Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a line-up that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics.
Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts.
Epson India Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 2000. Its products address the needs of homes, businesses and commercial enterprises, as also those of consumers with specialized needs in India. With a commitment to providing products and services that surpass people’s expectations, Epson India today has an enviable reputation for quality and value.
Headquartered in Bangalore, the company markets and supports Epson inkjet printers, inkjet all-in-ones, point of sale printers, 3LCD projectors, scanners, large format printers, robots and dot-matrix printers. In all of these categories, Epson is either the No.1 or No.2 brand in India and is growing fast.
The company has recently announced the launch of its new SureColor F2130 Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printer in the Indian market. The Textile Magazine seized the opportunity to meet Mr. P. Satyanarayana, Director, Visual Products/LFP/RS, Epson India, at his corporate office in Bangalore and discuss in brief the company’s Indian operations and its new product.
Excerpts from the interview:
Epson is a global brand, a part of the Seiko Epson Group which promotes products like printers, projectors, scanners, large format printers and robotics in India.
Mr. Satyanarayana said: “In printers, we have a range of products for home and photo segments, small and medium establishments, corporates, textile and for the signage industry. As regards projectors, we have products for different verticals, for entry level small and medium offices and large corporates, and also have home theatre projectors. In the last couple of years we have also started making robotics for manufacturing industries and in automation.”
How important is the textile printing vertical for Epson and what are the products and solutions offered in this space?
Using our strengths in various other fields we thought we should be looking at printers for the textile segment also. We can also probably say Epson is the only company which has got printers for almost all verticals. Every other manufacturer is working under restrictions, whereas we have products that fit into all verticals. To begin with, we started with only dye sublimation products and later ventured into the direct to garment printer, wherein it can directly be printed on a garment. In the case of a sublimation printer, it is mainly used to print on polyesters and blended fabrics (with a minimum of 50% polyester). In the case of DTG printer it’s directly printed on cotton fabrics (with a minimum of 50% cotton). These are the two segments we cover currently. We also have plans to come out with more products to cover wider verticals in the textile industry.
Can you share a few details about your new product DTG Printer SureColor F2130:
This is a five-colour printer, CMYK and White. CMYK is generally used to print on white background fabrics. With white ink we can also print on dark fabrics. A pre-treatment liquid is provided along with the printer. Before the process starts, we’ll have to apply the liquid on the surface where we need to print, heat it and then print on the printer. Again, we do the heat treatment after which the product is ready. A maximum size of 16/20 inches and smallest size, like sleeves, of 2/2 inches can be printed using this new product. The printer comes with standard frames of 8/10 inches. In case of customer looks for multiple sizes, then he will have to buy additional frames.
With e-commerce changing the dynamics of retail business, do you see greater demand for your machines providing on-demand solutions?
Initially when this DTG product was launched, it took some time for people to understand and feel this is the right product. Now we can see that it has been well accepted and performing very well. Now e-commerce is becoming very popular. Many small entrepreneurs get into e-commerce and sell their products here. They print T-shirts and supply to e-commerce where it is promoted in the websites.
Can you elaborate on Epson’s presence in India?
Epson is present all over across India. We don’t do direct sales. We go through partners. Epson has a network across India of almost 3,500-4,000 re-sellers, Tier-3. On an average every month we see that 1,500 re-sellers keep doing month-on-month business. For niche products like DTG we have very few people coming up. When we look at the installations, it’s more in certain pockets depending on e-commerce and textile industries. We have installations in Tiruppur, Bangalore, Bombay, Surat, Delhi, Ludhiana, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
Currently how many machines are sold by Epson annually? What is the expected market size for these machines in the Indian market and what is the market share that Epson is targeting?
This is a niche market which has just started booming. Competition is indeed stiff. Last year we had a 60% market share. With the present numbers, Epson is confident of achieving around 70-80% market share in India this year. With respect to numbers, we are looking close to 75 machines this year. I can say that we are probably dominating this market.
At IPL, one of the biggest sporting events in India, most of the franchisees use Epson printers to print their T-shirts.
Can you name some of the major customers for Epson textile printing solutions in India?
Epson India covers India and the SAARC region that includes Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sagarfab in Bangalore, iLogo in Mumbai and Me T-Shirts from Jalandhar are some of the customers who use our products and are doing good business in e-commerce.
Service and spares are critical to the success of any machine, ensuring machine uptime, productivity and profitability for your customers. Can you elaborate on the after sales-service and spares network for Epson in India?
We have quite a good network across India. Epson has close to 300+ service centres in the country. Most of our products are given on-site support wherein the customer need not bring the product to the service centre. Our service engineer goes to the site and attends the call. We have 325 service centres covering almost 200-225 cities. In these cities if the call is before 12 pm. We attend to it the same day, and if it is after 12 we attend the next day. For these niche products we have trained a few partners across India at what we call the specialised service centre for large format printer. These centres are also equipped with certain spares to help attend calls immediately from those who expect faster turnaround.
What can we expect from Epson for the textile printing market in the coming years?
Currently we have DTG and sublimation products. We are also trying to come out with products for some more verticals. We will continue to work on our customer feedback and go back to our design team and work for improvements. We try to offer the best products to customers. With our infrastructure we start working five years prior to any new product launch. All our products are designed, developed and manufactured by Epson unlike others who outsource. Our manufacturing facilities are in Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and China. Our head office is in Japan with the design and technical teams.