In addition to areas like clothing and traditional fashion, digital printing has also been boosted by growth in segments such as soft signage, sports clothing and interior decoration. Fast fashion brands such as Zara, Mango and H&M have been a great boon for digital textile printing technologies, as for these brands it is of paramount importance to bring in the latest in terms of design and products in the showrooms quickly.
India too is a major producer and exporter of textiles, supplying to all major brands across the globe. With rising income, local demand for fashion clothing has exploded as well. This makes India an important market for EFI Reggiani. With the proliferation of eCommerce and online fashion portals, segments like home décor have recorded a significant growth in India. We at Indian Printer and Publisher met with Michele Riva, sales and marketing director, EFI Reggiani on the sidelines of EFI Connect 2017 in Las Vegas to learn about the company’s future plans in India and understand how the year 2016 had been.
“India has been a very good market for us. Last year was an exciting one as more and more printers in the textile segment started adopting digital technology. Although India was late in opening up to this technology compared with other countries countries, the adoption rate has been very fast, especially in the fashion segment,” Riva said. In India, EFI Reggiani has Sahiba Group and D’décor as customers. The company participated in the recently concluded International Textile Machinery Exhibition in Mumbai. It featured the EFI Reggiani ReNOIR PRO 1.8-m digital textile printer using new Reggiani AQUA reactive inks. Riva said that feedback from the visitors was very good and the company is in talks to sell six machines to a new potential customer. The 1.8-m printer remains the most popular in India. In 2016, EFI Reggiani installed ten machines in India and Riva expects 2017 to be equally good.
Local service centre
With EFI Reggiani now having a substantial installation base in India, the company has plans to set up a local service centre in Mumbai sometime this year. This will be in association with its local Indian partner—Voltas Limited. The centre will have engineers who will take care of the after-sales service for both spare parts and inks.
