President Speak: Navin Kotadia

Congratulations on your recent election as the president of RPPA.
Thank you. It’s been three months since the new core team took over. We’ve entered the second term of RPPA, and we have a strong core team of printers working effectively.

What’s the latest update on your association?
Our association, comprising over 106 members from diverse sectors like trading, printing, packaging, and design, is focused on addressing community and market changes. Our members work for direct clients as well as take job works from designers who design print material and packaging.

There is also another association in Rajkot, the Commercial Printers Association, with offset printers, screen printers and freelancers, and designers as members. It’s an association which began in 2007 but isn’t as active as an association should be. RPPA was established in 2017 with an agenda to work cohesively, bringing technological trends and market developments in the printing arena to the knowledge of the association members as well as sales-driven conversations.

We hold technical board meetings to discuss MSME schemes and act as a mediator between the government and industry. Additionally, we use a WhatsApp group to share technical information through PDFs and videos.

What are your current focus areas for improving the community?
We are working on supporting lower-level businesses, particularly second-generation printers, by fostering face-to-face interactions and awareness. It’s crucial to enhance market reputation and value through effective packaging.

We hold technical board meetings to discuss MSME schemes and act as a mediator between the government and industry. Our goal is to share information on the benefits of these schemes, and how best they can be implemented.

Additionally, most of our members are second-generation businessmen, so they use a WhatsApp group to share technical information through PDFs and videos. We also have many designers, especially freelancers working in B2B, whose talents we want to leverage. While our printer members deliver quality, our current focus is on driving innovation.

In November-December 2024, we are planning to host a conference, which will have knowledge sessions as well as networking opportunities.

What are your thoughts on partnerships between printers?
It is crucial, as combining expertise from different fields can lead to successful collaborations. We aim to expand infrastructure, manpower, and technology through these partnerships. RPPA encourages a collaborative business concept, which I think is key to reducing competition and enhancing innovation, provided we maintain a better structure and mindset, even if the platforms differ. To give you an example: We have a membership of 106. If individually we compete, each one will have 105 competitors. If three members with different expertise and strengths collaborate, the competition is down to just 30.

How do you manage price pressure?
Price pressure varies across different categories and client requirements. The reason is that each print service provider has his unique strengths, it may be the ability to print quickly, or use its post-press strength to create an innovative box. The question of price pressure does not arise. Industries such as hardware foundries, kitchenware, and automobiles are driving its economy. There is neighbouring Jetpur, another industrial hub, and of course, Morbi, which is 60-km away from Rajkot. All these industries are driving the demand for print and packaging. With a growing market, there’s space for everyone.

What’s Rajkot print service provider USP?
Our USP is centred on packaging, but we also handle a significant amount of commercial work.

Unfortunately, Rajkot’s print and packaging industry has still not emerged from the shadows of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, despite the kind of quality it produces. You will be surprised, that there are many award-winning print and packaging jobs, which get their finishing touches in Rajkot.

Did your association members travel to Drupa?
Yes, our association partnered with a travel and tour company and flew 22 members to Drupa.

What feedback did you receive from Drupa?
The feedback was positive, with many discussions focused on digitalisation and gravure flexibles.

What is the trend you observed at Drupa?
We observed that the print and packaging market is booming, especially with a significant rise in demand for labels. This underscores the growing need for automation/digitalisation, flexo, and labelling solutions.

What is the distribution of printer sizes in Rajkot?
Rajkot is a hub for the print and packaging industry, boasting around 200 firms. The top 10 companies have a turnover ranging from Rs 25- to Rs 30-crore, positioning them as large print and converting firms with over two multi-colour presses.

Additionally, approximately 40 firms with turnovers between Rs five- and Rs 10-crore are equipped with one or more four-colour presses.  Furthermore, there’s a cluster of about 50 small print and converting firms with either two-colour or single-colour presses and a turnover of under Rs three to Rs five-crore. Moreover, around 100 screen printers and designers have turnovers in the Rs 1-crore range. The designers depend on the print-packaging converters and screen printers to actualize their designs.

How many four-colour printers are there in Rajkot?
There are approximately 400 four-colour printers in Rajkot. Around 10% are new, while the rest are older, established ones.

What is Rajkot known for that others might not be aware of?
Gujarat is renowned for its high-quality micro embossing jobs, which is a unique strength in the region.

What are the upcoming targets for your association?
Our targets include increasing membership with a focus on quality, advancing technology and professionalism, and shifting traditional mindsets to more professional approaches. We also plan to set up a system with scheduled meetings on specific topics and trending conversations.