‘We have never been looking
for just writing patents’s
Said Hortsmann Jurgan, chairman, Krause in an exclusive conversation with AAN on the sidelines of WAN-IFRA India 2010 conference held recently in Jaipur, India. “Contrary to this, Krause’s interest and focus has been towards producing optimum quality for all our products whether CtPs, bakery equipments, high end kitchens or knock-down furniture. Though CtP activity accounts for only 18 percent of our overall business, we do feel passionate towards this equally and see a great future in the segment,” stated Horstmann having shining in his eyes.
Hortsmann shaking hands with RP Nargis and Deepak Nargis after
signing the agreement.
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Talking specifically over the recently established new entity in India (Krause Biagosch India Pvt Ltd), Horstmann informed that this company has been formed as 50:50-joint venture between Juergen Horstmann, owner of Horstmann Group which owns Krause Biagosch GmbH, and RP Nargis (who was until now holding the position of managing director of manroland India) and family. Deepak Nargis shall be at the fore-front to handle day-to-day affairs of Krause India, which will eventually offer full range of their products in Indian Market.
“Having achieved the substantial success out of early installations of Krause CtPs involving all type of models being offered starting from LS 150 to 300 in India, this newly established independent entity shall facilitate further much closer interaction with our existing users and new products,” informed Hortsmann. As of today, Krause has an impressive figure of over 150+ CtP installation base with small, medium and large newspaper setups in India. Their existing range of CtP include Smart’n’Easy with plate producing speed up to 100 pph, LS Jet -350, LS Jet Multiformat -350, XJet -250, BlueFin -350, BlueFin LowChem -350, BlueFin Waterless -300, CTP Easy -150, LS Performance -200 and LS Jet Asia with speed up to 250 pph in newspaper production segment. Krause Biagosch India also has an ambitious plan of inducting quite a few service engineers so as to offer service-on-demand in any part of the country (24x7), and then availability of spares at the shortest possible time will be next priority to be built up. Exploring further on the topic of any plan to set up manufacturing facility in India for CtPs, Hortsmann informed that it can’t be ruled out altogether. At least entry level CtPs shall be of much interest in India with substantial demand coming out from a large number of small and medium size newspapers.
However, putting up a manufacturing plant is also not an easy job. “Since we do believe in ‘total quality’ to much higher level, the requirement of sophisticated and automate plant will have to be evolved. We are open to this idea but shall wait for a while before taking a final decision over this. There is no doubt in our mind about the available scope from India, which has a great future; India is the country with maximum percentage of young generation which shall eventually follow the path of automation in all areas. As it is we do command a very good reputation in respect of all our equipments we produce and as such shall look for step by step progress,” mentioned Hortsmann.
CtP, as equipment, is not as simple as it looks. There are vital components which need to be produced with great precision to make this functional. Slightest flaw can bring in a disaster at the users place if not produced with utmost care using perfectly measured and tested components. Krause, founded 150 years ago has always followed strictly the policy of precision, at par with the country of origin i.e. Switzerland, known for precision watches. Speaking further on the joint venture Hortsmann conveyed his happiness with full confidence with Nargis & Co who have acquired excellent understanding of Indian newspaper industry and with the support available of Krause technology this collaboration shall prove to be one of the finest joint ventures ever created within graphic arts industry.
