Making India proud… in China and world over
Ad, Print, Pack, Paper Exhibition (APPPEXPO) held from July 2-5, 2008
at Shanghai New International Expo Centre attracted good number
of visitors from China and other countries. The participation of
ColorJet India, a leading manufacturer of wide format printers
became the star attraction. S&G editor S K Khurana had a tête-à-tête
with Rackesh Langer of ColorJet India at their stand. Excerpts.
|
ColorJet India, the
frontrunners in Indian wide
format manufacturing
segment displayed three
machines, viz. ColorJet Zeus,
ColorJet Iris and ColorJet P16 at
APPPEXPO. They had participated
last year also in the same
exhibition, which motivated them
to participate with more zeal this
time. Explaining company’s view
on participation Rackesh added,
“The main purpose of our
participation is not to find market
in China but to locate potential
dealers in other developing
nations, and also to get
international focus. We also want
to locate more suppliers for various
components from around the
world, specifically pumps, filters
and software. New suppliers of
these particular segments are
more meaningful to us.”
Talking a bit on last year’s
participation Rackesh said, “It was
just to test the waters.” “Our stall
location was not so good last year,
so we got little response. But this
time our stall is situated very well
in the international hall, standing
alongside world-class exhibitors.
The organizers used our name as
one of the participants to promote
their show. And this year’s
participation has boosted our
confidence very much. Our
product quality as well as visitors’
reaction were more than
satisfactory,” he added.
While having discussions about the
show participation, Rackesh was
very much concerned about
government’s vague policies at
home for getting clearances to take
machines overseas to participate in
shows and exhibitions. In the same
context, he mentioned, “In a bid
to complete the procedure, we
wasted 3 months, but still could not
complete the cumbersome
formalities. Finally, we deposited
a substantial amount as a security
to the concerned department.
This kind of situation brings
hardships for smaller companies
like ours.”
Having well-equipped manufacturing
facility in northern part
of India, ColorJet India make
around 30 units per months, and
at the show they were able to
generate orders from a few new
aspiring dealers for 40-50
machines. Interestingly, Chinese
professionals also approached
them for dealership of ColorJet
products. “In all our machines, we
use our in-house developed printcontroller,
which is our great
strength. In China, only 4-5
companies are able to develop this
vital component. And our
continuous R&D has helped us a
lot in making our products better
with time. Appreciating our
machine’s quality XAAR has
taken ColorJet printer as one of
the beta site for their coming
products,” he added.
|
Coming back to India, he stated,
“For the domestic companies,
reliability, delivery and
consistency are the prime issues,
and we are fully determined to
provide these by using indigenous
components, as far as possible.”
Responding to a question of future
and scope of such machines in
India itself, he replied, “The scope
of such machines is very high, but
the infrastructure is lacking,
taxation policies are unfavorable,
and there is no motivation for
conducting R&D, as one doesn’t
get benefit from government.
Industry is not organized, there
are no guidelines and individually
interpreted situation prevails
strongly. In spite of all this, and
expecting little help from the
government, we still have hope
that at least they should allow us
to work without disturbance.”
To conclude, Rackesh added,
“Now, we are in a position to
offer Chinese pricing but
substantially better technical
support to the customers and
being an English speaking nation,
we do have an edge. So, now it’s
India’s turn to sell these wide
format printers in developing
nations as well apart from feeding
domestic needs.”
