At Pamex 2020, held between 6 and 9 January 2020 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai, Bobst promoted its entire range of products as well as its Competence Center in India. “At Pamex, we are focusing on the folder-gluer and corrugated board industry. We have a world-class folder-gluer manufacturing facility near Pune for both local and global markets. At this plant, we are also partially manufacturing machine parts for the corrugated board industry. At our Competence Center in Pune, we have our diecutters and folder-gluers installed where we do a lot of job trials, demos and operator training courses for our customers. The operator training course is a 3-month residential course. So far till 2019, we have placed more than 110 trained operators in the field. At Pamex 2020, we are highlighting everything that we do and manufacture,” said Venugopal Menon of Bobst India. Menon said that Bobst garnered good response at Pamex 2020 inking a few orders too.”

Menon shared that the folding carton industry is going through a huge shift in last 3 to 4 years. “We can see a lot of shift happening from the unorganized segment to the organized segment – a shift where commercial printers and book printers are diversifying to packaging. I think, Bobst has been able to capture a major pie of this segment, the reason being, customers who are new in the packaging industry look to have a reliable partner who can support them not only today but also in the years to come. And with more than 100 years of experience in the folding carton business, I think we would be the right partner for any customers when it comes to packaging,” said Menon

Meanwhile, Menon also shared that Bobst has so far five customers running the Speedwave technology on Expertfold folder-gluers in India. “In terms of technology, in 2019 we launched the new Novacut diecutter, and also introduced Speedwave technology on the Expertfold folder-gluer. One of our Speedwave customers at Pamex remarked that they could increase the productivity almost by 100% on the crush-lock bottom cartons because of the Speedwave technology on their folder-gluer. It was a fantastic remark for a customer to make,” said Menon. Bobst has more than 10 years of experience in Speedwave technology on Masterfold folder-gluer which it has now brought on the Expertfold folder-gluer as well.

Speaking about the economy slowdown in India, Menon shared, “Yes, definitely there was some slowdown in 2019 which may continue through 2020 in short term. Meeting so many customers and brand owners from the industry, I hope the market should revive by Q2 2020. We are positive because we have seen this slowdown cycle once every 7-8 years. But India being such a big country, people have to buy and consume. The consumption story is here to remain, and the market will bounce back in a couple of quarters.”