By Anuj Sharma

New Delhi, Jun 24 (IANS): As the Indian companies leverage the potential of digital printing, Japanese printing technology major Konica Minolta is set to help businesses switch to digital industrial printing for superior output, a top company executive has emphasised.

In 2016-17, Konica Minolta sold over 18,000 units in the black and white segment and around 2,000 units in the coloured segment.

"We target to increase these numbers in coming years to eye the top market share. We achieved over Rs 500 crore revenue in 2016-17 and our target is to increase the company revenue at the pace of double digit growth (year-on-year)," Kuldeep Malhotra, Vice President (Sales, Sales Planning and Communication), Konica Minolta Business Solution India, told IANS in an interview.

"The company's overall plan is to expand its footprint in diverse markets in the country and help printing businesses switch to digital industrial printing to enhance the business output," Malhotra told IANS.

India has emerged as a growth engine in the global economy thanks to an unprecedented growth in pivotal sectors including IT, Retail, SMBs and government.

"This is creating tremendous opportunities for us. India is also witnessing a rapid shift to digitisation, owing to government efforts coupled with a young tech-savvy population. We are dedicated to catalyse this transition with our industry leading digital printing solutions tailored for varied industry verticals," Malhotra noted.

Konica Minolta has continued to witness a double digit growth in India for the last six years and maintained its leadership in production printing market.

"The colour printing segment is witnessing a rapid growth in the country as the difference in costs between monochromes vs colour output is steadily decreasing. The new age offices and start-ups are also preferring colour outputs as compared to traditional prints," the top executive added.

When it comes to industrial printing, businesses are increasingly eyeing to deploy new digital printing solutions as the demand for high-quality outputs in minimal time is at an all time high.

"The printing businesses in India are also witnessing the demand for a host of different printing jobs with stringent deadlines. This is further fueling the growth of the new cutting-edge industrial printing solutions to cater to the customer demands as well as offer maximum operational efficiency at the same time," Malhotra told IANS.

Last month, Konica Minolta launched its new "Accurio Press" series printers in India.

"Our new series is a complete modular line-up of industrial digital printing solutions to help printing businesses achieve efficiency, productivity and reduce labour-related expenses," said Daisuke Mori, Managing Director of Konica Minolta India.

While demonstrating the company's high-end printing and web solutions at an exhibition in Greater Noida earlier this year, Yuji Nakata, Managing Director of Konica Minolta India, told IANS that the company has got the strongest infrastructure in India with nearly 200 engineers working on development of the products.

"India is the highest growing market for the company," Nakata added.

While the printing industry in the country is witnessing a major growth, the demand for varied jobs and rigorous deadlines of customers is proving to be a major challenge for printing businesses.

"We are committed to address this challenge with new industry leading digital printing solutions incorporated with our proprietary cutting-edge technology. We are also aggressively raising our footprint in the country via strategic partnerships to spread awareness to businesses regarding the new challenges and trends encircling this segment," Malhotra said.

At present, the company is focused on principal verticals including industrial printing, Information Technology along with Small and Medium Businesses.

"In terms of technological innovation, we will continue to invest significantly in our R&D division to come up with trend setting printing solutions for both enterprises and homes to bolster the digital revolution in the country," Malhotra told IANS, adding that the company is ready with a new line-up in colour printers catered to meet the needs of Indian enterprises.