Despite Challenges, Image King Continues to Grow and Retain its Leadership Position in the Indian Imaging Industry

In an interaction with Imaging Solution magazine, Mr. Masood Khan, CEO of Chennai-based Image Star Print Solutions Pvt Ltd (the brand owner of Image king), shares about their brand policy, vision and success story.  Image King, one of the leading brands in the imaging aftermarket industry, provides a wide range of imaging consumables, including toner powders, toner cartridges, cartridge parts, etc. Image Star is also one of the top importers of laser toner cartridges and toner powders in India.

The last 2 years have been tumultuous for the entire industry including the imaging industry due to Covid and other things. What did you learn and how did you manage your business?

Covid, though over now, has taught all of us many things, especially about the importance of human life, relationships, values, emotions and above all togetherness. It helped us to understand several new dimensions of the business such as work from home, importance of online business, new ways to manage the channel, etc which we never imagined. Despite all the problems, India still managed to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the industry and economy are back on track now. Since, we, at Image Star, adopted cloud software and modern technologies, we could manage and overcome the problems during lockdowns and catch up fast. Image King has been witnessing a rapid growth, much higher than we expected; Our growth rate is over 68% in the first half of 2022-23 compared to the corresponding period in 2021-22.

How Image King is doing at present? What new products have you added in the last 6 months and what do you plan to launch in the near future?

Image King continues to maintain its leading position in the market. Today, most brands in the cartridge industry have understood that selling lower quality products would result in more rejections from the customers and bring down the reputation of the brand, which cost the companies more in the long-run. Next, since the margins have shrunk substantially, everyone learned that they should reduce operating cost as much possible.  IMAGE KING has been reputed for its superior quality and hence the partners who have been with us are benefitting by dealing with our products. Out channel policies are also very clear and partner-friendly which help the partners to enjoy good profits despite high competition in the market.

What challenges do you face at present in the imaging consumables market?

The biggest challenge is the industry is users are shifting from refilling to finished compatible toner cartridges and as result of which the refillers are suffering losses; people working in the refilling firms are losing jobs and those selling cartridge parts are also hit due users opting for compatible cartridges over remanufactured OEM cartridges. Industry leaders should find out solutions to support the refilling industry. IMAGE KING believes in growing along with the refillers and always wishes to take all the necessary steps to save the refillers and the staff working with refillers.

What schemes have you launched for the festive season and what are your future plans?

Festive seasons are always the celebration time at IMAGE STAR and bring us cheers, growth and happiness. The IMAGE STAR PARIVAR – a community of high profile and matured business partners from all over the country – has been working sincerely to promote Image King and its products. In the last week of November we are celebrating our company’s 27th Anniversary. On this occasion, we launched several incentive schemes for our partners, and our partners are performing well. We are working consistently to meet the growing demand for IMAGE KING products and to protect the interests of our partners.