Spread in a 3,000 sq/ft area, the demo centre is equipped with wide format printers, plotters and cutters, having 10 equipment in total.

Next in the line is a textile lab in Mumbai and may be a demo centre in southern region later.

Tomohiro Ikeda, managing director, Mimaki India, said, “We are thankful to the Indian market. The Indian customers have accepted us. So far, we have more than 1,000 customers and we have sold more than 150 equipment (printers and cutting plotters) since October 2015.”

The company’s product range is divided into three segments – sign and graphics, industrial printing and textile and apparel. Ikeda said the company has a big portfolio for all three segments and is hopeful of further growth in India.

Mandaar Nalawade, director, Mimaki India, said, “We have joined hands with four companies to distribute our products. This partnership is a result of their reach, approach and geographies.”

New Delhi-based Insight Communications is responsible for the textile and apparel and industrial printing segments for northern and western regions. Chennai-headquartered Monotech Systems is responsible for all three segments for entire southern and eastern region of the country. New Delhi-based Angel India Cad Cam is responsible for sign and graphics and industrial printing for northern part of the country and cutting plotters for entire country. Mumbai-based Silicon Infotech is responsible for sign and graphics and industrial printing segment for western region.

“Mimaki India will not sell its equipment directly except few high-end machines. However, our representatives will provide after-sales services for the installed machines. We are here to support our representatives if have any problems. We have a technical team from Japan to support our partners,” Nalawade added.

Nalawade said the company uses printheads from internationally renowned companies like Kyocera, Epson, Ricoh and Panasonic. Use of printing heads in a particular machine depends on the configuration of the machine and its use.

Meanwhile, the company is looking at a solid growth, may be 20% to 30% or even more, in industrial printing. However, Ikeda was aware that the company would have to catch up with the market.

As of now, Japan is the biggest market for the company, followed by Europe, Africa, Asia Oceania, Australia, China, North America, including Brazil.

Mimaki India is led by Tomohiro Ikeda, managing director, Mimaki India and Mandaar Nalawade, director, Mimaki India. Ikeda has a rich experience of technical knowhow and Nalawade comes from sales background. The team has total 15 people.

Nalawade said among the 150 equipment sold since October last year, 30 are textile printers. Now, Mimaki wants to install 250 units from all three segments in current financial year and grab 25% market share. “We may establish a manufacturing plant here, but it’s in the future. It will depend on the response we will receive from the market.”