Primarily a distributor of full range of non-lit, white back, black back, grey back, back-lit material in all GSM, Shree Vallabh Digital Pvt. Ltd. deals in well-known brands viz. Sunlex, Supersign, Cleena, Canadian(CSV) and All Flex. The company also imports Shreepad and markets as its flagship brand in white back vinyl & grey back vinyl ranging from 80 micron to 120 micron, which has been approved by most of the leading corporates. It offers different combinations of release liners too to cater to different printing and application needs. Apart from these, Shree Vallabh does trade in premium quality solvent & eco-solvent printing inks from Konica and flushing fluids.
After such a long association with the world of media, Nilesh Thole, the company’s managing director moved on to become a manufacturer of eco-friendly media, meant especially for wall painting. Going forward, he came with a product that does not harm the environment and enhance the beauty of the advertisement by incorporating digital printing material. The job doesn’t need any special skill. Anyone with basic initial training can efficiently execute. Furthermore, since the design is digitally printed, there are no chances of spelling mistakes, colour-differences, un-uniform images, etc. This is a cost-effective solution for corporate branding. In our quest to know more on this innovative technology, we, at Sign & POP World, caught up with Thole. The edited excerpts of what he shared with us are here to follow:
When did you come up with this product?
This is a non-PVC material and the idea for developing this material came from the market itself. The response is just amazing as numerous campaigns have already been done using this media. Though we have officially launched it in February, we are already selling this material for around a year now.
How has been the response from the market?
So far our digital media has been very well received in various segments/industries including FMCG, Automobile, Cement, Mobile industry, Banking, Insurance, etc. Today, it is mostly used for advertising in rural India, and we are proud to cater to some of the biggest brands in the country.
What is your product all about?
We have two products: Ecolite and Econyle. We are terming it self-adhesive wall vinyl and eco-friendly vinyl. Both these are digital media. I mean, digitally printable. Ecolite is a substrate that is suitable for direct application on all kind of wall surfaces, while Econyle is advertising specialist to replace flex and self-adhesive PVC vinyl.
What are their environmental attributes?
It’s a flexible and highly conforming media that takes shape of the curves on the wall’s surfaces – irrespective of plastered non-plastered, concrete, brick, stone, wooden, metal, ceramic, acrylic, etc. Once pasted, it doesn’t fall off or get removed. It is a substitute to conventional hand painting of wall advertising by the artists. The eco-lacquer protects the prints from hash weather conditions. Ecolite as the name suggests, is environment friendly and light in weight as well as light on your pocket because it is considerably lower priced. It can be customised to fit in your specific requirements.
What about the certifications?
As I said, the product is 100% biodegradable. We have approached the government for the required certification. The process is on and soon we would be adding one more attribute in written that our material is 100% eco-friendly. As far as ban on flex is concerned, it is certainly not going to help us anyway because our media doesn’t have any competition with flex. For now, there is no guidelines issued for wall or surface paintings; however, we are ready with the future technology which is not going to harm the environment anyway.
How long have you been promoting this product in India? How are you marketing this product?
We are promoting it from around one year, and believe me, the response is tremendous. Till date, we have taken it to cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Chennai, etc. We do have received quite a few queries from north India following which; soon we would appoint a distributor to cater to the regional needs.
So, how are you reaching to your customers?
The aim is to have a pan India presence through distributor/dealer network; while for overseas, the company would deal directly. For expanding our national presence, the plan is to have one distributor each in every major area. As far as selection of distributor/dealer is concerned, the idea is to carefully pick those who have profound knowledge of the industry and can handle the region’s call efficiently. The incumbent should have a stronghold in the region/area of his operation.
What about compatibility, affordability and competition?
Our media is compatible with all the printing technology be it solvent, eco-solvent, UV or latex. Furthermore, it is opacity compatible also, hence eliminating the possibility of see through if pasted over the existing wall painting. It easily fits in to the grooves and becomes the part of the body. You can see, we have demonstrated it on the back side of the tiles to show that it can be pasted on any surface and would be easily moulded. We do have competitors, but the market is very vast. For now, we are a very small fish of this ocean. We would prefer to move slow, but at a steady pace. On pricing front also, our media is affordable. Available at just Rs. 10-12 per square meter, it is better than what is currently available in the market.
You are exploring overseas opportunity as well. Which international markets are showing you potential?
Yeah true! With this product, we are also looking forward to export. As of now, we have got many queries from various overseas markets, for which we already have done the sampling. Soon we are taking it to them. We are currently targeting Singapore, Australia and Germany. To further expand our national as well as global footprints, we have decided to attain all the exhibitions whether national or global of our concern.
You have a very extensive marketing plan. Is your current capacity enough to feed both domestic and overseas markets?
For now, the capacity is 3000 roles a month, which is sufficient to feed the current market demand. We have an efficient infrastructure wherein the machines have been imported from China & Germany and the production is based on the mix-up of both the technologies.