EBM

Eminence Business Media

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Labelexpo India buoyed by record visitor numbers


Labelexpo India 2012, which was held in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi between 29 October and 1 November, has enjoyed its most successful edition in its 10 year history. Underlining the show’s importance in the region’s fast growing label and package printing industry, Labelexpo India 2012 exceeded all previous visitor and exhibitor numbers.

Attracting 8,049 show visitors, attendance figures were up 33% on 2010’s event total of 6,054. Occupying its largest footprint since being founded in 2002, Labelexpo India 2012 featured over 200 local and international exhibitors including 49 first time participants; up from just over 150 in 2010. In addition, the show organizers also reported that 53% of exhibitors had already confirmed their participation at Labelexpo India 2014 before the show closed. Many have committed to bigger stalls at the next edition.

A significant platform for new product launches, Labelexpo India 2012 saw the unveiling of over 20 new presses which were demonstrated live on the show floor. Business was brisk across the show’s four days with many exhibitors reporting on-site sales including Nilpeter and Mark Andy each selling two machines and Epson also reporting strong sales.

Again playing host to the LMAI Avery Dennison Label Awards, Labelexpo India was also supported by the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI), All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP), Hologram Manufacturers Association of India (HOMAI), Delhi Printers' Association and all of the country’s key printing and packaging magazines.

Jade Grace, event director, Labelexpo India commented: “We would like to thank everyone involved including our association and media partners with Labelexpo India for their unfailing support and contribution in making 2012’s show the largest and best yet. The show’s four full days have been exceptional and the atmosphere in the venue was vibrant and upbeat as the aisles were packed.”

She continues: “The Indian label industry has made substantial advances in adopting new technology and investing in innovation, training and sustainable growth since we were last here in 2010. With label and package printing converters spending wisely on top quality machines, materials and ancillaries, the future of India’s label industry is undeniably strong with so many opportunities to benefit from. With new prospects emerging for label and packaging printers as the retail sector opens up through FDI and a growing interest in digital technologies, we look forward to returning in 2014 to see how much more this exciting market place has developed and grown.”

Quotes from Labelexpo India 2012:

Chris Chappel, sales engineer, Edale: “Edale exhibited alongside our Indian agent Printers Supply Co and report it to be the ‘best show of the Indian series so far’.  Over the four show days, visitor numbers were consistently high and visits to the Edale stand exceeded prior expectations; the level of enquiries were up by 37% compared to the Labelexpo India 2010 show. We received a high volume of machine enquiries and quotes requested and I am confident that we will convert a good majority of these enquiries into sales and future partnerships in the coming months.”

Ram Prasad S M, deputy general manager, Epson India Pvt Ltd: “Epson India was present for the first time at Labelexpo India 2012 and we are very glad with the experience gained through this event. We were able to showcase our digital Sure Press – L4033AW for the first time in India and the excitement the product elicited among converters was really amazing. The high point for us was the sale of our first Sure Press L4033AW to Sai Packaging for its Bangalore Unit. Making our first sale to one of the most respected pioneers, who are considered the benchmark for quality in the packaging industry, was extremely gratifying for us. Labelexpo India helped us to introduce the future of label printing to the industry with the requisite impact.”

Samir Patkar, Gallus: “I felt the show was good, bigger, better and managed to pull some quality customers. The quality of the show is getting better every two years. Labelexpo India 2012 did well in projecting new trends and opportunities within the Indian label industry. It was a good platform to connect with label printers and understand their requirements and challenges in their daily business. As always our partners supported us very well. The show gave Gallus a good platform to reinforce our commitment to the Indian markets especially with our newly formed Gallus India team. Yes, we did finalize a few orders and have a challenging task ahead of us to follow up on new projects. I would like to congratulate Labelexpo for a well-organized show.”

Chinmay Samanta, Inkstream: "Inkstream received many new leads on UV flexo inks and water based inks at Labelexpo India 2012. Inkstream has become a strategic channel partner of Ashland Inc for India. The products of Ashland are well known in global label market. UV-curable varnishes, adhesives and special effect coatings from Ashland have received a very good response from narrow web flexo label printers."

Tilkesh Jathan, senior manager – marketing, Kaygee Loparex India Private Limited: “Congratulations over the success of Labelexpo India 2012. You guys have lived up to our expectations. Many new sales leads were generated. There could have been no better opportunity to broadcast our new innovations than at Labelexpo India 2012. Your show was organized very professionally, which is attested by the fact that you have added another hall for 2014 and the advance bookings you have received for it already.”

Sandeep Nahata, marketing director, Khushboo Scientific Pvt. Ltd: “Labelexpo India 2012 was a great show to participate in and enough leads were generated through visitors from different industries like label, sticker, graphic printing etc who visited our stall and discussed their requirements which are valuable to us. We hope to receive worthy response and do good business.”

Abraham S Prabhakar, Kodak India Private Limited: “Labelexpo India 2012 was an excellent trade show and was well organized. My heartiest congratulations go to the Labelexpo team for a job well done. We saw a good quality of footfall and visitors to the show. Labelexpo India 2012 also had a good range of exhibitors. Relevant and key packaging customers were targeted and invited, and this made a huge difference to the trade show’s performance. For Kodak, we had a very good footprint, serious enquiries and order closure with a pretty good ROI. We are happy to have participated in this show and look forward to the next Labelexpo venture.”

Anuj Bhargava, CEO, Kumar Labels: “It was our very first time participating at Labelexpo India as an exhibitor. Being a label printer we couldn’t imagine making a machine ourselves, but the success at the show really encouraged us. Our stall was almost always busy and we had a tremendous response to “HassleFree Technologies NB-330 Intermittent (semi-rotary) die-cutting machine”. We thank the Labelexpo team for making this event a great success for us.”

