For two decades, Monotech Systems Ltd has been a leading manufacturer and one-stop solution provider for printing and packaging industry globally. Its offerings include products and solutions for Commercial Printing, Digital Printing, Digital Enhancement, Wide Format Printing, Large Format Printing, Large Format Scanning, Labels & Packaging, 3D printing along with printing softwares. It boasts of expertise in developing and designing high quality products as per international standards. Over a conversation with Sign & P.O.P. World, Akash Kumar, General Manager – Marketing and Manoj Garg, General Manager –Sales (WFG), described how the company has fared in the dynamic print industry so far and what are its plans for the coming future.
Please give an overview of the company and describe your journey so far.
Monotech Systems has been a leading manufacturer and carries an extensive expertise in industrial inkjet systems and wide format systems for a very long time. We are celebrating 20 years now and have a long way to go in the industry with six business verticals, a diverse range of product lines and lot of loyal customers. From being a trading corporation, we are now focusing more on our own manufacturing capacities. We have successfully established our own brands like Pixeljet, which is a leading player in signage and industrial applications, and JETSCI , which is a leading brand in industrial inkjet systems for security printing and label printing. JETSCI has an international presence now with the number of satisfied customers going up constantly.
What new technologies have you introduced in your printers recently?
We have introduced Ricoh Gen 6 printhead, which is a higher version in our PixeljetPOWERPRO, which is a 3.2 meters UV LED Roll-to-Roll printer. Monotech Systems is one of the few companies in the world that are integrating Gen 6 print head with both flatbed and roll to roll. The new printhead is on higher side in terms of quality with droplet size of 5pl, very high resolution and 25% more speed than Gen 5. Therefore, it gives more productivity and better quality.
Do you offer 3D printing solutions in India?
In 3D printing, we represent world’s renowned brands such as US-based 3D Systems, Germany-based BigRep, Italy’s Olivetti, Russia’s THOR3D and Germany’s W2P. We have desktop range of printers, professional range of 3D printers as well as production range of 3D printers with different technologies like CJP, FDM, Metal, MJP, SLS, SLA, DLP, CFF, DMP, MIM etc.
Since you are now a manufacturer with your own brands, kindly brief us about your manufacturing facilities in India.
There are two brands that we are currently focusing on when we talk about manufacturing. For ‘Pixeljet’, we have a manufacturing-cum-integration facility in Chennai and for other industrial inkjet brand ‘JETSCI’, we have a plant in Gurugram. In other words, our narrow web format printers are manufactured in Gurgaon and wide format in Chennai. We have been manufacturing these for over six years now.
Do you think there is something lacking in printer manufacturing ecosystem?
We think it’s R&D, because without that you cannot build a quality product. It is a big challenge. At Monotech Systems, we spend a lot of money on R&D unlike other companies in India which have the tendency to invest low amounts on this crucial aspect. However, Europeans and Japanese spend almost 10-15% of their total revenue on R&D, and thus are able to produce high quality products. We take R&D very seriously for both our product brands.
How big is the company right now in terms of revenue?
Last year it was 155-160 crore. For this year, we had a target of making it double but the market has not supported us.
What kind of market share do you have in UV printing industry and what kind of clients are you targeting?
Our core focus is UV technology right now and we have 45-50% share in this industry in India right now. We have installed over 250 UV printers in India as well as abroad. Currently, we have the largest number of UV printer installations in the country. We are not only focusing on signage but other industrial applications too, and that’s how it covers our market reach in both the segments..
How do you deal with competition, especially from other established players?
We are not very new as we started operations in 2002 but for some reasons we kept this project in a cold box. However, we started with new vigour in 2010 and have been successful in making a mark in this industry. In UV, we are far ahead of other players and we have set trends in this segment. In terms of applications, we have a strong built-up team with us. We don’t believe in box selling. Our customer satisfaction level is almost 95%. We meet high precision requirements through stringent quality control.
What kind of after-sales support do you offer?
We have 15 offices right now and almost 75 dedicated sales and services staff for especially for wide format. Our offices are in Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kochi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, Vijayawada, Ludhiana, Pune and Indore.
How do you ensure the quality and eco-friendliness of your inks?
We import all our UV inks. These are not 100% green but near to green as in UV now, there is very less VOC component as compared to earlier times. Moreover, the printer comes with LED lamp and not mercury, making the whole process eco-friendly.
What are your plans for coming year?
We have some projects going on which are currently in R&D and would definitely be a game changer in the market. We will not be able to disclose the details now as it is in initial stage.