Epson relaunches SurePress range in India

Epson has started preliminary activities to relaunch its successful SurePress digital label press in the Indian market.

 

Vasudevan, General Manager - Large Format Printers/Industrial Equipment says: ‘Even though we were not directly present in the market for the last few years, we were getting enquiries for our label press. We have now relaunch these products in the Indian market, and we are confident that we will get a positive response from the market.’

 

He adds that the adaptation from analog to digital technology for labels has been slow in India, despite India being a big market in companies to other western countries such as Europe and US where label converters are actively adopting digital technologies.

 

‘In India, the label printing cost is extremely important. Converters prefer to use analog presses to compete on pricing deterring the adoption of digital technologies. When we had launched the printers earlier in 2014, we were ahead of time in the market, but still we managed to sell these digital presses in India. We realized that the market was not fully ready for adapting to new technologies then.'

 

Another reason for discontinuing the products was converters were comparing digital productivity with analog.

 

‘Earlier we just had one model to offer and its productivity was not comparable with analog presses. Even the customers expectation was the printing speed to be at least 45-50mts/min. With the launch of the new product – the Epson SurePress L-6534VW, we should be able to meet customers’ expectations on productivity,’ Vasudevan says.

 

The company has started its promotional activities including reaching out to customers to assess their requirements and showcasing how digital can support their existing setup.

 

Satyanarayana, Director - Visual products and Robots, Epson India says: ‘We have started speaking to the customers. We are also in the process of rebuilding our ground-level activities to reach out to new customers. We will be actively present in the market by the end of this quarter. We expect the sales to begin starting from this year.’

 

Epson has built a new demo center in Japan in May 2022 equipped with its latest SurePress label printer.

 

'The potential customers are taken to the Japan to visit the demo center for a product demo and those unable to travel are provide an option of the virtual demo. When customers request for print samples, we arrange the same from our demo center in Japan. As we progress, we could tie up with one customer in India and set-up a demonstration center in the future,’ Satyanarayana explains.

 

The company will primarily sell the label press directly to end customers and are also open to partnering with distributors.

 

Vasudevan says that label converters in India are happy with their current analog presses. Epson intends to show how digital presses can offer value-added services and business expansion opportunities to customers.

 

‘We will attempt to identify the unproductive process in the current analogue label printing set-up at the customers place and suggest how they can be improve efficiency by adding with digital print machines along with analog machines. Our whole idea is to create a model where both analog and digital printers work parallelly thus improve efficiency and profits analog to the customers.’

 

Primarily aimed at short-run jobs and variable data printing, digital presses can support new start-up brands to connect and engage with customers.

 

‘If a brand wants to run a campaign for high customer engagement, then digital presses can play a major role in that. It can also help start-up brands to conduct market research and test their products in certain demography,’ Vasudevan explains.

 

For example, brands could produce limited edition and customizable products targeting a individual cities and markets. Such campaigns help them understand what products are preferred by customers and perform well. With digital printing, brands can make these products available in the market in a short span of time.

 

‘I want to encourage customers to use digital machines along with analog printers. We don’t expect them to move away from analog but co-exist so that they can improve efficiency & provide customized solutions to their customers. It gives them the freedom to accept all kinds of jobs, both from take short and long-run jobs from their clients. The idea is to increase the awareness the benefits of digital printing and how it can add value to the existing lineup,’ Vasudevan highlights.

 

Satyanarayana concludes even today some of the Epson customers have been using our product for the last 5-8 years which implies reliability of the machine.

 

Epson is committed to co-creating sustainable and enriched communities by addressing solutions to environmental problems and other societal issues. This commitment is aligned with the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations.

 

‘By 2030, we aim to achieve sustainability in a circular economy and advance the frontiers of the industry through creative and open innovation.”