THE CLIENT
- Dinesh Khemani:
– I am Dinesh Khemani from Ahmedabad and I own Plezer Digital Imagining. We have been in the business of making photo albums since 1992.
THE CHALLENGE
The year 2020-21 YTD was difficult due to the pandemic. To be honest, the business is still about 50% down and growth and recovery has been very slow. Fortunately, I have been granted an extension on my loan installments for 3 months from HP. I bought this press last ‘Diwali’.
THE BUSINESS GOAL
In the area of digital photo printing, the older/toner printing solutions haven’t been able to keep up with the growing demands of the customers or the sophistication that is achieved with the HP digital press, given that they use liquid ink as opposed to the solid ink used in the older printers. This is the main reason behind our choice of printing solutions. As for our business goal, the HP digital press has proved useful for both digital photo album printing as well as other commercial purposes such as visiting cards, brochures and pamphlets, in a variety of options such as 7 colour, variable colour etc.
If we compare it in terms of cost, offset printing costs lesser than digital printing in the long run, but, for short to medium runs, digital is the only solution and with added capabilities of versatility, flexibility and variety that digital printing provides. I am currently using the HP 7900 model which has been installed here at Ahmedabad itself. Owing to the ongoing pandemic, all businesses have been down, the wedding industry too, but there’s been a slight growth ever since weddings have resumed. We are positive that once the pandemic situation is under control and operations and celebrations resume, business will boom.
THE SOLUTION
According to me, the HP Indigo technology is close to RGB photo printing. In my experience, other machines haven’t been able to replicate the quality of images that the HP Indigo press provides. Quality is a must in the photo industry. The liquid electronic ink used by the HP press is unparallelled in terms of details, colour gamuts etc. The machine that I have installed produces prints that are 13 x 19 (inch) in dimensions. A majority (about 90 %) of the photo albums that are produced uses the 12 x 13 (inch) format. Since we do not receive a lot of orders for bigger size formats, we are happy with the current model. The upgradation to 7 colour has been very helpful with the introduction of new vibrant inks, i.e. Vivid Green and Vivid Pink. Now we can print vivid colors like pink, green , blue and red and have seen a lot of change and improvement in wedding photo albums. Moreover, the machine prints at a good speed, all the while maintaining the sharpness and details in the prints. HP takes care of the maintenance as well. I have been using HP printers in my business for 5 years now. I was using a different model earlier and switched to this one last November. The current model has really levelled-up in terms of technology.
THE FINAL WORD
As of now, we are completely focussed on photo printing, but, for the longer run, I plan to get into label printing as well. I’m talking about the stickers used on products such as medicine bottles. HP has those machines too. I would like to conclude my testimonial by saying that, for the product that I’m selling and the business that I’m into, no other company has a better printing solution. HP Indigo digital printing press is the perfect solution that meets my printing needs. If you’re in the photo industry, HP is definitely the way to go.
THE CLIENT
2. Dhruv Kaneriya
-I am the owner of Smart Digital Press, which is located in Surat. We are in the business of manufacturing wedding photo albums and photo books. Our business has been using HP printers since 2016. In the wedding album/photo book market, HP is a very well known brand. The Indigo digital printing press is really good and provides near-offset quality of images. Moreover, HP has clearly done a lot of technological innovations in this product-line, for example, the introduction of VP and VG Vibrant colours, which is included in the Series 3 model owned by us, has really helped us provide new types and qualities of products in the market, that marks our shift from CMYK colours to Vibrant colours.
THE CHALLENGE
Speaking of the pandemic, the business has been down because weddings had fallen in numbers, and this will keep on going on until the situation is under control. People have become more focussed regarding their spending habits and bugets, and this has definitely put a strain on businesses. But we are hopeful that business will pick up soon.
THE SOLUTION
I am currently using the Series 3, 7900 model and it has been installed here in Surat. Earlier, the wedding albums made in RGB formats were quite heavy and lacked variety. But now, with the HP digital press, they need not be. The press uses different types of papers, laminations and colour formats which provide the customers a lot of variety and light-weight options. Moreover, we were limited to 30-sheet per album using the earlier printers, but now, we can easily print 50-sheets per album. Needless to say, this is a great advantage for the photographers and photography industry as a whole. For years now, people have been seeing the same types of photo albums. But, with the introduction of the HP Indigo digital press, HP has brought novelty into an old concept. The company has brought vibrant colours and other unique features which have overall improved the customer experience, be it the life-cycle of the product or the lasting “new-look” that the prints are able to provide. The photo books are laminated, provide long term colour consistency and the weather-effect (deterioration in quality due to external factors such as weather) is much lesser and slower.
The introduction of Vibrant colours i.e. the VP and VG colours is one of the major advantages of using this product. The other printers in the market are still using the CMYK printers. What this means is that in case of other printers, the colours that we see on the prints and the colours that we see on the computer screen have a vast difference. With VP and VG (Vivid Pink and Vivid Green) colours, the fluorescent colours are also being printed, allowing us to provide products with better quality to our customers. I have been using HP printers since 2014 and we are trying to introduce new products in the market using the HP indigo press. So far, there is very little awareness in the market about the VP VG option provided by the HP digital press. Hence, we have been trying our best to create product awareness among potential customers.
THE FINAL WORD
Using HP has been great for our business because not only are their products amazing, but so is their support and services. It has helped us in maintaining the flow of revenue.
