Xerox to launch 10 printing products

Xerox India is planning to launch 10 more products this year, specially targeting the graphic arts market and corporate sectors like banking, telecommunications and retail.

The new products will be priced between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 5 crore for hardware, and Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2 crore for software.

While the hardware of its products is manufactured by Xerox at its manufacturing plants in Holland and US, the software is developed in partnership with other information technology companies.

Currently Xerox has over 30 products in India.

According to Vipin Tuteja, executive director - production systems group of Xerox India, "The banking, telecom and retail verticals make up for 80 per cent of our revenues currently."

Xerox is also expecting the small and medium businesses (SMBs) to contribute close to 40 per cent to the company's overall revenues by the next three years. SMBs currently contribute close to 20 per cent to the company's revenues.

"Although digital printing caught on only three years ago, SMBs have started understanding and accepting its utilities about a year ago," Tuteja informed.

Xerox expects Indian SMBs to use its products for applications like printing brochures, booklets, manuals, photobooks, albums, among others.

Xerox is also eyeing sales growth on the back of growth in media and publishing businesses in India.

"For instance, as more and more media companies adopt the tabloid format, Xerox sees a higher sales surge for some of its products that can manage tabloid sizes and even remote printing," Tuteja informed.

Currently, contribution to Xerox's revenues from media companies is negligible, Tuteja said.

The Indian digital printing industry is projected to grow to $17 billion by 2010, from an estimated $11 billion in 2005, and $12.1 billion in 2007 according to the print and packaging research organisation, Pira International.

By 2015, the global digital printing products market could account for almost 30-35 per cent of the overall printing market.

Digital monochrome and colour printing together account for 3 per cent of the volume of publication and commercial printing in 2007 but is predicted to reach 25 per cent by 2010. Digital printing would not overtake the traditional print products sector anytime soon. However, the digital segment would soak up most of the growth.