Image Star Print Solutions Pvt. Ltd. with its flag ship brand Image King is known for its top performance in Indian imaging industry. Masood Khan, President, Image Star Print Solutions Pvt. Ltd in his key note to this interview is very confident to bring real colors to Indian imaging industry. He opined, “Let us live up to the level and make India proud, and work for the growth of our country as well for the growth of our imaging industry which is also called after market supplies. Come let us change these industry to prime industry since without printing nothing is possible then why can’t we make it primary industry.” Excerpts of the interview:
How Image Star is fairing in the Indian remanufacturing industry?
The main strength of Image Star Print Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is its channel network, through which it connects with its dealers from Jammu in the north to down south in Kanyakumari and from Mumbai in the west to Assam in the east. Secondly, the quality of the product contributes to its strength. Whichever product Image Star deals with, from inkjet ink, inkjet cartridges to OPC drum, toner powder, toner cartridges has been ranked top class in the industry.
Image King has always given the best to Indian imaging industry by its extensive search throughout the world and introduced it to the Indian market .When many brands look for low quality with low pricing and bring to attract traders and users, Image Star has been continuously delivering the best with steady improvement in quality. Similarly image king is promoting OPC star drum with Teflon coating, high adhesive glue along with super OPC coating which will last for number of cycles.
The introduction of this drum in Indian market has kept the customers waiting for the long delivery schedule since the demand keep increasing for star drums, due to its trouble free performance. In the year 2010, Image King was awarded the Best Emerging Brand of India and in the year 2011, Recharger recognized Image King as the Number One brand in India. Due to the above reasons Image Star has been termed as your 100% honest partner
What potential does the Indian remanufacturing industry hold in the current scenario?
The industry has shown an enormous growth for the past few years, as the Indian economy is on the full scale and people in India understood that finally it is the quality that matters and not the big OEM brand. When a good product compared to high priced OEM’s is in the market, people appreciate the product as well the partner who makes it available to the consumers. Compatible cartridges market has shown the highest growth. We, at Image Star are really on the rocks to meet out the growing demand of imaging industry.
As Image Star is full of satisfied dealers and distributor network, the main objective is to identify the right products and make it available to the Indian industry. The present activity of Image Star is to concentrate more on production, for which we have increased our toner bottling production to 10800 bottles per day. As the toner cartridges are hot in the market with sizeable capacity, it has become a difficult task to satisfy our dealers on day to day basis.
Being a new leader, what are the major challenges before you in increasing sales and how are you addressing these challenges?
Being the new leader we are experiencing lot of pressure from the competitors, as the common fact is everybody would like to share the cake. It is a general perception to go behind the leader, so we have lot of brands following us. But we continue to grow constantly. The biggest problem Image Star faces on regular basis is duplication. Often we find lot of spurious products in the name of Image King in the market, as our brand is widely popular in the market. To overcome this, Image King has brought in latest technology by using special induction VAD for toner bottles, auto printing product code with the use of expensive imported machinery which may not be available for duplicators.
How are you enabling your partner to earn more profits?
In big country like India with around 6000 cities, if a dealer is allowed to work independently in each city with the national brand as there own brand, the aspects of profitability will be more and dealers will bring greater interest in promoting Image King brand in respective cities. We at Image Star allow our channel partner to work as Kings of their territory and they are known as King’s of Image King.
How Image Star expanding Indian operations?
Image Star was started in the year 1995 and after the successful journey of 16 years; Image Star operates with seven branches across India with its head office in Chennai. With three different production plants at Chennai, Image Star has emerged as the biggest supplier of toner powder, ink jet ink, inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges and other laser printer cartridges parts.
How is your product different from others?
The main attraction of Image King brand is its packing. By the very look itself one can make out the quality of the product .The highest range of products under Image King brand, and customized marketing techniques distinguish image king from other brands. Generally any company identifies itself on the basis of either value for money or premium products, Image King brand has always been recognized as premium product supplier in Indian market. Image Star is known for its honesty towards the dealers it is also an honest partner to its suppliers, and that’s the reason why many international suppliers wish to be associated with us.
What progress has Image Star made in terms of activities and business in the last year?
Having achieved great success in terms of toner powder, OPC drums supplies, inkjet ink, inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, further to strengthening the channels in India, image king has spread its wings in Sri Lanka by opening a new office under the name Image King Lanka Pvt Ltd. Full fledge distribution is on in Dubai with the help of our sole distributor Gateway Computers (Dubai). Image king has made its entry in to Nepal also.
Where do you see Image Star in next five years?
The opportunities in Indian soil are phenomenal .The massive growth in education systems has urged the necessity for a computer and a inkjet printer for the projects among students, so the demand for inkjet cartridges are increasing. Toner cartridges demand is increasing to maximum fold as economy is fast growing in India. There is tremendous opportunity for growth in India. Image star also plans to go global by manufacturing cartridges in India since the cost of production and other areas making it feasible for exports.