Press Centre

Xaar plc, has taken the next step in its global expansion with the opening of an Indian office - the first by an industrial inkjet printhead manufacturer on the Indian subcontinent. Located in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, the new office will hold its official opening ceremony on 23 November, with Xaar CEO, Ian Dinwoodie, Keith Butler, Head of Xaar’s Sales for Asia and newly appointed general manager for Xaar in India, Tarun Kumar all attending the ceremony.

Says Ian Dinwoodie, CEO, Xaar: “The Indian subcontinent presents an immense opportunity for inkjet technology and we believe it will be a very exciting market in the next phase of the inkjet industry’s global development. The opening of our new Indian office represents what Xaar sees as a vibrant future for inkjet in the region. There are nearly a quarter of a million conventional printing presses in India, 70 percent of which are operated by small family owned businesses. These small and medium-sized enterprises are also purchasers of both wide format and other forms of digital printers. With the value of output in the printing industry in India exceeding US$6 billion and the specialist graphics, billboards, packaging sectors a combined value of output of US$2.3 billion, it is clear there is a tremendous amount of potential.

“We see Xaar’s opening of an office in India as once again taking the lead in setting trends in the inkjet industry. We were the first industrial printhead supplier to have a permanent presence in China when we opened our Hong Kong office in 2001. This was so successful, we expanded our Chinese operation with an office in Shanghai. Now we are the first printhead supplier to open an office in India, and we plan to continue to look for opportunities to expand our operation here and replicate the outstanding success we have achieved in Europe and China to date.”

Xaar also sees a number of similarities in the Indian inkjet market to that of China just a few years ago. Like China, India has a rapidly growing economy and is a very exciting emerging market for the print sector in general and inkjet technology in particular. And although it is hard to quantify the market size for digital printing as it is developing so rapidly, Mr Dinwoodie believes the long-term future for inkjet in India is a strong one. A number of Xaar’s current customers are already exporting wide format printers into the region and there is also a significant growth in local demand for Xaar-based products from a growing range of domestic inkjet innovators – especially for wide format and coding & marking printers optimised specifically for the regional market.

Mr Dinwoodie says the new office will enable Xaar to work closely with its growing customer base in the region to substantially reduce their time to market develop high-quality products in the process: “As a high value component supplier, our success is related to the success of our customers and the quality of their products.

Industrial printheads are not 'plug-and-play' products and integrators and manufacturers need to be able to call on support immediately and in their own language and time zone.

“It has always been Xaar’s belief that the most effective way to win and maintain a large proportion of the emerging printhead market, such as that in India, will only be achieved by working in close partnership with local manufacturers. In this sense, our local partners benefit from not only having someone on the ground to deal with on a day to day basis, but also all the support Xaar’s large international manufacturing, service and R&D network can offer.”

Ian states one of the key drivers of Xaar’s growth in India will be the speed of awareness and demand for digital printing in sectors such as external advertising, packaging and textiles. Xaar is currently the leading supplier of industrial printheads worldwide, and its market share is especially dominant in key markets such as solvent based wide format printing.

“We believe this is the right time to establish a physical presence in the Indian marketplace, and as we have done in China, work closely with local OEMs and inkjet innovators to develop specific solutions for this market. And 2005 will get off to a great start with our attendance at the India Pak exhibition in New Delhi in January,” concludes Mr Dinwoodie.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Alex Challinor, Xaar plc
T: +44 (0)1223 423663
achallinor@xaar.co.uk
www.xaar.co.uk

Laura French
T: +44 (0)1372 464470
lfrench@adcomms.co.uk