We expect the industry to have a strong focus towards sustainability: Sushil Birla of Kwality Chemical

PrintWeek (PW): How has your company and your customers fared throughout 2024? What is your outlook for 2025?

Sushil Birla (SB): The year 2024 has had a bellwether event in Drupa, with its strong focus on packaging. We as a company have narrowed our focus on the various print and after-print effects to cater to this sector. We have thereby seen a steady growth in numbers. We also witnessed the Indian Lok Sabha elections and the push towards being Atmanirbhar bodes well for the future as we expect to have expansion and newer investments in our country which will all have print needs of some sort or other.

PW: Are volumes up?  

SB: Volumes are up and the demand for print has been steadily growing.

PW: How is your company integrating sustainable practices into manufacturing?

SB: We, as a company, are moving away from non-degradable ingredients and insisting on the use of bio-degradable ingredients in our formulations, packaging, etc.

PW: How is your company leveraging emerging technologies, such as automation and AI, to improve efficiency and product quality?

SB: We attempt to follow a lean manufacturing process with efforts to use automation in almost every aspect of the production and supply chain.

PW: What are you showing at PrintPack 2025?

SB: We are exhibiting various speciality inks at PrintPack and want to help increase the adoption of these technologies to offer something new to print buyers.

PW: Looking to the future, what do you see as the key challenges and opportunities for the offset/digital printing industry in the next five years? How is your company preparing to address these challenges and seize these opportunities?

SB: We expect the print industry to have a strong focus towards sustainability and efforts to reduce the carbon footprint. We are working closely with all our customers to implement strategies without affecting print quality, production and price.