With western and established markets for consumer products showing signs of saturation and decreasing growth rates, there is an extensive search for alternate markets that look promising and appear to offer high growth rates in the near future. Markets that are expected to grow include packaged retail products which will drive volumes for packaging and printed products including labels. India, in recent times is being referred to as the economic powerhouse for buying.

 

 

This thought process emanates from the fact that even though India is the second most populous country in the world after China, it is home to the world’s largest youth population. The November 18, 2014 edition of India’s leading newspaper The Economic Times published from a UN report, that there were 356 million 10-24 years old in India as compared to 269 million young people in China. India is projected to be the world’s most populous country by 2025, surpassing China, its population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050. More than 50% of India’s population is below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China. As literacy levels grow, more and more young English speaking people are coming out of schools, colleges and universities seeking employment. These youths which are in employment have disposable incomes and have made the burgeoning middle class a powerful buyer segment driving a huge demand for consumer products. With the advent of widespread television coverage, the effect of ecommerce, growth in communications and mobile telephony, the young Indian population is providing the impetus for retail spending.

 

 

The global suppliers to the label industry have high expectations of the Indian markets and they continue to focus on this area in hope of catering for the expected growth. Labelexpo Europe 2015 was bigger than previous shows, 35789 visitors came to the show as against 31795 in 2013. There were more visitors from India as well; 436 Indians attended the show as against 411 in the previous edition. In an effort to gather the global industry supplier’s opinion about the Indian visitors, I questioned some of the leading exhibitors. Since I visited Labelexpo for the first time some 16 years ago, I have seen the number of Indian visitors grow steadily. While the industry was transforming itself from being predominantly flat-bed letterpress driven printing to rotary intermittent letterpress and then on to rotary flexographic printing, at the same time the Indian economy was opening up and liberalization was making Indians open up their vision and think of expanding and upgrading to global levels. It was because of this state of affairs that they started travelling and visiting international trade shows. The visitors from India started becoming more visible in numbers by the middle of the first decade of the new millennium. It was towards the end of this decade that they were recognized by the suppliers as serious buyers. The focus that had all along been towards China started now drifting to India. “About 436 Indian visitors attended Labelexpo Europe as against 411 in the previous edition of the show.” Traditionally most of the Indians believe in slow and steady growth. I feel the time has almost come when we can accept the global opinion of India becoming the power house of buying but the caution of slow and steady will always apply. One cannot expect the floodgates to open immediately and abruptly.

 

 

Esko was exhibiting new products like the equinox process which allows a printer to fast change the plates while retaining the same inks to achieve the entire gamut of pantone shades with vibrancy in the colours. Shrihari Rao, Sales Director, Esko South Asia, said many Indian printers visited them and were serious and inquisitive to know more about the process. “They are definitely expanding and new presses are moving into the country” he added. Anil Sharma, vice president and managing director of Avery Dennison Materials Group in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, said that Indian printers visiting the premium Brussels show were more focused, more educated and were using this platform to expand their knowledge. They also are exploring ways to improve margins in times of intense competition. However he had a word of caution for growing printers to decrease their dependence on commodity markets and to innovate. They cannot expect Avery or other material suppliers to reduce prices each time there is pressure on margins, “reverse engineering is not the solution” he says. The focus of the Indian printers was evident when I went to the Ritrama stand. They have very little or no presence in the Indian market. When I asked Tomas Rink about Indian visitors, he said, “We haven’t had many visit us”. Unlike the last show where they launched a linerless option; there were no new launches at this edition of the show. Japanese specialty material supplier Lintec who have offices and a slitting facility in India said they had many Indian visitors and found that 75% appeared to be serious buyers.
Jakob Landberg Sales Director Nilpeter says, “The quality of visitors coming from the region has been improving over the years, both in terms of numbers and in their seriousness of doing business. This is also a reflection of the maturity of the Indian label market. India forms a major part of the Asian region which is one of the fastest growing global regions for label consumption.” He further added, “We felt that the quality of visitors to Labelexpo 2015 was an improvement on earlier years”. Nilpeter, have shown their commitment to the Indian growth story my making an investment to build equipment in India. “Indian printers visiting the Brussels show were more focused and educated.”Mike Russell of Mark Andy also felt there were no “tourist visitors” from India this time as in earlier years, the Indians visitors to this show were serious label printers. Gourav Roy also of Mark Andy felt the Indians appeared to be less visible but the important ones were all there. Even though digital printing continues to attract the interest of the printing industry worldwide, the Indian label industry in general is hesitant to make large investments in this segment due to the high cost of equipment and inks. It is interesting to note that they still regard the segment with interest. Many printers were seen perusing the offerings in the digital equipment hall. However some low priced digital equipment attracted many Indian label printers. 

