Change in technology must be driven by the customer's needs: Rishab Kohli

What were the new services and technological innovations introduced by your R&D department in the last two years?

We have invested tremendously and innovated our own UV-based inkjet ink delivery system, water-based inkjet ink delivery system, and fully made-in-India inkjet machines that are both water and UV-based. Additionally, we have printed food-safe packaging jobs on our water-based inkjet machines at 1200-dpi.

On the flexo side, we have innovated sleeve-based technology and our brand-new zero-backlash technology for machines, which allows our presses to be among the fastest and most accurate without any gear marks or registration issues.

The label market in India has grown in recent years because of the increasing demand for labels across various products. The label printing industry in India is valued at USD 2.3-billion and is expected to increase to USD 3.6-billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.3%. The per capita consumption of labels in India has grown from 0.25-square metres (sqm) in 2008 to around one-sqm in 2023. What is your prediction for the label industry in 2024 and beyond? 

According to our market research team, the label industry in India is to grow at 8% CAGR in 2025. In accordance with the Pira reports, we are seeing label inkjet machines grow at double-digit CAGR numbers. We expect flexo to grow quickly as well due to the increase in demands and shift from rotogravure.

The sectors driving growth in labels are food and beverages (55%), cosmetics and personal care (17%), home care (15%), eCommerce (10%), and chemicals (3%).  What are the key factors contributing to the significant growth of labels in the food and beverages sector?, How is the label printing industry in India gearing up to meet this growing demand?

Of course, the rising consumerism in India, eCommerce, and our bustling economy are leading the drive for growth in labels which we all have to cater to. In terms of the industry on our side, we are creating world-class machines in India and democratising high-speed flexo presses and inkjet presses for the label industry so the country has a high-quality supplier for these machines and so it does not have to rely on imports for these equipment.

Label production comprises pressure-sensitive labels (70%), shrink and stretch sleeve labels (12%), wet glue labels (10%), and in-mould labels (8%) and is manufactured by around 700 label printers that run one or more six — to eight-station flexo presses. There are about 1,800 flexo presses, 40 of which were installed in 2023. Similarly, there are 77 digital presses, 37 of which were installed in 2023, and one hybrid press (Gallus Labelfire) installed in 2023. What are the key factors driving the increasing installation of digital and hybrid presses in label production, and how do they compare to the traditional flexo presses in terms of efficiency and quality?

As mentioned earlier, we are the only Indian company that fully manufactures both inkjet and flexo presses in-house in India with our own technology. Our key insight on this is that the change in technology must be driven by the customer's needs. In terms of efficiency and quality, depending on your job size, machine configuration, and human resource capability either of these presses can be a better fit for you. Our team of specialists and application engineers is trained to guide customers as to which technology best suits their needs so we are in an ideal position to serve this market.

According to WhatPackaging? magazine, the flexible packaging market in India was valued at USD 8.4-billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 12.3-billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.0%. Gravure continues to dominate. However, in the last five years, we have seen a linear growth of CI flexo machines. This has translated into approximately 15 CI flexo presses being installed every year. Experts opine that the key to investment is CI flexo's sustainability quotient compared to other processes. With flexible packaging runs becoming shorter, do you see technologies such as CI flexo and digital gaining popularity in the Indian market?

While we do see the digital gaining ground, our view is that mid-web and wide-web flexos with sleeve technology will be a better choice as compared to CI. Our position is that india will follow a similar direction to America where people have shifted from gravure to mid-web flexo and digital presses rather than CI as CI doesn’t have good ROIs and is a heavy investment in terms of money, space, and manpower. Inline flexo and digital have lower capex, opex, manpower costs, space requirements, quicker job changes, more inline functions, and are more flexible. This makes these technologies ideal to invest in now.  

However, gravure printers attempting to use flexo presses have stated that it is challenging to replicate the quality of gravure samples on flexo. Furthermore, when they are successful in doing so, brands expect their other converter suppliers to achieve the same level of quality using flexo, which may not always be feasible. Given this situation, how can printers expand their capabilities with flexo and other emerging technologies?

An advice we give all our printers is to automate their press. Be it our Orient X-Press flex press, or our orientjet press or one of our hybrid presses. When configuring your press please look at automation seriously and invest in it as long term the ROIs are much better and the quality of your product is excellent even in comparison to gravure or any other roll-to-roll print technology out there.

Today, the mono-carton packaging segment is valued at USD 2.4-billion and is expected to reach USD 4.1-billion by 2025, a CAGR of 9.7%. The market is highly fragmented, with a large number of players across the country. The industry comprises around 3,300 units, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounting for a significant share of the market. While the offset process is deployed for producing mono-cartons, an industry roundtable discussion revealed that narrow-web flexo was also used. Among the users were reputed players such as Pragati Pack, ITek, Zircon Technologies, and Any Graphics. Do you expect this trend to gain speed?

