I made some assumptions. The average width of the press was taken as
330mm (as widths vary from 250 mm to 370 mm), printing speed is calculated at
an average of 30 running meters per minute, because it varies from 20 to 50
meters per minute for different brands and working hours assumed at 12 hours
per day. This amounts to a total consumption in the industry for digitally
printed labels of over 52 million square meters in a year. Self adhesive labels
form the largest part of total label market which include besides self adhesive
labels, shrink sleeves, wrap around labels, wet glue labels, in mould labels,
etc. In October 2016 I had estimated the total Indian label industry size
(mostly conventional) at almost 900 million square meters per annum. This
translates into to almost 5.8 % of the total self adhesive labels in India to be
printed digitally; conservatively we can assume the figure to be 5%. This surely indicates that for digital label
printing in India, the journey has begun!
In the last edition of LMAI’s magazine Label Legacy,
Gautham Pai Managing Director of Manipal
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Gautham Pai MD Manipal Technologies |
Technologies said, ““Digital printing offers
a plethora of opportunities for both the suppliers and the clients. With the
Indian market trending towards more customized products, a large number of
brands, shorter TATs (Turnaround Times) and more ecologically sustainable
solutions, Digital printing would prove to be one hallmark technology for the
Label Industry.” Manipal Technologies has an HP Indigo installed at its
subsidiary UPSL in Chennai. The deterrent so far for the label industry to
invest in digital printing equipment has been the high cost of consumables and
the end price to consumer including margins, as not being acceptable. However
the evolving retail selling patterns and consumables becoming more affordable,
the technology is now more relevant. As run lengths continue to shrink, short
runs being more in demand and customization or personalization needs become
imperative to modern day marketing; it is driving printers to think digital.
Added requirement for variable data on the labels that helps companies to track
and trace their products, brings about the compelling need to complement their
analogue printing with digital printing. In words of Narendra Paruchuri of
Pragati Pack Hyderabad who have installed an HP Indigo 6800, ““One of things that all of
us must understand and appreciate is that both digital and analog will
co-exist. Digital’s greatest advantage is variable data printing. Short runs
are cheaper. So the areas are clearly ear marked.” Digital printing of packaging and labels is growing
at an enormous pace in the western world. We have touched the tip of an iceberg;
it will not be long before the trend picks up in India as well.
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Sai Packaging team announcing Epson Surepress Purchase |
The ease of use and consistency in print reached in
this technology makes it interesting for established printers to indulge.
Pravin Savla of J P Printers Mumbai is ecstatic that he invested in an Epson
Surepress. He says, “I can print good quality on a variety of substrates using
the computer to print capability. He caters to his customer base that demands
short runs with so many design changes and is still profitable.” He further
adds that reduced need of manpower helps him manage well with ample time on his
hands. He says conventional flexo and letterpress technologies are time
consuming and have hidden costs. Yet another Epson customer Arvind Shekhar of
Sai Packaging Bangalore says, “We
have had good experience for short run jobs defined as less than 20,000 labels
for bigger size and 50,000 for smaller pharma labels and we have never had
colour consistency issues with Epson.” Adding to the views of Narendra
Paruchuri Arvind states, “I don’t' see it as a standalone ROI (Return on
investment). When you see increased sales on Flexo plus plate costs saved; then
the ROI makes sense.” Denver Annunciation from Janus International, perhaps the
very first label printer to install an HP Indigo label press says, “Yes the
technology has evolved a lot and we are seeing the crossover point shift
higher”. While those in the process of acquiring capabilities in digital remain
tightlipped yet others like Raveendran of Sel Jegat Sivakasi, Manjunath of
Global Printing Bangalore and Rajesh Nema of Pragati Graphics Indore say they
are studying the technology and will invest in the near future.
While calculating the
number of digital label presses in India, I have not taken into account the
presses
that are not operational. Out of the 22 presses, the bulk of the share goes to
HP Indigos that employ Electro
Photography as a process to print, which is similar to offset printing using
liquid inks. Electro photography and
inkjet are both improving in quality and speed, there evolution and further
developments are challenging the dominance of other printing processes like
offset, wide-web flexo and gravure. 13 presses amounting to 59% of the total digital label press
installations in India are HP indigo. This is followed by 5 Epson SurePress L-4033AW that use water-based inks and is
suitable for segments such as pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food, amongst
others. The press uses a seventh white ink to print the transparent no-label
look, as well as metallic labels. The opaque white printing on materials, such
as clear film and metallic substrates, has the flexibility of printing white
first or last. Epson accounts
for almost 23 % of the installations, 2 Xeikons account for 9% and one each of
durst and EFI accounting for 4.5% each.
59% of all the digital label presses installed are
in the West Zone, 23% in South and 18% in North. Out of the 13 HP Indigo label
presses working in India, 7 are installed in the west zone. One at Janus
International Mumbai, 1 at Diadeis
Alia (formerly Alia Creative Consultants) Mumbai, 2 at Astron Packaging
Ahmedabad, 1 at Essel Propack Mumbai, 1 at Trigon Digital Mumbai and 1 at
Skanem Interlabels Mumbai. 4 HP Indigos are installed in South, 1 at Pragati
Pack Hyderabad, 1 at Pravesha Hyderabad, 1 with Huhtamaki (SGRE Labels)
Bangalore and 1 at Manipal Technologies (UPSL) Chennai. 2 of the HP Indigos are
in North. 1 at Hora Art Centre NOIDA and 1 at Moser Baer Noida (working). Out
of the 5 Epson Surepress preses 1 is installed in South at Sai Packaging
Bangalore others are in the West zone with 1 at Trigon Digital Mumbai, 1 at J P
Printers Mumbai, 1 at Syndicate Printers Goa and 1 with a customer in Pune. Of
the 2 Xeikons installed, one is with Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech Labels in Mumbai and
one with Kwality Offset New Delhi. The only EFI Jetrion installed is with
Reynders in Chopanki in the North and the only Durst is with Astron Packaging
in Ahmedabad. I have accounted for most of the recognized brands of digital
label presses in India.
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Hemanth Paruchuri of Pragati Pack |
On further
evaluation of data compiled by me 9 out of 20 i.e. 45% of the companies who
indulged in digital label printing are either multinationals or corporates and
the rest 11 are family owned businesses. It is interesting to note that at
least 7 out of the 11 companies have the young generation-next either in
command or actively involved in day to day affairs of the company. So evidently
it is the corporate mindset or the youth that is driving the march into digital
printing of labels in India.
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director,
Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India May 2017 email: harveersahni@gmail.com
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