I spent time at the stand of one such company Trojan Label where I saw many leading Indian printers, some ready to buy before some confusion moves in and the decision goes on hold. In the words of Kim-Regin Sustmann, Director Business Development at Trojan, “Labelexpo turned out to be extremely good for Trojan we never expected to create so much interest.” The HP stand also was extremely busy and had a lot of Indian printers. A very interesting response came from release base paper supplier Munksjo. Base paper prices directly impact on the price of self-adhesive label stocks. As pointed out by Anil Sharma of Avery Dennison, our printers were looking for ways to improve margins, so the interest in this company’s offerings was obvious. According to Marco Martinez, Munjsko, “We had many Indian visitors, actually the biggest number from any country, which surprised us!” He further added, “India now appears to be the market for the future”. However most of the visitors to the stand enquired about stock lots and side runs. This confirms the focus of our printers trying to improve margins. Labelstock is the major part of the cost of a label and to remain close and connected to the suppliers, printers ensure that they visit the labelstock stands as a matter of urgency. For this reason, the three main suppliers to the Indian label industry i.e. Avery, Raflatac and SMI had many visits from local printers. All technical and new product information from these suppliers is available locally so it was pointless to spend too much time on these stands..
Leading tooling manufacturers like Rotometrics, Spilker, Kocher + Beck, Lartec, Electro-Optic, etc are well represented by strong and efficient sales agents in India and for this reason they did not get too many Indian visitors. In the words of Raul Silvestre of Lartec, Spain, “I had few visits from India”.

 

 

The Omet stand at this year’s show was extremely busy with a lot of Indian printers. According to Paolo Grasso Sales Manager, “We see more and more Indian printers attending Labelexpo Europe year after year. This time I had the impression that the Indian presence was one of the highest ever. Most of our visitors were definitely seriously looking at investing. It is difficult to say if this market will actually drive global growth because it has a very high growth rate with the fastest growing middle class in the world, yet the numbers need to grow, there is too much caution, hindering growth. The Indian label industry still has a long way to go. Companies need to scale up levels of efficiency to become market drivers. Many times, not due to the way they manage, but often due to the surrounding impact of bureaucracy, “The Indian label industry still has a long way to go.” inefficiency of supporting organizations and lack of required infrastructure delays growth and may take years to fix those aspects, but hopefully this will happen one day soon and India will shine more. By this time entrepreneurs will be highly educated on how to compete on world markets. I still see too many “followers” with the mindset of watching what their competitors are doing rather than to think what they could do best with their strength and conditions. They have the capabilities and need to have faith in themselves and implement decisions. There are also many who’ve learnt how to think out of the box and are taking those “unusual” steps that lead them to become market leaders. One more problem is that price takes precedence over the real value of the solution. This superficial approach to the topics is a deterrent to growth because often what looks cheaper in the beginning later turns out to be the most expensive solution in the long term. It is important to note that when delivering technology, it is impossible for any equipment manufacturer to create and deliver innovation without any profit.

 

 

 

Every two years when it gets closer to Labelexpo in Brussels, excitement builds up amongst members of the global narrow web label fraternity. Printers start looking forward to meet peers in the industry across the globe as also to witness suppliers and machine builders showcasing the developments that they have done in the preceding two years. It is a time to learn, update, network and party. The evenings in Grand Place, in the heart of Brussels is a place where many a relationships are renewed and friends who have moved on within the industry get reunited by chance, on the streets. One can see the pleasures of reconnecting with old friends and getting updated on work and contact details. Labelexpo Europe is recognized as the largest label event in the world attracting decision makers from the finest of label printing companies. The last edition of the show was the largest so far in its 35 year history and this one is expected to be bigger. 31795 visitors attended the 2013 edition which was over 11% more than the 2011 show. Visitors came from 158 countries and the show was spread over in seven halls covering a floor space admeasuring 31000 square meters. The number of exhibitors also grew to almost 600 up from 550 in the last event, demonstrating the confidence level of exhibitors and the importance of this show. To assess the take of Indian label printers on this event, I interacted with more than 20 printers in all zones of India. Surprisingly all except one confirmed that they will be visiting this show and the one who is not going wished he could go but was being held back due to personal reasons. So ethically almost hundred percent of printers who responded to my questionnaire emphasize the importance of this show and are expected to visit Labelexpo Europe this year.  Interestingly all the persons interviewed by me are business owners and purchasing decision makers. Indian label industry is dominated by family owned businesses and the owners travelling to Brussels, demonstrates the importance of this event amongst Indians. This is despite the fact that there is a Labelexpo India every alternate year!