Our orient X-Press flex with sleeve technology is ideal for these runs. The issue with mono cartons is that they may need a wider size machine to handle the paper grammage and run lengths. Currently, no one in India has a flexo machine at a mid/wide width with sleeve technology outside of us. With this press, we will be able to serve the mono-carton market a lot better and hope that the trend from offset to flexo catches on with mid-web and wide-web presses too.

How are the companies that are primarily into export/import dealing with continuous disruptions caused due to war in several regions? The disruptions have often led to rapid price fluctuation and delays in the transport of goods. Your comments?

This has, of course, been an issue and is all the more reason to make machinery and build capabilities in India itself. Customers face continuous price fluctuations, issues with servicing, lack of supply of spares, visa issues, etc with foreign imports and making machinery in India is the key to combat this.

When innovative solutions are being implemented, converters require capital investments. Some converters are willing to make this investment only if there is an end-user on the other side prepared to commit to assisting them in justifying the investment. It's a three-party scenario: we possess the technology, we require the brand to generate interest, and then the converters will respond. What strategies can be employed to ensure that both the technology and the brand are effectively aligned to attract and engage converters in the three-party scenario?

The responsibility must fall with the manufacturer. What we have done is invest in demo sites so the converter can bring his customer to see the machine and end result at our locations where we have invested capital and then the converter is able to get the orders for said technology. It is our role as manufacturers to aid our customers and help them advance in whatever field they are in.

You have interactions with customers in different parts of the world. What are the top challenges the Indian label industry faces?
The lack of domestic manufacturing for machinery by MNCs like ourselves is a big issue. Currently, the only Indian manufacturers in the field of label printing machines in India are MSMEs and they are few. That can be a huge issue in capital goods leading to high levels of imports which is what definitely we hope to replace in the coming years.

Sustainability involves decisions made in daily life and business. The actions we take, or choose not to take, today, will significantly affect our environment in the future. How do you think businesses can incorporate sustainability into their operations?

Orient as a company is not only in the machinery field but in other areas of engineering as well. We are one of the biggest manufacturers of solar panels in India. We are offering our customers huge discounts on solar power generating systems if they buy our machinery which is one way every converter can promote sustainability and save money in their factory.

In the food industry, designers and printers encounter a new obstacle related to the limited space available for labels. Global health and safety regulations will necessitate additional space on labels. What strategies are designers and printers in the food sector considering to address the challenge of limited space on labels while meeting international health and safety legislation requirements?

We have innovated our water-based food-safe digital inkjet packaging machine with 1200-dpi resolution. This will be key in the future to keep up with regulations.

Manufacturing at Orient

Worldwide industry boldly focuses on robotics and automation of production processes. Do you see the Indian label and packaging industry also being part of a trend of 4.0 Industry and investing in the latest technology? What is the time frame you see?

At Orient, we have different manufacturing from machinery to chemicals to solar modules and all of our factories are completely industry 5.0-based. This means our ERP systems are interacting with our human workforce with active AI creating smart machine shops and assembly systems. Technologies are available now and are not as expensive as one would assume and have incredible ROI. Any smart business will employ this ASAP as the time frame is now.

What advancements are you making to reduce setup times and minimise waste in flexo printing?

Our digital printing machine has hardly any setup time. For flexo, we are promoting automation, dual servo-based machinery, zero backlash technology, all of which lead to a much smoother setup time and little to no waste due to automation. Additionally, all our machines are not only accompanied by service engineers for installation but also application engineers to help the customer run the press.

What solutions do you offer for short-run jobs to compete with digital printing?

We manufacture digital presses and hybrid presses ourselves.

Is there a demand for your presses in other countries and how different is the buying cycle/process? How do you set yourself apart (also in terms of pricing?) from Chinese presses?

We are a 50% export company in the machine business so it is our quality of machinery, ability to service, and use of newer and better technology that allows us to compete. Very rarely are we competing with Chinese companies, it is more the Europeans that we compete with for our projects.

For International players: With Indian/Chinese presses gaining popularity, what's the differentiation you offer to customers? Has this impacted your sales? Do we have fewer Western presses entering India than before and how does this impact your regional plans?

Our USPs in flexo include sleeve technology, zero-backlash technology, and the highest speed of any India-made press in the market. In digital we offer a fully customised press with lower opex due to our own Orientjet ink delivery technology and lower costs per print as compared to any foreign brand out there. This gives us a huge edge in the market and allows us to compete with any company in the world.   

There are a number of Indian companies making good basic quality flexo presses, given this scenario, do you foresee a big shift to domestic sourcing versus costly forex-draining import options for plain jane/straight line presses?

Absolutely, this needs to happen. As a company making both flexo and digital presses in India our group is keen on the possibilities of this segment and hopes it will continue to grow and we can be a key part of the growth story.

Is UV LED now the standard for flexo UV?

Absolutely, it is key.