“The printing industry of India has huge potential,” said Markus Heering, managing director of the VDMA printing and paper technology association, at the exhibition. In this country, there are 2,35,000 printing companies which address a national market with 1.2 billion people.

In fact, forecasts indicate an above-average growth rate in the print market of India. By 2016, it will have risen from the tenth to the fifth place in global comparison. The driving forces of this development are increasing literacy along with growing prosperity and more and more consumption. This upward trend boosts the demand for books, newspapers and magazines as well as the demand for packaging, labels, catalogues and other business stationery. The quality of many print products, however, still leaves something to be desired – which obstructs the export ambitions of the printing industry of India.”

Therefore, the VDMA launched an initiative under the name Quality for India. “Our contribution aims to ensure that the printing houses in India make sustained use of the current growth phase: for the updating machines that they already have, for the qualification of skilled staff, and, as a result, for print products of a higher quality,” Heering explained. He added that if the quality were right, the printing industry of India would continue its strong national growth in the international markets.

A recent survey of Indian printing houses commissioned by the VDMA showed that while their machines are on average only 5 to 10 years old, the majority of the interviewees are dissatisfied with the quality level of service and maintenance. The reason was that quite often, used machines are bought from intermediaries. During their operation, the printing houses pay for the allegedly favourable purchase in the form of poor supply of spare parts and long downtimes due to a lack of maintenance and service. In addition, the interviewees were of the opinion that there is a lack of training opportunities at the machines. These problems are even aggravated by insufficient vocational training.

At the VDMA joint stand at the show, leading manufacturers like Kolbus, Manroland, IKS Klingelnberg, ECH WILL, etc., used the chance to present themselves under the label ‘quality made in Germany’. “In the last few months, export to India has been affected by the lower exchange rate of the Rupee. Considering this particular situation, we wanted to prove with our participation in Pamex that our commitment in the market of India is for the long term,” said Kai Büntemeyer, CEO, Kolbus.

Being the chairman of the board of the printing and paper technology association of the VDMA, Büntemeyer is one of the intellectual fathers of the Quality for India initiative, which is now setting the course for a joint initiative of the Indian printing houses and the German printing and paper technology manufacturers.