“It is the Mecca of Label Printing Industry”
 
In the western world, exhibitions have for decades been the places where business people would visit to witness exhibits and make their purchase decisions, yet Indians were traditionally used to calling sales persons to their workplaces and then take decisions. It was in 1972 that India’s prime 153 acres exhibition facility “Pragati Maidan” was set up in New Delhi,but it took more than a decade before the culture of visiting exhibitions caught on, somewhere in the mid 1980s. However still travelling to foreign lands to visit shows was still a taboo. It was in the mid 1990s after the advent of liberalization of economy that people actually started to travel to visit exhibitions and make purchase decisions. When I asked the printers about how many times they have visited Labelexpo Europe, two of the label industry stalwarts Amar Chhajed of Webtech Mumbai and Gururaj Ballarwad of Wintek Bangalore stated, they had visited every edition of the show since 1999. The 2015 edition will betheir 9th time at the Brussels show. I too have visited every edition of the show since 1999 but then that as a material supplier. It is interesting to note here that both Amar and Gururaj have either sold majority stake in their company or have been fully acquired by multinational companies Huhtamaki and ITW respectively. Wintek acquired by ITW has subsequently become a Signode group company. Anurag Mohan of Interact at Kolkata in the East of India will be a first time visitor at Brussels who has been following Labelexpo for the last 6-8 years on the internet. All the others have visited multiple times. Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director of New Delhi based Syndicate labels will definitely visit because he says, “it is a must visit for every serious label printer”. Jigesh Dani of Maharshi Labels in Ahmedabad in the west of India feels, “It is the Mecca of Label Printing Industry”. 

 
The success of any business exhibition is measured by the amount of focused visitors it attracts and eventually the amount of business enquiries it generates.  In shows like Labelexpo Europe the press manufacturers form the mainstay of the show and all other suppliers of materials, toolings, inspection systems, allied equipments, etc, complement the exhibition to become a complete show. We are used to hearing announcements of the overwhelming number of label presses sold at the show! Labelexpo is an event that is of extreme importance, there is a lot work done between two editions of the show. No one walks into a stand at a show and impulsively buys a million plus Euro Label Press impulsively! After all it is not a fancy car; whereby hundreds and thousands of similar models are running on roads triggering off a me-too feel.These Label presses are equipment that are supposed to print labels, deliver quality as demanded by customers and generate revenue for a business enterprise. In actual a lot of work has gone in by press manufacturers in the preceding two years culminating in the exhibition becoming a perfect platform for printers to witness the latest developments, negotiate a price valid at the fair and announce the sale. Last but not the least enquiry generation at the show brings in work for the sales team, till they reach the next show. It is an important fact to understand if printers are going to exercise or initiate purchase decision at Brussels. In response to my questions, many printers said they had made purchase decisions at previous shows but when asked whether they will make purchase decision at this show, they are non committal. Only three out of the 20 said they will make purchase decision, I am sure evaluation has preceded the decision to buy at the show. Most of them say they will visit the event to learn and evaluate new technological developments taking place in the world. Young Hemanth Paruchuri of Pragati Pack Hyderabad wants to learn and evaluate upcoming technologies so as to plan future investments. He is curious to learn how LED UV is shaping up. Raveendran from Seljegat in Sivakasi in South India is as always looking for something new that he can bring to the Indian markets and is confident he will make purchases at the show. 
  Sandeep Zaveri of Total Print Mumbai feels it is so convenient to evaluate a range of consumables, toolings and ancillary supplies at just one place. Sudhir Jain of Jain Transfer Products based in NOIDA, on the outskirts of Delhi says, “I will visit Labelexpo Europe to look at new developments in label printing and converting technologies by international exhibitors.”I asked printers, “It is said this show is a complete label event and the best in class, do you agree? Your comments” The response was unanimous, YES! Heman Vasa of Unick Fix-a-Form based in Ahmedabad said,” Yes, it is very informative and knowledge imparting”. Ramesh Deshpande of Renu Prints in Aurangabad says it is a great event. Manish Hansoti from S. Kumar Multi Products Pvt.Ltd.Ahmedabad feels it is a must visit event because manufacturers are putting their best and new futuristic machinery at the show. It time to know what new is happening in the industry. 

