Vijas Digital: Building on the gains

For 20 years and more, Mumbai-based digital printing firm Vijas Digital (I) Pvt Ltd has been making its mark in the printing business while catering to a wide cross-section of customers that include corporates, outdoor media owners and specialist agencies, POP producers, among others. The firm's directors Jamal Agwan and Altaf Agwan are of the firm belief that strict adherence to good quality standards alone will deliver sustainable business growth. Hence, in their engagement with the outdoor media industry, the duo have always impressed upon the customers to use the right media, and not compromise on the quality of prints for sake of minor cost savings.

Vijas Digital has traversed a long business journey in the last two decades that began with pre-press activities. In 2003, the firm forayed into digital printing for the indoor and entered the outdoor space in 2007. In 2009, the firm broad-based its activities with offset packaging and started commercial offset printing in 2011-12. The firm entered the POP space in 2013-14. Jamal informed that the firm's new printing facility for POP business in Vasai will become operational by July 1.

Talking about the firm's engagement with the outdoor industry, Jamal said that the engagement was stepped up in 2007 when the firm acquired its first Vutek printing machine. In 2008, Vijas Digital acquired another three Vutek printing machines. The firm has gone from strength to strength since.

Looking back, Jamal felt that the outdoor industry has been rather focused on the price factor when it comes to printing, paying scarce attention on the quality of work. Hence, Vijas Digital has had to encounter still price competition while operating in a highly commoditised business environment. Altaf pointed out that the firm tided over the challenges and wrested a sizeable share of the market by maintaining a clear focus on the quality of work delivered to customers even if the margins were squeezed at times.

Jamal expressed hope that in the coming times the advertising brands will pay more attention to printing quality. Currently, many of the brands seem to pay less attention to this aspect. Jamal pointed out that the brands are quite willing to spend high amounts on outdoor media but are highly price sensitive when it comes to the printing cost, although it is the quality of printing that will make any outdoor display stand out amid a cluster of displays.

Vijas Digital has created top-end infrastructure to do its printing business that includes seven Vutek printing machines. One more will be added to the facility soon, said Altaf. Overall, the facility has the capacity to handle 2 lakh sq. ft of printing a day.

As of now, Vijas Digital largely caters to the western India markets with particular focus on Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Commenting on the use of environment-friendly media, Jamal said that until advertising brands and specialist agencies insist upon the use of environment-friendly materials, the current situation will persist.

When pointed out that in the monsoon season not all prints seem to withstand high winds, Altaf said that thicker media could have somewhat addressed the issue. Also, in some of the overseas markets they create small holes on the prints so that air can pass through. Perhaps, such practices could also help.

Looking ahead, the leadership at Vijas Digital hopes that customers will increasingly focus on quality of work, and not just on price. One way of achieving this would be by building widespread awareness about superior quality printing technologies and practices.