FACE TO FACE
‘manroland India continues total
commitment to Indian print industry’
“Despite ongoing adverse economic atmosphere, we are fully committed to Indian print industry offering state-of-the-art solutions for better performance,” says
Peter Kuisle, executive vice president, sales board, manroland, Germany in an exclusive conversation with SK Khurana, editor, All About Newspapers on the sidelines of the World Newspaper Congress and the World Editors’ Forum in Hyderabad.
Referring to the ongoing economic recession world over Peter confirms that the effect on manufacturers of printing and allied machinery has been much larger than other industries. But he is quite optimistic that the business will come back soon, which might amount to the tune of eighty percent, if not hundred percent.
“Owing to impact of recession, our sheet-fed production units are being affected to some extent and the web business activities, if needed, might also be streamlined further,” informs Peter.
“However, with this kind of preventive situation happening in our manufacturing plants shall no way affect our commitment which we assured to Indian print industry while initiating to be directly present in India,” he continues, adding, “With a strength of over 38 individuals in the country, manroland India is in a position to offer 24/7 service. The recent multiple orders received for sheet-fed presses with different configuration are the testimonies towards this.”
Talking further on the conditions prevalent in India versus other parts of the world, Peter does agree that Indian market is going towards growth at a reasonable pace and should be back to faster tracks soon. Printers in the industry have gone little cautious, but may be in the next six months order books start opening up. manroland has invested heavily in India already during the last three years in terms of staff and spares inventory.
“For newspaper industry, we always had a partnership kind of business where we expect publishers to handle their core activities of news creation and distribution of printed product and leave the production area to us wherein we have the expertise. This kind of commitment offered by us to top of the line publishers of newspapers has brought good results for us and we have been successful in creating a fair amount of installation base,” Peter points out proudly. Times of India, HT Media and Jagran are some of the few names who have disposed their total faith in manroland.
On querying about the possibilities of entering manroland India into consumable business or other areas for Indian print industry, Peter divulges that they have similar models working in few countries. But as of now nothing is seriously being considered for Indian market. “However, we always remain open to offer the services to our clients in such a way where our machines keep producing quality print and not suffer due to poor quality inputs,” concluded Peter sitting in the HICC (Hyderabad) at the end of the third day of the conference.
