Digital designs for your home
Digital designs for your home

Hewlett Packard has always been the leader in innovation – be it the revolutionary printers or the portable systems. Now, with digital printing starting to take shape in the country, HP has made its first move in this segment. Puneet Chadha, Director, Graphic Business Solution, HP, tells us how the company ensures this advantage.

Aadeetya Sriram (AS): The entire imaging segment in the country has matured over the last five years. What is your take on this and how has HP contributed to the growth?

Puneet Chadha (PC): Digital printing is yet to evolve fully in the country. Overall, the printing market in India is worth Rs 1.25 crore. The digital printing segment is roughly about 4.5 per cent of the total and we expect this portion to rise in the next three years. It is predominantly a conventional market, primarily comprising enhanced walls, featured walls, dark-painted walls and wallpapers. The rest of the market is a very mural-centric sort of a market. Wall art is a different concept, which gets personalised design solutions in the market, which will go a long way as customers nowadays prefer customised carpets, ceilings, furniture, floorings and printing. Today, HP offers products for the latex printers, which can print on non-coated media. This opens up the opportunity that was not here earlier and we expect the trend to evolve and mature in the near future.

AS: What is the current scenario of this segment in the country?

PC: Everything that could go digital is going digital and printing is no exception. It has gone beyond that now; even in interior decoration, we can see how digital process has played its part. From the consumer point of view, the home furniture business, which is a Rs 10,000 crore industry, is growing at 12 per cent. Even the per-capita income growth has been drastic. Over the last couple of years, consumers have got more and more comfortable spending on home furnishing. The indicators to growth of this segment are clearly visible.

AS: The HP products are innovative. How do you intend to structure their pricing?

PC: Our products are priced at a reasonable point; we do not intend to make a high-price product costing Rs 1,000 per sq ft. We have priced it relative to what people are willing to pay right now. For example, textured wall are Rs 80 per sq ft, while paints can be anywhere between Rs 10 and Rs 60. The wallpapers start from Rs 40 and go as high as Rs 1,000 per sq ft, but typically, wallpapers are sold at Rs 150-200 per sq ft and that is the price we are targeting.

AS: Who is your targeted customer with this range of products? What are the trends in this segment?

PC: These products are being targeted across sectors. The designs are not really loud, because people want to slow down their lives in their homes. The trends that we have come across are interesting; the customer wants subtle designs, designs that can change over time and things that can be moved around, enabling one to customise their design themes. We expect the festival timeframe to be the most active period, wherein people revamp their households. Also, people are not shy of experimenting when there is something new and catchy available to them.

AS: What is the international outlook of the imaging segment? What are the challenges that the Indian segment faces?

PC: These changes in trends are primarily because there are no geographical boundaries today. It is all about making sense for the space that they have and not about walls, ceilings or rooms; it is more about the functional purpose. There was a time when we were influenced by the West and had a preference for modern products. People are going for the acrylictic kind of environment today.

AS: What will be your distribution/retailing channel for these solutions? Where will these products be made available?

PC: The idea is to make these products available countrywide. Even today, our products are available everywhere, but the pasting facility is limited to Delhi as of now. We recognise the need for us to grow our channel network and there are some people who are keen and capable to take this forward. We feel home-furnishing outlets, toy stores and book stores are the places where footfalls are already visible.

AS: You’ve stressed upon the fact that this segment still has room for growth. Do you foresee any competition from the industry?

PC: The competition scenario is hardly possible in this segment; we definitely have a first-mover advantage. At this point of time, we feel complementing the industry is more essential than trying to create competition within the industry. As far as paints are concerned, they are here to stay, but we believe that the aspirations of people will ensure that digital is the future for this industry.  

 

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