Tushar Dhote

How the World of Print has changed during the last 15 months of the Pandemic
The advent of the Covid-19 virus has suddenly impacted the lives of people around the globe in a manner which no one could have ever visualised. Businesses all around were affected, some drastically and others not so much. The Commercial Printing business has been seeing a downward trend since the last couple of years. With the increased dependence on digital means during pandemic there has been a huge impact on physical printing. What was expected to happen eventually in a few years has suddenly become visible now, putting brakes on the commercial print segment. However, there are always two sides of a coin. We either look at this disruption negatively, thinking all is lost and that printing is dead or try to search for opportunities by exploring possibilities of printing that can survive this onslaught of the pandemic.
What is it that has suddenly changed for us Printers?
a) The corporate demand for print had reduced and digital marketing came into prominence.
b) Education going online suddenly saw demand falling to the lowest for printed books.
c) Uncertainty due to the pandemic situation saw new projects in building and infrastructure stalled due to migration of Labour.
d) The Government suddenly withdrew the printing of diaries, calendars and annual reports for PSU’s, which sent a wrong signal to private corporates, who found a reason not to print and cut costs.
All these factors affected printers who had built their capacity over the years to service these print requirements.
And now for the big question in everyone’s mind, “Is Print Dying”?
Well, my personal contention is that print can never die. It certainly can change its form but can never become extinct. Now, we come to the possible opportunities for the print entrepreneurs. As observed by me, the sudden disruption due to the pandemic saw a huge increase in various avenues due to the following pattern –
a) E- Commerce was thriving as people bought everything from groceries to cooked food and even fresh vegetables and meat. This created opportunities in flexible packaging and carry bags etc. which were made from paper and were environmental friendly and sustainable.
b) Pharmacy needed new and renewable packaging, even with personalisation to an extent.
c) As lots of jobs were lost and people were given pink slips to reduce staff strength, we saw a spurt in small businesses which could be operated out of home and which needed personalized print collaterals. This saw digital printing volumes growing in a much focused direction.
The last year saw a huge growth of new start-ups coming in with new creative ideas, needing physical print stationery like visiting cards, letterheads and invoices for their new business ventures. I totally understand that there still remains a question of how we should restructure our existing units. Do we need to get rid of the capex that we have made over the years?
Certainly not, as you may not get the right price for your equipment in this situation.

What we can instead do is –
a) Join hands with our fellow printers and collaborate with them in sharing printing loads by utilising spare capacities in production.
b) Become asset light and outsource print jobs with printers who are capable of sharing your vision and QC levels by creating SOP’s and monitoring the logistical process.
c) Invest in progressive technology which will remain relevant for the next seven to ten years period so that a comfortable ROI can be obtained over the first two or three years and profiting from the rest till the life span of the machines.
d) Being innovative and creative while executing the job, you need to have total control over revenue and expenditure.
To sum it up, the Print Service Providers (PSP’s) need to focus on the most important aspects of any business.

The Importance of Relationships
The uncertainty associated with the pandemic has had a lot of people—and businesses—on edge. As a PSP, it’s important to remember that your clients are concerned about the future, just like you are. Clients need to be approached differently, and relationships have become particularly valuable. It’s also important to keep the lines of communication open with your customers. If you’re offering a new or expanded product set to support your clients, make sure they know about it. Self-promotion can be a great way to capture an additional share of the wallet from customers while also attracting new ones.

The Bottom Line
We’re all looking forward to a better and brighter 2021- 22, but these things will take time even though the vaccine has arrived. Many businesses needs changed virtually overnight when the pandemic hit earlier this year, so the Printer must change their selling strategies too. A number of businesses are struggling, so it might be more difficult to secure sales. This makes established relationships much more important because you want to be at the top of the mind of your customers when things do turn around. In some cases, you might just need to sell different things to meet your customers’ changing requirements.
Try to find new ways to help your existing clients, because they may not be aware of everything you have to offer. Also, keep in mind that this doesn’t always need to mean reinventing the wheel—you can usually stick with what you do well and shift this knowledge to new in-demand applications. With any luck, this pandemic will be behind us sooner rather than later. In the meantime, it’s important for us to nurture our existing relationships while working to form new ones, because relationships like these can carry you through these uncertain times.

Long Live Print!
Tushar Dhote
Print Technologists and Influencer