David Ho, Martin Automatic: “Martin Automatic has participated in Labelexpo India from the beginning, and 2012 was the best show yet. Leaders in the Indian label industry have responded favorably to Martin’s non-stop unwind and rewind solutions. Leading printers and converters in this region are modernizing their production models to become more efficient by reducing material, energy, ink and labor costs. And sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important in the region. Martin is pleased to be considered an integral part of the new standards that are becoming a reality among India’s manufacturing leaders.”

Nilesh Mehta, director, Maxcess India: “This was the first time we have participated at Labelexpo India 2012 and there was quite a good response from the market for our new web guiding system FIFE 500. We have received enquiries directly from end users directly, instead of OEM. Quality and services are main concerns regardless of price. We had five positive enquiries, 27 leads will be great for first time participation.”

Vinod Krishnamurthy Iyer, managing director, Mimaki Kanphor India Pvt Ltd: “Labelexpo India 2012 was a well-organized show. It’s a specialized show targeting a particular clientele in the packaging industry and makes it quite interesting to find industry and application specific clients. We have received a good number of enquiries and we believe this is positive result. For us it’s not about quantification but quality of leads so we can genuinely generate sales. The actual outcome will give us confidence to be once again there with label expo and build the market opportunity.”

T P Jain , MD, Monotech Systems: “Chennai based Monotech Systems Limited showcased its own manufactured JETSCI YUV high speed UV industrial inkjet system for printing variable data information, two another models were also launched for Aqueous and MICR inks based systems. We participated for the first time at Labelexpo India 2012 and overall it has been very successful launch of the JETSCI YUV. Several hundred visitors were given live demonstrations of the press and we received an overwhelming response. We have dozens of validated leads from the show and hoping to convert them into business very soon.”

Jakob Landberg, sales & marketing director, Nilpeter: “The many visitors at the Nilpeter stall were impressed with the locally built 10-colour FB-3300S press. The FB-3300S is recognized in the industry as a robust workhorse designed to produce labels of superior quality. Nilpeter experienced excellent business at Labelexpo India 2012 with the sale of two machines. India has tremendous potential to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Both appearance and attendance improve steadily show on show. Nilpeter is proud to support the event and the strategic important Indian label industry.”

Federico d’Annunzio Nuova GIDUE: “The Labelexpo “brand” worldwide means for GIDUE always well-organized exhibitions, growth of the industry, quality of the attendance. Labelexpo India 2012 confirms our expectation: we had crowds of visitors at our demonstrations of our M1 press, every hour and every day. We could sell two presses at the show, with further dozens of really interested leads to follow. We have introduced to the Indian converters the full GIDUE range; seven press lines, eight printing and converting technologies. And we count on future Labelexpo shows to confirm our leadership in labels and packaging printing and converting machines.”

Ajay Mehta, SMI Coated Products Pvt Ltd: “SMI Coated Products has been participating at Labelexpo India from the very beginning. The show is improving every time and it was bigger, better and very well organized with purposeful delegates attending the show. Our friends from the Industry were clear in their requirements and confident in the discussions. With the clearance of FDI in retail segment by the Indian Government, the industry’s future is indeed very bright and Labelexpo has been a key motivator towards the growth of this sector. Our participation has always been very fruitful and this year was no exception. The LMAI awards night was a fitting finale to the show. We will all miss Mike Fairley at future shows. A respectful bow, from all of us, to the Label Guru!”

Per Lövgren, international sales manager, Swedev AB: “Swedev AB has great expectations for sales in the Indian market. Despite all the talk of economic crises we can see an increase in incoming orders. In Labelexpo India 2012, we had visitors from India, Sri Lanka, U.A.E., Kazakhstan and Africa.  We can see big potential to grow our sales in India and the rest of the Asian region.”
Nicolai Bisgaard, sales manager, Vetaphone: “We had a very successful show at Labelexpo India 2012 and received a great response for the launch of the Technology Bar with Weldon Celloplast. We closed several orders for new equipment and received a lot of interesting leads. Overall, it was a very positive show.”

Kishore Kumar P S, manager marketing, WEBTECH Engineering (P) Ltd: “We had a very good show at Labelexpo India 2012 where we have launched our new generation flexo printing machine Flexomaster S340. We had good number of visitors and quality enquires and leads. The visitor profile was also very specific which helped us exploring more opportunities and all the enquires were related to the planned industry and product we displayed. The business generated was really good and we would be looking forward for the next show. The organizers have done a good job in managing the show very professionally.”

Harveer Singh, managing director, Weldon Celloplast Limited: “It was an amazing and vibrant show. One stroll around, left visitors in awe! The quality of the spread, ambience, and the diverse offerings from a global list of renowned suppliers of materials, toolings, equipment and printing presses made it a wholesome treat for the label printing fraternity. Truly a show, that was the best Labelexpo India so far. Weldon struck many deals.”

Filip Weymans, Xeikon: “Recent developments in the Indian market will accelerate the domestic growth and that inspired people to attend Labelexpo India 2012. It makes the show the perfect platform for Indian label printers and we saw great interest in flexo plate making ThermoFlexX equipment and digital printing, Xeikon 3000 Series.”

Manish Hansoti, managing director, S. Kumar Multi Products - national distributor for Zonten Machinery: “Labelexpo India 2012 was a great show and visitors were serious about their requirements. The 30th and 31st of October were so hectic that I could not take lunch and was busy for entire duration of the show! I have visited many exhibitions for labels in other countries  but this time everything  was very well done by exhibitors and all the arrangements were just fantastic. We are expecting great business from the visitors. We were delighted to book two flexo presses during the exhibition so it was a great event for us. We wish all success to Labelexpo team for future events.”