INDIAN PRINTING INDUSTRY – ADAPTING TO THE NEW TRENDS & DEVELOPMENTS!

The value of the print industry across India was over 225 billion Indian rupees in 2021. This is further expected to exceed 250 billion rupees by 2024, indicating a compound annual growth of around 3 percent.

As organisations fast-tracked digital transformation and customers embraced digital experiences during the pandemic, the print industry has experienced an irrevocable shift over the past year. Print and digital convergence demands that print industry leaders urgently reinvent their business models. A legacy of success based on traditional models means little in today’s business landscape, which is driven by experiences rather than products alone.

CONVERGENCE IN PRINT

A recent HP sponsored study by NapcoResearch on ‘Convergence in Print’ concluded that the most popular segment that printers are migrating to is the Label Segment. While in the last few years, the label printers with their flexo presses having wider webs and inline finishing had ventured into many new applications including folding cartons, sachets, pouches, lami tubes, flexible Electronics, promotional products etc., the arrival of the faster and wider digital print engine has totally transformed the label world and empowered the printer to offer many new applications. The faster speeds have not only aided the addition of the inline finishing on the digital presses, it has also helped them go hybrid with added flexo print units.

Ability of both the Flexo and Digital technologies to print on a wide range of substrates is a great driver of convergence. The growing print enhancement and embellishment techniques available in these technologies are also lending to the emerging of newer and often high value applications. Coding and Marking that works on Inkjet technology converges seamlessly with Digital Printing.

As organisations fast-tracked digital transformation and customers embraced digital experiences during the pandemic, the print industry has experienced an irrevocable shift over the past year. Print and digital convergence demands that print industry leaders urgently reinvent their business models. A legacy of success based on traditional models means little in today’s business landscape, which is driven by experiences rather than products alone.

The main takeaway is that modern printing platforms are highly flexible and well suited for a wide range of applications from multiple short runs to medium and even long runs and provide the technological foundation for the printers seeking migration to different segments due to varied commercial reasons.