Large Print Run Beckons

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">He
who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types
was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates,
and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of
printing. (Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833)

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">The
German blacksmith would have never thought that his print revolution
will open new avenues for today's printing industry. Yes, the
blacksmith was Johannes Gutenberg, who invented movable type printing
press. Today, the printing industry provides a variety of products,
which are required in our daily life such as newspapers, magazines,
notebooks, big posters, banners, and signage, amongst others. The
printing industry all over the world is evolving and experiencing
technical advancements.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Amidst
different types of printing, large format printing industry is
opening up to different levels with huge investments. From
architectural engineering and construction industry, to advertisement
and packaging industry, repro copy shops, enterprise
accounts, fine arts, specialty printing applications and the printing
needs for these specific industries are primarily addressed by the
LFP industry. The market size of LFP is around 5,000 units per year
and the industry experts say that the growth has been stagnant from
some time. The laser market is approximately 800 units per year,
while the inkjet market is much bigger, at least 5 times bigger than
the laser market.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">DQ
Channels spoke to various vendors indulged in LFP. HP is a market
leader in the large format plotters arena in India. It holds 80% of
the marketshare and leads in the technical market. Mahesh Kumar Soni,
country business manager (design), large format printer, IPG (GSB),
HP India says, “HP dominates this segment with approximately 70%
share (IDC CQ Q2 2011) in the overall category, addressable by HP and
classified as large format plotters. The market is growing at a
steady pace in unit terms with a sequential growth ranging between
3-5% over the last 6 quarters.” He further adds, “HP's
portfolio offering from technical and graphics industry with more
than 20 different SKUs to offer, is based on applications that talk
about the robust investment and contribution by HP in this market.
HP's latest offering is web- nabled interfaces in the latest
e-print and share-enabled large format plotters and multifunction
plotter devices like DSJ T790, DSJ T1300 and DSJ T2300 eMFP series.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Recently,
HP launched high-speed inkjet printing solutions to cater the speed
and productivity requirements of repro copy shops and centralized
repro graphics departments with larger enterprise, and PSUs with DSJ
T7100 series launch. When it comes to inkjets, the Z6200 is the
fastest pigment ink based large format printing solution with a
productive environment throughput speed of approximately 19.4 sq m per
hour.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Another
vendor, Canon has just entered the LFP market and it acquired Oce, a
Netherland based printing company. It enabled Canon to look forward in
different segments. Rajeev Tiwari, director, wide format imaging
division, Canon India says, “As of now, the growth of the LFP
market is little stagnant as the numbers are remaining the same. But
at the same time people are moving to high-end printers, thereby
usage is moving up the value chain. Initially at Canon, as we were a
new entrant, our basic intent was to develop infrastructure for sales
and service and then look forward to grab the market.” Ricoh is the
last to enter in this space, so lot of market development and
education needs to be done. Avijit Mukherjee, COO, production
printing and wide format business, SBU. Mukherjee says, “In India,
the LFP market is still in the growth phase and lot of activities
needs to be done .We must try to add value to our customer's
business. Real estate, AEC, government and manufacturing sectors are
investing in this space. We offer finance schemes for corporate
sectors and to selected customers only.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">MARKET
TRENDS

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">The
growth of LFP market is directly proportional to the growth of
infrastructure in India. In wide infrastructure developments,
different segments like engineering drawing and design,
advertisement, etc, have enabled large format printers' usage into
various segments. In totality, all sectors are investing in LFP
machine to get a better output. We see investments in the retail
industry, thereby increasing the requirement of LFPs. Lot of display
graphics are required and all these are printed in LFP. Rather than
entry-level printers, people are eyeing more productive bigger
printers for better quality, better speed of production,and better
color gamut. Tiwari says, “I am seeing from infrastructure perspective
for airports as it is developing like Delhi, Bengaluru,
Hyderabad and modernization is due in Kolkata, Chennai, etc. So
people who are doing civil works are investing in these machines.
Like GMR, who built airports in India is our client and they have
used our Oce-Canon products.” One of the HP partners, Siddhartha
Malhotra owner of Arun@Rajive says, “The retail growth will impact
positively.” The second trend which is increasing is in the
agressive usage of mono or color printers. For simple AEC prints,
mono is used but for electrical drawing and designs, electrical
identification color is used.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Consumer
angle has also come in the picture. Digital photography is coming up,
people are investing in pursuing photography as a hobby. This has
enabled the
growth of printing services which cater to the demand of this
segment. Tiwari adds, “Now, people are taking photography as a
hobby. We have seen a very good growth in this segment and it has
become 'photo real estate printing.' Of course, these people will
not buy those kinds of machines, they will create the demand and
therefore, print service providers will buy those kind of machines.
That's why, we are very confident that the market will grow.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">SM
Ramprasad, deputy general manager, consumer product group, Epson
India, says, “The LFP market is defined by three segments, the key
segment is the graphic market, then emerging segments like textile,
and third is signage. As a whole, I see that it is very conservative
and there are lot of players who sell assembled products imported
from China. The organized segment is itself close to `1,500 crore.” He
also emphasized, “The key thing is photography as a segment, where
digital revolution is happening. Proofing and pre-press is also
traditional growth drivers for our LFP market.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">BARRIERS

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Infrastructure
is one of the major growth areas as well as an area for de-growth.
Due to recession in 2009, the infrastructural growth slowed down
impacting LFP market. Industry experts have also raised question on
newer technologies . Mahesh Kumar Soni of HP says, “Given in India,
the refresh is not that frequent, the products get used with extended
life-term, which hampers new technology adoption rate at times.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">But
Ramprasad disagrees to the above argument and says, “I don't
think that 'refresh cycle frequency' is hampering the growth.
Today, globally we are parallely launching the products across the
world. But India lacks expertise in application and solutions
development. In European countries there are experts who really
develop solutions by the time product is launched, but this does not
happen in India.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Malhotra
adds, “Printing industry is not regulated, today there are printers
which use solvent inks and this causes serious health hazards. So we
use latex technology which is 100% eco-friendly ink.” With the
controversy of solvent ink about creating health hazards, newer
technological evolution has happened in this arena. Epson has
launched green solvent inks which minimize the health hazards. Satish
Nayak, director, Bodhi Pro, Epson Partner adds on another challenge,
“Many people need to be educated as the awareness is still low.
People are getting victimized in the price war set up in the large
format printing arena.”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">CONCLUSION

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Overall
we see huge growth opportunities and different kinds of analysis of
this market. But the growth will definitely depend on the kind of
infrastructure developments we see in the market. Second, people in
this segment are seeking quality and thereby this is one of the
markets where entry-level products are not in demand. People opt for
high-end products. So the demand and growth will increase day-by-day
with lot of innovations from different companies.