IN-CONVERSATION

Scodix introduced the new generation of Scodix Ultra B2/B1 Digital Enhancement Press 1000’s Series, consisting of six presses, designed for Folding Carton, Publishing, Web-2-Print, Web-2-Pack, and Commercial & Specialty print including the Scodix flagship Ultra 6000 in India recently at Printpack India. Digital Impressions caught up with Ziki Kuly, President of APJ and Product Marketing at Scodix when he shared his views with Veerendra Malik, Editor-in-Chief, on development of embellishment technologies and the scope in Indian market.

Veerendra Malik (VM): Your presence in India is expanding by adding partners and having your Scodix representative here. What are your plans for India?

Ziki Kuly (ZK) : We have always been here. In 2021, we went public with an IPO and changed the focus of our company more towards packaging. We came up with a new product line Scodix 6000 series. We launched this product in 2021and is being introduced in India in 2022 at Printpack.

We have partnered with Insight Print Communications in addition to Monotech Systems and also have Mr. Bawa as India Business Representative with our support.


VM: How many variants of your product do you have and which one do you see being the most popular in India?

ZK: We have six models of our presses 1000 to 6000 series. There are different products for different segments and we aim to for three main segments, commercial, packaging and Web-2-Print. We have had a lot of success with Web-2-Print in America and Europe and is still growing in Asia Pacific. We have Vistaprint as a customer in this region. Commercial and packaging is our target market and for each one we have a product.

In size formats we have B2, B2+ and B1. Till now most of our presses were B2 and most successful. Currently 80% of our market is B2 with very little for packaging in B1. Now since the last eight months we see a shift to 80% in B1 for the Scodix 6000. As for the Indian market, it is definitely the B1. We have here big customers printing big volumes in packaging and this is exactly the market for that press.

The market is changing with reduced SKUs, less requests for storage with everything pointing towards digital. Packaging, Publishing on Demand is the market and with these requirements we feel the 6000 series in B1 format will be very successful in India.



VM: Initially you started with UV application, then glitter, foiling, what next?

ZK: :We would not talk on specific areas but there are many more applications in the pipeline that are good for both commercial and packaging.

Packaging application requires more support in regards to speed, quality and we want to develop and improve on that to better serve our customers


VM: In comparison to MGI vis-à-vis economics and applications, why would one opt for Scodix if only UV and Foiling is required by a customer?

ZK: Economics is not only the cost of the machine. It is the ability to produce on the floor based on the cost per box. Scodix is much better in terms of reliability, productivity and cost per sheet. For example, MGI does not have any indexing or purging, we have all that included in the price. Capital investment is higher because ours is a better machine. It includes cost of service, types of consumables, replacements, print heads. All these factors are calculated for the cost of the investment and of course the additional applications on the press which are many more on our products and better with us..

When you look at companies for Web-2-Print, like Shutterfly, they have multiple Scodix machines. We also provide a fully integrated powerful software workflow. We have recently sold Web-2-Print VM. It’s a virtual machine with unlimited amount of power. For high volume W2P customers like Shutterfly it is crucial for the peak season. All this is a part of Scodix solutions dedicated for the customers.

We have perfected our registration system over the years and it is the best in the market. You buy a press to ensure that they will produce the same exact quality year over year. There are customers who have machines installed in 2011 still working with perfect registration and reliability. Our technology is based on that. Customers in India have sold over 30 million sheets and these are our success stories.

VM: When do we see multiple installations with customers in India like in US and Europe?

ZK::We have multiple installations with customers in China as well. Business from China is moving to India. China is becoming a world problem and India is becoming a solution, definitely in packaging. We will see these multiple installations grow in India.

VM: Recently your company had posted some tutorials online for preparing files for various applications on Scodix. What is the response received from customers?

ZK: Very good. We exposed this to the world and we see a lot of demand from customers. It is all about offering to the end user and we need to educate our customers. Currently we are doing the basics for varnish, foiling and embossing. There is a lot more to offer and by these seminars we continue to educate them.

We have seen a big growth in supply of poly material also. This is not just because of the number of machines but more and more customers introducing solutions and producing more. We have supplied more than 26 tons of polymer in India.


VM: Finally, what is the efficiency of production on Scodix by your customers? What is the scope of improvement?

ZK: We are aiming at 75% efficiency which is high. We have to remember that we are still dealing with the finishing segment which is not like CMYK. It is still complementary. So 75% is a good target and there are customers who have achieved that.

Right now, in commercial printing there are more jobs with short runs. When we move to packaging there will be less jobs but with higher runs which will have more productivity and efficiency.

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