At a meeting of its general body on 25 August 2017 at the Greater Noida India Exposition Centre, IPAMA elected its new president Dayakar Reddy, who later that afternoon briefed the industry and mainstream media about the next PrintPack India exhibition to be held from 1 to 6 February 2019 at the exposition site. Reddy said, “The Indian graphic arts industry has gained momentum post the 13th edition of the PRINTPACK INDIA exhibition earlier this year, with confirmed business of over US$ 290 million and trade inquiries of US$ 510 million.” He added that the entire industry seems to be accelerating with Indian exhibitions, with the 14th PrintPack show getting ready to scale up further and compete with global industry benchmark exhibitions of printing and packaging equipment and consumables. The next show aims to cover 65,000 square meters of the India Exposition Centre with exhibitor stands.
Speaking as the president of IPAMA, which represents the Printing, Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturers of India, Reddy said that the industry has huge growth potential, with a presentation that revealed the large and unfavorable gap in graphic arts equipment and consumables export and import figures. “Our focus is to give an ideal platform to the manufacturers so that they can perform better both domestically and in global markets,” he said.
IPAMA organizes the biennial PRINTPACK INDIA—a modern industrial exhibition site that has been growing in scale and in its modern amenities. It is extremely likely that the new Metro will also be commissioned in time for the 2019 exhibition. There is excellent road connectivity to Delhi/NCR with an 8-lane expressway that also extends to Agra and the Taj Mahal in 90 minutes from the expo center.
Naveen Gupta, the newly elected general secretary of IPAMA, added, “Right on track, IPAMA is working hard to bring the Indian graphic arts industry on the global map and there is no better platform in the entire world than PRINTPACK INDIA for this with the last edition of the show containing a record number of 430 companies and 86,000 business buyers. The 13th PRINTPACK INDIA, 2017 had participation from China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Sharjah, South Korea, Taiwan, UK, USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and several other countries in addition to overwhelming domestic participation.”
According to IPAMA’s 2015-16 numbers, the market size of the Indian printing and packaging machinery industry is approximately Rs. 24,000 crore (US$ 3.8 billion) (Data 2015-16). Of this, imports are apparently five times those of local manufacture. Including consumables and the production of print and packaging, the figures are much higher with recent data indicating that India is currently the fastest growing packaging market in the world.
