Paper Bind divests, shifts HQ to Singapore, and gets pro-active

This includes 46 units of PUR Binders (System 444/444 Plus), which has been redefining the format of book binding and 23 installs of ProTopic, which delivers a professional finish to digital print with BOPP and polyester films.

Mehta showed an array of samples, and said, "This machine is ideal for commercial printers, digital copy shops or print houses demanding a machine to complete laminating jobs quickly or for those print media specialists dealing with book covers, file covers, postcards and pamphlets."

The samples indicated that the kit is perfect for embossing or laminating digital print media.

Interestingly, First Paper Idea has shifted it’s headquarters from Gurgaon to Singapore as a result of divesting 30% of its stock holdings. This has yielded good results since the valuation was "very healthy." Mehta added, "The company is cash-rich and there are many plans up the First Paper Idea Bind sleeve."

Mehta, states, "We intend to add more ‘feet on street’ mainly for the Middle East and Asian markets, where we want to build up the channel sales.”

Today, First Paper Idea, the Indian reseller for Paper Bind products, is adding to their sales and services teams considerably, on a pan-India level. With the Mumbai office already operational, Chennai and Bengaluru sales offices are in the pipeline and will be up and running by end of Q2 2014.

Mehta says, "This will further empower our service offices already existing in these cities. The company has lined up six roadshows in India: Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kerala, Hyderabad and Kolkata to showcase the range of Paper Bind products. Plus, the company will showcase the products at Print Pack 2015 to be held in February 2015.

SriraamSelvam (SS): You have shifted headquarters to Singapore. Please tell us about the new entity?
Anuj Mehta (AM): First Paper Idea India Pvt. Ltd. (FPIIPL) was founded in 2009 as a software development and marketing consulting company. Paper Bind was an offshoot of FPIIPL that came into being in early 2010.

Post the investment in Paper Bind, it’s an independent entity based in Singapore. FPIIPL continues to sell the current range of print finishing products of Paper Bind while also foraying in other verticals. The Paper Bind headquarters in Singapore has the objective of expanding operations globally by looking at different markets around the Asia, MEA & ANZ to start with.

SS: For a start, almost no new entrepreneurs, except couple of start-‐ups in India, have made serious money to challenge the powerful concentrations of wealth. As they say the "past devours the future". In this sense, how easy or onerous has been your journey thus far?
AM: Looking back, it hasn’t been a turbulent sailing for Paper Bind ever. The company started with an excellent market experience of 11 years as a strong backing.

Within two to three years of starting up, it was able to create products that the market was hungry for without any financial liabilities. This had its own repercussions though and the pinch was felt when there was need to scale the business. The team could not operate at its speed of thought and add infrastructure or sales force and entering new markets when absolutely necessary.

Along the way, several Venture Capitalists were contacted. An excellent valuation of Paper Bind led a venture capitalist with prior experience in the line of business to offer good monetary aid. Henceforth, Paper Bind was setup as an independent entity, which then bought some of the suppliers out. This helped Paper Bind beat its existing prices and add on to the market share.

SS: What would you say has been a key contributor to this journey for Paper Bind?
AM: It has been my strong roots in the market that dates back to his job tenure at HP and Kodak.

SS: With the advent of digital, has the inequality gap in technology grown smaller as print firms in smaller cities develop and become sophisticated?
AM: Till sometime back, it could be said that innovation is a driver of inequality because it increases the incomes of those most able to take advantage of it. But today, as innovation presses the pedal and makes state‐of‐the‐art printing technology economically viable for printers of all capacities across the world, the inequality gap is gradually diminishing.

SS: Define digital innovation?
AM: Digital innovation now is all about creation of new products that can be best leveraged by everyone.

SS: You have had a stint with HP and then developed a market on your own in primarily a digital space. The question is: in all these years has digital improved the life of everyone? From people on the floor to the end users?
AM: About less than a decade ago there used be only offset printing or there was photocopying. Gradually came in colour printing which used to be expensive. Only since it got affordable are the end users really experiencing the magic of colour printing which has instigated the element of personlisation and innovation for them.

The ‘Print for pay’ has translated to ‘Pay for Print’ where the end user is no more forced to get a minimum of 1000 copies printed even if he needed just 10! Need‐based buying is really the name of the game today. This has helped the media companies to innovate and personalize their communication and releasing unique versions for unique targets. Speaking of which, another vertical that is really enjoying the personal touch of digital printing is ‘Wedding Albums’. What used to be limited to a photo paper is now seen as a reflection of people’s emotions, making the opportunity basket much larger than before both for end users as well as printers.

SS: Does digital remain a price driven market?
AM: The printing technology that used to be driven by price earlier has now paved way for innovation and services to become the key drivers. For the printers or people on the floor, digital printing has changed their world by drastically improving the work environment with highly compact, automated and easy‐to‐use machines which reduce manual effort.

The environment conscious print machines use less power and help the printers avoid having colour all over their hands, giving them a cleaner richer experience.

SS: Please update us about your post‐press kit; especially PUR kit?
AM: Out of the plethora of post--‐press products that Paper Bind offers for cutting, digital creasing, binding, lamination, folding, adhesive coating and foiling, one of its binding products under spotlight is the PUR Binder. With the NPS patented system at its core, these machines offer unmatched features, enabling significant savings in power, time and PUR cost.

SS: 46 installations in two years?
AM: Looking at the significantly high penetration that PUR Binder has made for itself, Paper Bind is constantly looking to upscale these machines. The latest from the company includes a 350 cycles per hour version of the PUR Binder which is one‐up on the earlier 200 cycles per hour version. This enhancement allows the customer to have larger print runs owing to higher duty cycles being possible.

Paper Bind now offers a leasing option exclusively for the PUR binder with a comprehensive warranty for up to 3 years and an upfront payment of only two month rental. Another significant move made by Paper Bind is the launch of its own PUR adhesive. By using this adhesive the customer can drastically bring down the cost of printing as compared to the existing hot melt binding with the quality being better if not equivalent.

Having installed 46 PUR Binders in India alone in less than two years with two ongoing installations in Mumbai, things are certainly looking up for Paper Bind.

SS: An update on your alliance with GMP?
AM: GMP is a leading lamination solution provider servicing a global landscape. Paper Bind has an exclusive alliance with GMP and the two companies have together brought to the printing ecosystem, spot lamination technology in gloss, matt, holographic and metallic printing effects with six stunning textures that can be added to the gloss/matt lamination.

GMP has recently introduced the complete automatic line of single and double sided laminators with inline texturing and bursting. This allows the customer to have a production speed of between 15 to 40 metres a minute with fully automatic feeding, lamination and bursting and giving them a relief from having a fleet of manpower requirement to single man operations and at the same time offering a significant electrical saving as these machines use only 3.5 KW of house power.

These extremely reliable products are manufactured in Korea. Paper Bind has sold 23 of these laminators in India already out of which Protopic 540 Dual and Protopic Auto were sold the best. Paper Bind is targeting commercial and digital printers with these machines, going forward.

SS: Your plans for 2014? Especially with Dscoop?
AM: Paper Bind is looking at a deeper penetration in the Asian markets while emerging as an innovative and aggressive entrant for the markets outside of Asia. The countries being eyed are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, Middle East and Africa. The first leg of our activity is Dscoop to be held in Bali, this June.

Dscoop is a user forum of HP Indigo users that connects over 1000 existing industry specialists who seek newer technologies and business best practices. Paper Bind looks forward to showcasing its technology merits to them through Dscoop. Three more shows are lined up for 2014 for increased visibility in the international markets.