The curtains may have come down on DRUPA 2016, but for India’s largest global flexible packaging solution company Uflex Limited, the industry mega-event for printing and cross media solutions is far from over.
The exhibition that ran for eleven days has generated sumptuous business enquiries for the company that’s keeping its sales and marketing team perpetually on toes. Taking the case of anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions that were exhibited by the Holography Business Vertical of Uflex in point, more than 1,600 visitors flanked the pavilion out of which close to 600 have been categorised as active queries.
"We have successfully closed several transactions and are in touch with many more prospective clients to bring them on board," says Mr Pankaj Bhasin, executive vice-president, holography business. Highest number of enquiries for brand protection solutions came in from Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Oman followed by the Latin American countries. In an encouraging first, the African Subcontinent and CIS countries also expressed strong interest for anti-counterfeiting solutions that keep the fake and spurious at bay.
Holographic Thermal Lamination Film also called the hot lamination or thermal film displayed by Uflex during DRUPA was the show stopper in its truest sense. This film has extrusion coated surface with low temperature melting resin enabling the lamination of film to paper board by heat and pressure alleviating the use of any adhesive. These films are available in PET and BOPP variants and tremendously boost the shelf appeal simultaneously combating counterfeiting. At DRUPA, LIVE demo of Thermal Lamination Machine at Uflex pavilion created instant buzz for the technology and the product offering.
Yet another product exhibited at DRUPA by Uflex Holography that has been a runaway hit is Hot and Cold Stamping Foils widely used for printing, packaging and textile industry enhancing visual appeal and offering superior brand protection at the same time. A lot of enquiries for these foils poured in from Turkey and UAE. Uflex with nearly two decades of rich experience in developing stamping foils has developed formulations that ensure high degree of consistency and reliability. These foils are available in silver, gold and a variety of metallic hues. With a right blend of creative expertise, infrastructure and technical capabilities Uflex delivers foils with superior shine, brilliance and durable impression.
Recombined Holograms have received tremendous interest ever since they have been displayed by Uflex at DRUPA. In a typical recombined hologram, various anti-counterfeiting features are all clubbed onto one holographic strip offering unmatched brand protection against plagiarism. Thus a recombined hologram can have unigram, 2D barcode, QR code, nano-texting, 3D modulated depth effect, Fresnel lens, embossed text effect, Guilloche Pattern and many more features on one single strip.
"With counterfeiting costing more than 2% of the global economic output or around $1.8tn a year, the demand for brand protection solutions is at an all-time high. We are doing all that it takes to tap this demand. Holography is a specialised business that requires cutting edge technology to protect the brand equity of clients. Having full grip on technology and innovation we have declared full-fledged war against counterfeiting with more and more corporations approaching us for brand protection solutions," added Mr Pankaj Bhasin.
"The response for all the machines displayed i.e. Gravure Printing, Lamination and Slitting machines has been exhilarating. Negotiations are on with the clients to successfully close the business enquiries that originated during DRUPA. What I particularly noticed about this year’s event is the fact that even though the footfalls were less in number, they were meaningful and with serious enquiries. Moreover, here we are talking about capital intensive packaging and converting machines, therefore decisions cannot be made overnight by the buyers.
"We offer bespoke engineering solutions to our clients that require lot of deliberations and discussions. I am happy to say that while we have been able to close some enquiries already, talks are on with almost 50 global clients to bring them on board. Our team is busy giving DRUPA 2016 a strong sense of successful closure", says Mr Ajay Tandon, president and CEO, engineering business, Uflex Limited.
For being the much popular and celebrated event that it is, Mr Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director, Uflex Limited, chose to personally attend DRUPA. Upon returning from Dusseldorf, Mr Chaturvedi said: "This year, the world witnessed a paradigm shift at DRUPA. Conventionally it is viewed as a printing industry affair, but this year the focus was substantively tilted towards packaging with almost 35% of the attendees expressing interest in the latest packaging technology and products.
"DRUPA had an undeniably significant packaging flair this time around. Being India’s largest global flexible packaging solution company, heads of all the business verticals at Uflex namely Film, Packaging/Converting, Holography, Engineering, Cylinders and Chemicals were present with their respective teams during the event and had some very insightful discussions with prospective clients who are more evolved, better informed and are looking at one stop shop addressing all their flexible packaging requirements.
"Though the event has officially closed, the business dialogues still continue full steam with many guests now visiting our manufacturing plants to take the discussion to the next level. DRUPA is far from over for Uflex. The action has just begun."