Once again in Goa, Arlon India organised its ‘Converters Meet’ inviting all its affiliates
from all over India for the second time to the exotic tourist destination for a mutual sharing of thoughts
and ideas revolving around the company’s new products and expansive business prospects. Bharat Damani,
VP-sales, Arlon India, conducted the meet flanked by other speakers from different partnered companies,
who persuasively stretched over new strategies to grow together.
In fact, Arlon India planned to organise the second
‘Converters Meet’ somewhere else in a new
location this year, but the continuous demands
from the converters who wished to keep hold of the last
year’s venue had eventually brought the meet back to Goa
again. “Hopefully we will be choosing a new venue next
year,” said Bharat Damani, adding that it would help the
annual event reach to a wider geography.
“Team work!”—this was what Bharat articulated
while addressing a host of converters during the second
‘Converters Meet’ of Arlon India. “We can’t go solo.
That’s what we all are doing now, but we want you to
be a continuous part of our team and let’s find out how
we can work together on varied projects,” Bharat urged
the participants. He pointed out the fact that many of
Arlon’s projects are now lying untapped by its partners.
“Here the approach is to identify the opportunities
that come our way in terms of better pricing and
coordination. When we look at times, we need to look
at the developments; we need to look at the progress,
because the change is all we need; everything even in
different industrial segments like automobile, beverage…
get upgraded; and of course, Arlon India as well,” he
explained.
Expansion going on
Tracing back to the 50 years of Arlon’s history
and its successful presence in India since 2007,
Bharat enunciated the company as a world leader in
manufacturing cast vinyl materials for signage and
vehicle fleet graphics. Headquartered in Southern
California, Arlon boasts more than 250,000 sq ft of
manufacturing and warehouse space with worldwide
stocking locations in India, Australia, South America,
UK, Netherlands, Germany, North America, among
others. Arlon’s recent investment of more than US$
25 million to create new capacity subsequently enables
them to keep producing ‘game changing’ products for
custom colour marking applications, cast vehicle wraps,
monomeric and polymeric coated vinyl line for both
indoor and outdoor applications.
Specialised in manufacturing materials for automotive
sector, cut graphics and various range of flexible substrates,
Arlon India is emerging as a ‘Partner of Choice’ in the
country’s graphic art industry. “We would like to proceed
on our partnership venture exploiting innovative range
of products and services. Having been operating largely
through the distribution market, this is just another part
we would like to focus on in the coming years to expand
our distribution network. Of course, our prime objective
is ‘Reach and Availability’ all around,” asserted Bharat.
In global arenas, Arlon is set to penetrate into the South
American market in a bigger way by opening a subsidiary
out of Brazil and the next target will be Africa.
New products and prospects
Addressing the gathered crowd of converters about new
developments from Arlon, Bharat receptively announced, “We
have been continuously improvising and increasing our product
portfolio; probably two or three bubble-free films are adding
up; and our focus is also for newer and better performing
films for the automobile market, which is a growing segment
all over the world and more or less the momentum is picking
up steadily in India too, irrespective of being in a beginning
phase.” Now that the Arlon paint protection films are highly
demanded in the vehicle graphic arena, a new film that can
revive itself from scratch is set to be launched in September.
Bharat further stressed on the company’s newly unpacked
wall graphic films, such as 4500 GS Satin Calendared Film
and DPF 4600 LX, which is low cost printable premium gloss
vehicle film that can be used as laminate on any surface. He
proclaimed ‘2014’ as a landmark year of Arlon for the reasons
that the company has garnered an overall business segregating
into print media (45 percent), cut graphics (27 percent),
commercial flex of all types (16 percent) and automotive
(15 percent).
Arlon materials are versatile in terms of variations in qualities
and prices. In context of price sensitiveness, Bharat claimed
that the overall question is not about whether the material is
of Rs 7 or Rs 170 per sq ft; it is about application; that’s why
we continuously insist to ask our customers the application
rather than the costs in order to get rid of misuse. To this
connection, he urged everyone to visit www.arlon.com, an
interactive official site of the company, as well as the others
like www.graphicart.com and www.arlonautomotive.com
for graphic art applications on walls, decals, vehicles and
many others. Arlon is active on all social media sites, such as
facebook, instagram, twitter, which according to Bharat is part
of their agenda to reach to the masses.
Supportive notes
Among the other keynote speakers at the meet included
Cap Jagmohan Mehta from IndusInd Bank who stressed on
‘quality maintenance’ in sign making or assembling a display
item. Shedding a spotlight on the assured value and quality
of Arlon products, he appealed to everyone to discard the
chalta hai habit while choosing signage products. Another
aspect he pointed out was safety measure one must be aware
of while crafting a signage, which is of huge dimension.
Venkat Adiraju, country manager, India, Roland DG (UK)
Ltd referred to the company’s range of UV and textile
printers, which in combination with Arlon medias could bring
a big boost to business. “This is how partnership begins,” he
suggested, appreciating Apsom Infotex for being a dedicated
sales and service partner of Roland DG in India since 1995 to
popularise Roland machines of varied configurations.
Vikas Premnath Tandon from DVS Enterprise delivered some
useful hints on film applications, particularly guiding on
accurate treatments of adhesives, which he explained in three
broad categories: Permanent, Removable and Changeable or
Repositionable. “Choosing the correct product with correct
adhesive is the right move in sign making,” he advised, adding
that Arlon’s products meet all such challenges in delivering
best of outcomes, whether it could be in vehicle wraps, wall
graphics on regular or irregular surfaces.
When the sessions came to the closing moment, Bharat
conveyed his final massage expressing gratitude to every
participant, soliciting everyone to go over the horizon of
Arlon products and see the kind of opportunities they have.
“Let’s start working harder, better and smarter” echoed his
conclusive note.