Each exhibition has a target visitor base,depending on which the exhibitors are selected and the show is built.  It is an interesting story that in the first “India Labelshow” which was later acquired by Tarsus and renamed Labelexpo India, I was requested by my friend Anil Arora, the founder of that show to help promote the show. Since my customer base was label printers I went about along with Anil requesting all of them to participate. Surprisingly many agreed and we had a lot of leading label printers exhibiting at the first edition of a highly successful India Label show at Nehru Centre in Mumbai in the year 2002. It was on reviewing after the show that we realized, label printers should be visitors at this show. Simple logic was that suppliers and buyers cannot be exhibitors at the same show!  Exhibitions like Labelexpo are meant to cater to requirements of label printers.So it is a good launchpad also for newer substrates for printing and converting as substrates form the major part of a label. From my survey it is evident that substrates are not really the reason for which printers invest in travelling to this show. However most of them feel that it is of interest; since they are there at the show, they would also like to learn about new substrates and coatings to enhance the decoration of labels that they produce. Otherwise the world’s finest substrate suppliers are just a call away. As I said earlier Label presses by far remain the prime interest of the visitors at this event. The evolving trend of combination presses employing various printing and converting processes in a single pass, has been observed as the most important interest of all the printers who responded to my questions. Investment in digital printing equipment still remains largely on hold, due to a cautious approach in an otherwise extremely competitive scenario. I wrote in a recent article that large scale indulgence in Digital has to wait a while. Only two out of all the companies who responded have already made some investments in Digital printing. As for 3D Printing and laser printing or converting; it remains only a matter of observing advances made and learning how it is done with a big NO as regards investing, as of now.

 
In 2005 my company Weldon Celloplast Limited was the only Indian exhibitor at Labelexpo in Brussels and have continuously exhibited each year until the last edition in 2013. A decade down the line, for the 2015 edition at Brussels the number of Indian exhibitors have grown to 14. I interacted with three of the Indian exhibitors all of who are exhibiting a third time at this venue. India’s largest hologram producer Holostik Limited, even though they are label manufacturers as well, yet they continue to exhibit repeatedly. They are a satisfied exhibitor who will showcase their entire range. Says U K Gupta, Managing Director of Holostik, “We have generated many leads at previous Labelexpo exhibitions that have been converted to business.” When asked about their quality as compared to European standards, he adds, “We have always been confident about our products and their prices. We follow high manufacturing and quality standards.”  
  Label press manufacturer Multitec has the credit for bringing India on the global market as regards label presses is concerned. Amit Ahuja is excited about his third showing in Brussels, “We are exhibiting our VSi press with some modifications. We would have loved to take our full servo press to the show but it did not match the timing. The VSi press is sold to a customer in Africa and will be dispatched to them from the show.”  When asked about experience, problems faced and appreciation, he responds, “Past experience has been good. The show in 2011 was our debut show and we just wanted to get our name and brand registered in the mind of the printers. In 2013, they recognised us and took us seriously. Like advertising, repeated "in-your-face" interactions cement the brand image in a buyer's mind and that is what we are trying to achieve. Having said that, the cost of exhibitions is going north and it looks to be a difficult road ahead” The largest amongst Indian labelstock manufacturers SMI Coated Papers also continues to return to this show expressing confidence in the exhibition Managing Director Ajay Mehta says, “We have had a fantastic experience at earlier shows and this is reflected in our decision to participate again. Besides being a great platform for meeting all existing friends from the industry, Labelexpo does invariably help us in getting new customers.”

Impact of self adhesive label waste continues to impact the environment. While positive steps are visible in Europe and US to reduce the adverse effect of this waste generation. Indian label industry is still not really attempting to address this issue in the right earnest. If some constituents of the industry are taking steps, they are too little and need more indulgence. All the respondents to my questions do agree that this problem needs attention and they are desirous of attending to it but I guess cost of equipment needed to manage waste is prohibitive. Moreover at this time the industry is looking at managing waste not recycling it, which should be the target to contribute to protecting the environment.

Rajesh Nema of Pragati Global based in Indore, will visit Labelexpo a 5^th time for learning about new upcoming technologies but does feel that the show should be moved to some other venue as this has become too monotonous. This has been earlier expressed by others as well. However my personal opinion is that this is not so simple. Shows are generally linked to cities and venues. Also when the show has been successfully established so painstakingly it can be a big risk to shift it, more so when it is still growing. In fact we should enjoy the show as it is where it is! Senior label printers like Gururaj Ballarwad who has been visiting all editions of Labelexpo since 1998  looks forward to this event in Brussels with euphoria, he says,  “All these years I have made so many friends globally, I am looking forward to seeing them”.  India’s fast growing label printer Sanjeev Sondhi of Zircon Technologies says “Expectation to visit Labelexpo in Brussels is pleasurable. It also empowers one to get new knowledge, how to create a difference and to be a more profitable company employing new technology. I am looking forward to a paradigm shift, a new way to printing and converting, not just mere up gradation of existing ways of doing things.”