Vinsak, a provider of digital printing solutions to the printing and packaging industry, did a live display of its USAR (universal slitter & rewinder) range and its inkjet systems at the LabelExpo India exhibition held from 10 to 13 November 2022 at the India Expo Center in Greater Noida. The star of the show was a high-build digital embellishment system. Vinsak also sold its Lombardi and Iwasaki flexo presses and the AB Graphic Digicon series line.
With a geographical presence in almost 40 to 50 countries, Vinsak is strong in the Middle East, and in the English-speaking part of Africa, and Sri Lanka. The firm now plans to enter the Far East – Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam – and with this intent, appointed a new salesperson for these markets.
“LabelExpo is a very focused exhibition where every customer is relevant to the business. There is less footfall compared to a general printing show, but it is focused. You get more interesting conversations. It’s been a good show for us,” says Ranesh Bajaj, director, Vinsak, about the show. He said they get very hot leads at the show, their funnel gets filled up and the subsequent efforts over the 180 days is where they actually get the money.
Bajaj, while pointing out a few hiccups, said the experience is getting better. “I think we got a slightly smaller stand; we need a bigger one next time. It was a very positive experience and the organization is getting better. The whole ecosystem of doing exhibitions in India is getting so much better than before. Year on year, I find improvement. I was at the K show in Dusseldorf not so long ago, where the parking is excellent. There was a parking mess here on the second day. But I think somebody reported it; the next morning there were proper parking marshals and we were parking like we do in Europe. I think we are getting there slowly.”
Bajaj went on to say, “We pride ourselves in saying we are the fastest company to have multiple users of our equipment. I have this theory: I can sell the first machine to anybody by telling him a story, giving a special price, or giving a discount. But a subsequent machine is bought when everything is correct – we as a machine supplier have to be correct, and our service has to be correct. If you see a customer coming to buy a second, a third, and a fourth machine, it means the whole ecosystem is performing. If all stakeholders in the value chain are working well, it is growing fast.”
Vinsak sold a second press to Mudrika Labels in Mumbai, a second one to Citrus Labels in Mumbai, and recently installed a new press in the temple town of Tirupati. “There have been a lot of new installations for us,” Bajaj says.
The label industry grew during the pandemic
“The label industry is growing by leaps and bounds; it’s very positive. I always say we are lucky to be in this business because this is the only industry that did not shrink during Covid, it actually expanded. The only thing I keep repeating ad infinitum is that labels are not just self-adhesive labels. Let’s not mix a service label, a shrink sleeve, a wrap-around label, an in-mold label, and a wet glue label – they are all labels. As long as we keep expanding the market and making the pie bigger, everybody will have food on the table. When the pie doesn’t get bigger and you just have more people eating food, everybody’s slice gets smaller. You just have to first grow the pie. As an industry overall, we have to work towards growing the pie,” Bajaj told Packaging South Asia.
About the current industry’s trends, he said, “People are going wider, people are doing more innovation, printing is 50% – label functionality is more than. So you see more functional labels. Our customers are looking at packaging that is innovative not only aesthetically, but also functionally.
Vinsak was a sponsor of the LMAI awards night held on the second day of the event. “We had a good experience as a sponsor. The arrangements could have been slightly better, but it was a good experience. We should get more printers to participate. Somewhere we were lacking in the variety of awards. The association needs to work harder, and incentivize each and every converter to submit an entry. It needs to be democratized,” he concludes.
