Esko inaugurated its first packaging excellence center in India at Mumbai on 14 March 2018. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Esko customers, Esko employees and the media at the office of Danaher, which is Esko’s parent company.
The packaging excellence center, located in Danaher’s premises, is equipped with a Kongsberg X44 table, which is fully compatible for packaging, corrugated and signage applications, a CDI Spark 2530 plate maker and a range of Esko software.
“The aim of establishing the center in Mumbai is to be close to our customers. Almost 60% of our business is generated from western India. The concentration of packaging innovation in this part of the country is much higher than anywhere else,” said John Winderam, general manager, South East Asia and South Asia, Esko.
Winderam argued that the packaging excellence center is not merely a demo center, but much more. “We want to treat our packaging excellence center not just as a demonstration center but also as a resource hub where customers can come and experiment with ideas. They can get their operators trained here as well. So basically, we want to make the packaging excellence center more than just a room that has machines,” Windrem said, adding that customers have already shown interest in using the resources available at the packaging excellence center. Esko will also be spreading the word about its latest endeavor and expects to get a very good response.
Winderam also outlined Esko’s plans in the near future to expand in the other parts of India. The company will be adding a second software support personnel in Mumbai. In Delhi, Esko has a software support personnel but no hardware support; so, it plans to recruit some there. Once this recruitment process is over, Esko will have strong software and hardware support in west, north and south India.
Asked if Esko is looking at other cities in India to have an on-ground support staff, Winderam shared that the company may look at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, but it will all depend on the growth of customer base in these areas.
During the event, Arnab Maiti, sales director, South Asia, Esko made a short presentation on the evolution and growth of Esko in India. He strongly urged the customers and the industry to fully utilize the resources available at the packaging excellence center.
