"India cannot be ignored in the international arena," says Jean-Charles Morisseau of Diadeis
Mumbai-based Alia has been acquired by Paris-based Diadeis. Jean-Charles Morisseau, chairman at Diadeis, speaks about his plans to strengthen the firm's global footprint. In a conversation with Tanvi Parekh, he discusses the growing Indian pre-media segment
03 May 2014 | By PrintWeek India
"India cannot be ignored in the international arena," says Jean-Charles Morisseau of Diadeis
This is the first time Diadeis has invested in the Indian market. What were the factors of the Indian market / economy that led to this move?
India is a country which cannot be ignored in the international arena. It's one of the fastest growing market for our international clients, who are considering it as an important outlet for their products. There is also a vast clientele of local brand owners who are requiring quality results for their marketing materials and in particular their packages. Some Indian brand owners are also expanding globally.
Of the many Indian pre-media players, why was Alia preferred for the acquisition?
Alia is India's largest pre-media organisation. They have the experience of working with important FMCG brand owners such as Unilever, Cadbury and GSK. Their 130 employees have state-of-art skills for all pre-press services. Furthermore, they are present not only in India, but also in Dubai, Singapore and South-Africa.
This is a 100% acquisition in several steps. The combination of Alia's excellent skills in artwork and client services and Diadeis’ experience and knowledge in reprographics, colour management and print management, will create the best pre-media offer in India, with a level of skills on the whole graphics chain never reached before.
What are the new capacities that Diadeis - Alia are targeting?
Diadeis is one of the top five international players in the pre-media industry, with a comprehensive range of services and a global presence. We believe that our new offer will be attractive to Alia's current clientele, which could benefit from Diadeis's experience in colour management and trust us with reprographics and print management work.
What about the clients?
Diadeis's clients (such as L'Oréal, Nestlé, Danone or Renault) should be interested by our reinforced presence in Asia, Middle-East and South Africa presence, and trust us to manage their brands in those markets also.
What is the projected target for the next five years?
Thanks to our reinforced offer, Diadeis expects a strong growth In the Indian market and also in its other markets.
Your comments on the pre-media segment; global and Indian markets.
Pre-media, in particuliar in the packaging industry, needs a specialist approach. While earlier artworks were done by design agencies and reprographics by printers, the biggest brand owners have chosen to trust their artwork and reprographics management to the pre-media agencies, who have the skills and the tools to manage pre-press projects on a large scale with the high quality that they expect.
This is prevalent elsewhere ...
Yes, this is already common in Europe and United States, and will also be the case in India, soon.
What kind of patterns do you see in the market?
Recent trends in the pre-media markets show that brand owners tend to trust the pre-media agencies to manage on a comprehensive range, not only for their packaging needs, but also for all PoS and BTL materials.
Do you see the trend of merger and acquisition dominating the print industry?
Many brand owners are organisng their graphic chain on a global level, to ensure brand consistency and reduce costs and time-to-market. They seek providers which are able to manage a brand on a large geographical scale, which also means dealing with important volume of production on short lead-times. This explains why the pre-media industry, and more broadly the print industry, has known recently many mergers and acquisitions.
Does Diadeis intend to acquire other pre-media firms in the near future?
Diadeis is looking into a few more acquisitions in other Asian countries, but also in North America and South America to strengthen further its international footprint.
Editor's comment: Please nb: Diadeis did not wish to comment on details of the deal.
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