Sakata Inx:
excellent combo of technology,
knowledge and human resource
–inaugurates new
web-offset ink production
unit in Gujarat
Sakata Inx has made news again…the company recently inaugurated their new facility in Panoli
(Gujarat) for production of web offset inks. With this, the company hopes to become the third
largest ink manufacturer in India. Here, Dr Kotaro Morita, president, Sakata Inx Corp and
chairman, INX International Ink Co, who was in India to inaugurate the facility, reveals their
plans for India in conversation with AAN editors SK Khurana and Varsha Verma.
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We started our Indian operations
19 years ago in 1995 with the
import of inks. Seeing the surge in
demand, we established a plant in Bhiwadi
in 1998 with gravure business. In 2005, we
set up a facility for offset inks for sheet-fed
and coldest operations. In 2009, we set up
another manufacturing facility for gravure
inks in an 80,000 sq m area. These Indian
facilities cater not just to the Indian market
but also Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and
CIS (Commonwealth Independent States)
countries. As the new ink business grew, it
was an obvious step to set up a new ink
plant, told Dr Kotaro Morita, president, Sakata
Inx Corp and chairman, INX International
Ink Co.
VK Seth, MD, Sakata Inx (India); Dr Kataro Morita, president,
Sakata Inx Corp and chairman, INX International Ink Co;
and Naohisa Yasui, MD, Financial Div, Information Systems Div,
International Operation Div, Sales Administrative Div,
Sakata Inx Corp, Osaka.
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Interestingly, the history of Sakata Inx
Corporation dates back to 1896, as a
manufacturer of newspaper inks and by 1948,
made its foray in the international market.
Today, the company has evolved as a global
leader with an extensive product line of not
only gravure, flexo, metal deco, offset and
specialty inks but also a wide range of other
printing and productivity related systems and
raw materials. “Globally, we are the fourth
largest ink manufacturer while in countries
like Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines, we
stand as the number one,” told Dr Morita.
Talking about the revenues generated by
different inks, Dr Morita revealed that
gravure ink accounts for the biggest share.
The company has manufacturing facilities in
eight countries, including China, Vietnam,
Thailand, Malaysia, Spain, UK, Manchester
and India. “Capacity wise, the facilities in
Indonesia and India are largest units. In terms
of revenue, both these plants were more or
less same last year, but in this quarter, the
revenues from India are higher,” he added.
While VK Seth, managing director, Sakata
Inx (India) Ltd added, “India has a bigger
potential. At present, our export from Indian
facility is 15 percent of our sales but we
hope to achieve a target of 25 percent.”
Since Sakata Inx India exports to many
different countries like Africa, Eastern
Europe, CIS countries, etc, where temperature
differs a lot, they customise the products
accordingly. “To facilitate this requirement,
we have invested profusely in R&D and
have four engineers stationed in India, who
are continuously developing new products,”
he said.
And it is not a standalone arrangement…
customer needs are prime. “We interact with
our end-users and develop product specially
meeting their requirements,” told Seth, who
gave an example of Cock who needed an
ink which dries off in labeling machines
which apply 1,200 labels a minute. “This is
just one example, there are many,” he told.
Discussing more about the Indian market, Seth
explained, “Here, ink is very competitively
priced. In fact, it is decided by the customer.
It is a continuous challenge to meet our
customer expectations as regards to price
and quality product. Our R&D engineers
are continuously working to reduce our own
costs and wastages.”
And to reduce costs, Sakata Inx always
keeps trying to procure indigenous raw
materials but few materials like Titanium
dioxide, carbon black and oils still need to
be imported as these are not produced here.
“We indigenise maximum to reduce on cost,
without compromising on quality, though we
procure key black-box material and add-on
products from Japan,” shared Seth.
“Another major challenge is to continuously
train our staff to be technologically competent.
Technical people are trained to take on trials
and solve customer’s problems. Besides,
continuous improvement in the inks is another
challenge we face,” added Seth.
Talking about the environment-friendly
products, Dr Morita shared, “We get the
direction from Japan and ensure that no
negative listed product is used and we
comply with the various standards of different
countries.” He also mentioned about the Soybased
inks that were successfully developed
for sheet-fed offset inks.
What next? To this, Dr Morita replied that
they are coming up with new products every
day. “There is an increasing demand for
UV inks and digital inks. We are working
in this direction. We already supply digital
inks to many digital printer manufacturers
as OEMs.”
So, is there any acquisition plans on cards
for expansion like the one in US during
1988? To this, Dr Morita replied, “Companies
acquire for equipment, technology and
human resources. We have the technology
and knowledge, we can install better
equipment. So, as of now we do not need
to acquire. We may expand on our own.”
Seth echoed his views and told that they
have been experiencing a YOY growth
of 21 percent, every year they have been
investing in plants, expansion and growth.
They hope that the new plant at Panoli will
add more value to their existing business.
"We have an excellent team and do hope
to be number three ink manufacturers in
India soon," concluded Dr Morita.
