Pratham braces up to tap overseas markets

Pratham Technologies chairman, Datta Deshpande informed PrintWeek India that the company had sold folding kit to seven customers in India during the six days of the show.

This includes Pex Print, Haryana; Paramount Art Printers, Bhiwandi; Capmed Pharmaceuticals, Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh; Jammu Print Pack, Jammu; R K Print Pack, Mohali; Goel Homoeopathic Pharma, Rajasthan and Pawan Print Pack, Baddi.

Global outreach

Having established a strong foothold in the Indian leaflet folding market, Pune-based Pratham Technologies has decided to take its machines to the overseas pharmaceutical markets and expand presence worldwide.

According to Deshpande, last year, 30% of Pratham’s business was through exports. One of Pratham’s 2018 highlights was the sale of four folding machines to a customer in the USA. Also, it has installed an outsert folding machine at a pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh.

Deshpande said, “We have already started penetrating the markets in the Indian subcontinent and some African countries. The overseas market for pharma folding machines is 10 times larger than the Indian market. We have started making efforts to tap the market in the USA and Europe.”While affordability and cost-effectiveness will be selling points of Pratham machines in the developed markets, Pratham has worked towards making the machines more durable and reliable. 

 “We have ensured that our machines require minimum maintenance. Moreover, Moreover, we are now providing certain distinct features on the machine in order to improve productivity and efficiency. For example, on one of the leaflet folding machines, we have incorporated a slitter, using which the user can work on two-up scale and double the output. In another instance, we have provided a lock for the folding trays so that tray mishandling is eliminated. These are small but distinct features that will differentiate Pratham’s machines in the market. We are also working on making machine set-ups digital,” added Deshpande. 

Pratham is now gearing up to showcase its machines at Drupa 2020 and Print 20.