By Satyajeet Satpathy, Director, Gross sales & Advertising, Epson India Pvt. Ltd.
Within the realm of textile printing, Epson India has stood as a beacon of innovation, addressing challenges and embracing alternatives. Our unique dialog with Mr. Satyajeet Satpathy, Director Gross sales and Advertising at Epson India, delves into the corporate’s efficiency, revolutionary options, and impressive future endeavors.
Mr. Satpathy displays on Epson’s 2023 journey, characterizing it as a combined yr globally, particularly in developed economies, whereas India skilled strong development. With a FY 2022 turnover of Rs 2,191 Crores, the yr 2023 witnessed a commendable 16% development, spanning numerous segments like Inkjet Printers, Projectors, Robots, and notably, Textile Printers, buoyed by heightened consciousness of digital textile printing advantages.
Textile Printing Options
Delving into Epson’s choices for the textile and attire trade, Mr. Satpathy outlines three key options:
Dye Sublimation: Ultimate for quick style, house décor, sportswear, and comfortable signage, this switch printing know-how is designed for polyester materials. Working with a dry know-how that eliminates water utilization, it has change into integral in Surat’s quick style cloth printing.
Direct-to-Garment: Catering to on-demand printing corporations, this know-how prints instantly on completed clothes like T-shirts and hoodies, suitable with dyed and white materials. It seamlessly enhances analog know-how and aligns with the dynamics of e-commerce and drop cargo markets.
Direct-to-Cloth: Facilitating direct printing on numerous cloth sorts utilizing particular inks for various supplies, this know-how fits textile processing and printing mills. It’s notably efficient for intricate design printing and brief to medium run size jobs, resembling analog screen-printing post-processing.
New Merchandise and Improvements
The yr 2023 witnessed the launch of cutting-edge merchandise throughout classes:
Dye Sublimation: The SC-F6430, in 44″ measurement with 4-color choices, and the F6430H in 6-color choices, particularly designed for sportswear and quick style printing necessities.
Direct-to-Garment: The SC-F2230 printer with a printing measurement of 16″x20″, catering to on-demand printing corporations with a month-to-month quantity of round 1000 items.
Direct-to-Cloth: Progressive additions showcased on the ITMA exhibition, together with the ML13000, an In-line pre/post-treatment pigment ink printer, the ML16000 HY, a hybrid printer able to printing numerous inks on dyed cloth, the ML24000 with the widest shade gamut, and the Twin channel ML32000, offering versatility for all kinds of materials. The ML8000 REAC introduces a Reactive + Acid ink mixture, facilitating the printing of pure and polyamide materials.
Digital Evolution: Acknowledging the generational shift in direction of digital printing, Mr. Satpathy observes the growing transition from analog to digital printers, particularly for medium and short-run jobs. Recognizing the swift evolution of style tendencies and the pursuit of restricted stock by manufacturers, Epson is actively contributing to this shift. Leveraging its direct gross sales and help infrastructure, Epson positions itself as the only real model manufacturing all key elements – printer, print head, ink, and software program. The Textile Answer Centre in Bangalore additional enhances buyer engagement by means of demonstrations, trials, and sampling.
Epson’s Holistic Strategy
In a fiercely aggressive Textile Printing Machine section, Mr. Satpathy emphasizes the distinctive benefits that make Epson stand out. Epson gives a whole answer, manufacturing key elements in-house, from printing to pre-treatment and post-treatment. This holistic strategy serves as a big benefit. The Textile Answer Centre operates as a central hub, providing tailor-made consultations to deal with particular challenges confronted by clients. Epson takes a customer-centric strategy, understanding the nuances of every shopper’s issues. In contrast to partaking in direct competitors solely primarily based on pricing, Epson focuses on offering the very best options, aiming to help clients confidently transition from analog to digital printing. Epson performs a pivotal function in facilitating this transformative journey.
Indian Market
Addressing Epson’s presence within the Indian market, Mr. Satpathy clarifies that Epson India doesn’t manufacture printers domestically. As a substitute, it imports completed items from Epson, Japan. Epson India is primarily engaged within the gross sales, advertising, and servicing of those imported merchandise. Leveraging a strong infrastructure constructed over three a long time, Epson India performs an important function in delivering Epson’s cutting-edge options to the Indian market.
Epson boasts a robust presence in cloth, attire, and residential textile segments. The earlier yr witnessed exceptional digital printing achievements, with 1.2 crore meters digitally printed on Epson direct-to-garment printers and over 24 crore meters utilizing Epson dye sublimation printers. These numbers mirror exponential development as extra shoppers embrace Epson’s revolutionary merchandise.
Service and availability of spare components are paramount to any machine provider’s success. Epson stands out by providing a complete annual upkeep contract, inclusive of boards and print heads—the one firm to take action in India. The important thing promoting level for Epson is its strong service infrastructure, that includes 15 warehouses throughout India for quicker response to buyer necessities. Furthermore, Epson leverages know-how by providing distant diagnostics to make sure most machine uptime for patrons.
Championing Sustainability
Within the period of stringent sustainability norms, Epson leads the way in which in supporting clients to realize their sustainability targets. Gaining management over water utilization, Epson’s third-generation pigment inks present a large shade gamut and wonderful fastness. These inks meet the important thing necessities for patrons aiming to scale up their companies sustainably. Epson actively expands its pigment ink options in numerous segments, together with house décor, males’s shirts/style, and youngsters put on.
Outlook
As India marches in direction of changing into a USD 5 Trillion financial system, with vital investments anticipated in manufacturing, the textile trade is poised to be a pivotal participant on this development. Epson anticipates bullish development within the Indian textile trade, with projections indicating $250 billion in textile manufacturing and $100 billion in exports by 2030, contributing 5% to GDP. As India goals to change into a prime world exporter and contribute over 10% to world textile manufacturing by 2030, Epson foresees immense alternatives within the digital printing market. With a projected development trajectory of 13.0% between 2023 and 2033, Epson aligns itself with the burgeoning sustainable style market and the customized clothes market led by e-commerce. Epson’s dedication to introducing new merchandise often goals to supply high-quality printing, effectivity, ease of use, and a lowered environmental impression, aligning with the trade’s evolving wants.
Epson’s development within the Indian marketplace for textile printers has been formidable since actively selling dye sublimation textile printers in 2013. At present holding a considerable 42% market share in dye sublimation and a rising 6% market share in direct-to-fabric merchandise, Epson charts an formidable future. Strategic development plans goal for a minimal 30% market share in direct-to-fabric printers by 2028, sustaining and increasing market share in dye sublimation, and securing a 40% market share in direct-to-garment printers by 2028. These targets align with Epson’s anticipation of attaining a strong 20% Compound Annual Development Fee (CAGR) over the following 5 years, making certain Epson’s pivotal function in shaping the way forward for textile printing in India.