Bobst India and Indore Master Printers Association jointly organized a seminar titled ‘What drives competitiveness? Lower investment or better efficiency’ and a discussion on market trends in the packaging market of Indore. The event, held on 29 July in Indore, saw participation of printers and convertors from Indore and nearby areas.
Puneet Aggarwal of Bobst opened the seminar with a video describing the 125-year history of Bobst. During his presentation on the topic, ‘Lower investment or better efficiency’ Aggarwal stated, “We have seen many people take decision about buying a machine considering only the price, irrespective of the long-term benefits of the equipment. Our machines have a legacy when it comes to life. We have machines which were manufactured in 60s and 70s and are still running.”
Aggarwal also explained about Bobst’s product portfolio and informed that Bobst has a dedicated arm which only takes care of service and spares.
“We are the only company which invests seven percent of our turnover and not the profit to develop innovative solutions for the market. Because of this, we are able to deliver some of the finest solutions like Accubraile, an online braille embossing on folder gluer; Accucheck, an inline inspection system on folder gluer; and Speedwave for high speed converting of crash lock bottom carton,” said Aggarwal.
In folder gluers segment, the company has Ambition- a starting range with a speed of 300 meters per minute, Visionfold at 350 meters per minute and Expertfold at 450 meters per minutes with facilities to perform Speedwave, Accubraile and Accucheck as an option.
Market reality and real costs
Bobst is known for its high productivity, longer life, reliability but it also commands a pricing premium compared to other alternatives in the market.
“Usually, you end up in a dilemma. You are aware about Bobst’s excellent quality but you think that the prices are too high. Our margin is so low and we make simple packaging, so how can we justify the investment? In the end, what you are worried about is how many cartons will it produce and how many sheets will it cut,” Aggarwal stated. “We can easily resolve your queries. You can get details about run time, sheets produced, sheets cut etc. One can easily calculate the work it has performed and can divide and find what was the investment put in and what is the selling cost of the product.”
Another important point raised at the event was that the foil stamping printing is on rise while metallic printing is on the decline. This is happening because market wants a change and because regulations do not allow film beyond certain microns.
For value addition, one way is to have a good white band board with hot foil stamping. “We undertook some studies on total board usage price in the cost of a carton in Europe and India. We found out that 38% is a board cost used in Europe for packaging while in India it is 55%. This is the reason you have to be very efficient and precise in your production machine as otherwise any waste multiplies to huge waste in profit. This can be solved by availing solutions from Bobst,” said Aggarwal.
Sachin Patil from Bobst explained the financial angle of investing in Bobst. “We at Bobst have studied a seven-year timeline where in the cost which was put in the business is compared to the selling price and gradually the graph of selling price goes up and the cost incurred comes down. This is due to consistent performance of the machine, reduction in the waste of the raw material used and interest payed off yoy. Price of the machine is not the only factor which needs to be considered. We have helped clients to understand how our machinery will give them the necessary margin using their parameters and figures and usage of board.”
