He further shared, “The concept that attracted customers at our stand was our approach and the uniqueness of our products as we asked customers not to print on paper, an approach totally different from other players in the industry. So, going beyond the industry can fetch more business. Our engines are equipped to handle multiple materials like PB, PVC, stain sheets, magnetic media and a variety of media which is non-paper. This is a challenge for most of our competitors because their machines don’t have the technology to handle this kind of variability. Our engines are created with a fuser temperature between 180 and 200 degrees.” Ricoh promoted white and neon inks extensively at the show.
According to Misra, nothing has changed in the industry in terms of technology but what has definitely changed is the aesthetics. Sharing his role at Ricoh India, he said, “My value addition to Ricoh has been to innovatively sell products to our new customer base and thus we are targeting the tier-2, -3 and -4 cities besides focusing more on selling high-end products to smaller cities.”
Ricoh has its engineers spread across the country and is currently focusing on the markets of Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, etc. In terms of business, Ricoh has a very strong base in South India as the adoption of technology is high in this region. “Apart from the southern belt, we have seen positive growth in Uttar Pradesh, a state we have been focusing on for long now. Also, we are looking to tap the photo markets of Kerala, Chandigarh and Ludhiana. We currently have 60 engineers pan India, and we keep adding to that list as per the market demands,” he concluded.
