Agfa meets top players in Inkjet Sector

World renowned printing equipment manufacturer, Agfa has reiterated its commitment to fortify activities in the inkjet sector in Nigeria so as to make the market more vibrant and profitable to the players.

The equipment manufacturing giant hosted a open house at Sheraton, IKEJA for top players in the inkjet sector -Lagos recently and assured them of her readiness to bring the sector back to its old days when quality was the watchword through the Agfa Graphics renowned inkjet printer, recalling that JETI did set the pace for quality large format printing decades ago.

With the economic recess hitting the market, even though spare parts and consumable rates didn’t change from Agfa but the high exchange rate coupled with low buying power forced players to look for alternatives.

The Chinese equipment came in handy. Even though everyone agrees that the production quality is lower but at that lower price players could grab some business. It has become a matter of surviving for many players.

In Agfa’s move to take back its market share, they decided on hearing from the customers, top on the list is the problem of capital to invest.

While addressing the inkjet sector players, Agfa General Manager, Middle East, Africa and SAARC, Graphics/ Inkjet, Mr. Som John said the organization is ready to proffer solution to the challenges facing the customer. He however urged the customers to put their challenges forward to them to enable both parties to provide lasting solution to the challenges.

“We want to bring back the inkjet business in Nigeria. We are committed to the sector and we have the confidence that the sector is bouncing back. Our partner, Technology Global is ever ready to provide the needed after sales support and the headquarters will also give all the needed support”, Som said.

He however urges players in the industry to embrace UV machine, pointing that solvent technology is fading out. “Solvent technology will soon fade out completely. Players in the sector embrace UV because it is environmental friendly and it is good for the operators as well as the country. Let’s forget the past and move to UV and Agfa is ready to give the necessary support”, Som assured.

In the same vein, the Regional Sales Manager, Agfa Middle East Inkjet, Mr. Rajesh PATKI said the organization is committed to reactivating the Nigerian Inkjet market. He stated that the company will give the Nigerian Inkjet market players a thorough support on pricing structure on the consumables/spares that will make their business grow profitably.

“We understand there is no capital which is one of the biggest challenges right now, we will proffer a workable solution to the challenge; we only need some level of commitment from the customers and everything will work out. We are ready to support them more than ever before”, Rajesh said. He added that the company, through its partner, Technology Global Services Ltd will fix machines that may have stopped working before and bring them to workable condition. “Like never before, we are ready to support the players but the players only need to change their mindset, they should corporate with us so that we can all work together to bring the business back and we all be happy at the end”, Rajesh said.

He also urged and recommended to be ready for EXIT on Solvent base printing and move forward with UV technology. Having AGFA Printers, AGFA Inks and AGFA software – (3 Ace) with thin inks layer technology, ROI is more with low inks consumptions.

Earlier in his presentation, the Managing Director, Technology Global Services Limited, Agfa Graphics Partner, Mr. Akin Oduwole gave assurance that Inkjet business can be profitable again. He said the Chinese equipment lack the capacity for some jobs, he urges players to embrace specialty jobs which end up being more profitable.

According to Oduwole, nobody will stop Chinese machine from coming into the market but he reiterated that cheap is not always cheap because those who buy Chinese machine because it is cheap will end up spending more than they ought to spend to buy durable machine that will give premium quality and also last longer.

The Technology Global boss urged players in the Inkjet market to collaborate and pull resources together to order consumable in bulk, stating that bulk ordering will make them get consumable at cheaper rate which will in turn translated to being more competitive.

Oduwole who is the initiator of the face to face discussion forum between Agfa Graphics top management representatives and the top players in the inkjet sector in Nigeria, expressed optimism that his organization together with Agfa will bring back the lost business in the inkjet sector by giving the necessary support to the players.

Some of the top players present at the forum are the Managing Director, Bio Colours Limited, Mr. Bayo Ogundogba, Managing Director, Spec Digital Mr. Biyi Bamgbose, Managing Director, Print Options Limited, Mr. Felix, Indoor Design & Concept Limited, Mr. Kingsley James, Chief Operating Officer Digital Reality, Mrs. Elsie Akin Adesola. Jott CEO- Mr. Osobu was also present. Other companies represented at the forum include Immaculate, PrintServe, Townsway, Megaplux among others.