How Konica Minolta is building print momentum in Chennai
From colour-accurate tags to custom packaging, the Japanese major is riding Tamil Nadu’s digital printing boom with a service-led approach and machines tailored to India’s fragmented, high-demand print landscape. SR Vasudevan, regional general manager for South PPDC sales at Konica Minolta Business Solutions India discusses how his team is driving print in Chennai.
22 Aug 2025 | 346 Views | By Noel D'Cunha
The meeting had run into its second day. A printer from Chennai had booked time at Konica Minolta’s newly opened demo centre. His need was simple, but uncompromising: colour consistency across high-volume tag printing. He had already tested a few presses in the market. At the demo centre, he ran 5,000 prints, checking colour balance and sheet alignment. By the end of it, the deal was done.
SR Vasudevan, regional general manager for South PPDC sales at Konica Minolta Business Solutions India, was not surprised. “We tell clients to test the machines the way they would use them in real life,” he says. “If the machine passes that test, it is a partnership, not just a purchase.”
The firm’s investment in this tactile, test-based approach is paying off. In Tamil Nadu, Konica Minolta’s footprint has expanded rapidly, KM has digital production machine in three digits installed in Tamil Nadu with Chennai leading in the number of installed machines. In the high-volume production digital segment, it holds a leadership market share. But beyond the numbers lies a shift in how digital printing is now understood in the region. It is not just as a tool for volume, but as a solution for control, consistency, and application diversity.
Digital is no longer an alternative
Over the past decade, Tamil Nadu has emerged as one of India’s fastest-growing regions for digital printing adoption. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pace only quickened. For Vasudevan, the shift was visible across sectors. Printers serving religious institutions, photo studios, educational publishers, and packaging vendors all began turning to digital not as a fallback, but as their first line of production. “Inventory aversion drove the wave,” he explains. “Printers didn’t want to stock 10,000 calendars and wait to sell. Now they print 1,000, or even 100, as orders arrive.” That agility has now hardened into expectation.
Digital presses, unlike offset, can accommodate short runs without any setup time or material waste. In Chennai’s Royapettah print zone, where more than 450 presses from brands like Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, and Konica Minolta jostle for attention, the real game is no longer about the machine. It’s about who can deliver application-ready precision with the fewest complications.
A different model for every print corridor
“Each printer has a different lens about the market,” Vasudevan says. One shop prints high-colour devotional posters. Another runs ITC booklet jobs. A third serves export clients from Sri Lanka. “The kit needs to reflect the specificity.” Konica Minolta’s portfolio is built around this fragmentation. Its AccurioPress range serves the commercial and creative segments. Its high-chroma toner variants, especially the AccurioPress C84hc and C74hc target South India’s love for deep, vibrant colour. Over 200 such machines are in operation in Tamil Nadu alone. Meanwhile, the AccurioPress C12000 caters to firms pushing a lakh prints a month, while light production presses are ideal for niche applications like photo albums, certificates, and labels.
Label printing, a growth segment, is handled by the AccurioLabel (AL) series. The AL-230 and AL-400, supported by Konica Minolta’s industrial division, have been installed in Chennai, Bengaluru, plus Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Software and service as competitive weapons
A consistent theme across conversations with printers in Chennai is that Konica Minolta’s hardware is dependable, but it’s the service and software that sets it apart. Vasudevan points to the Image Quality (IQ) software as a key differentiator. It performs real-time colour calibration during the print run, which not only improves colour accuracy but reduces misprints. “We’re seeing almost zero wastage on machines running with IQ,” he says. For clients printing tags, labels, or brand-compliant packaging, this is critical.
The AP Flux software further enhances value by making variable data printing more accessible. Clients use it to produce unique invitations, QR-encoded labels, or sequentially numbered documents, all without external design plugins.
Behind the software sits the service team. Based out of Konica Minolta’s 8,000-sqft regional office and its 2,000-sqft demo centre, the company’s Chennai operations are set up to provide same-day response for both installations and technical issues. “Our promise is: machines don’t stop,” Vasudevan says. The engineering team even trains client operators to resolve basic issues, cutting downtime to a minimum.
The showroom that sells without selling
The demo centre in Chennai opened 18 months ago and has already received more than 2,500 visitors. But its function is not just transactional. It is built as an experience space.
Printers are encouraged to bring their own files, substrates, and print objectives. They run live jobs on the presses, with engineers on hand to tweak settings. “Some clients print five sheets. Some print five thousand,” Vasudevan says. “The important part is they leave with certainty.”
This approach also helps the brand capture niche requirements that often fall outside the generic sales pitch. If a printer wants to test duplex alignment on 350-gsm synthetic media, they can. If another wants to compare gloss variance between the C84hc and C14000, they can.
That ability to de-risk the purchase is what drives trust. “No two printers in Chennai do the same thing,” Vasudevan says. “The demo centre lets them find their own reason to commit.”
From print to partnership
Konica Minolta’s push is no longer just to sell hardware. It is to become a technology and training partner. Konica Minolta’s pre-sales engineers work with clients to understand their current volume and help them plan for growth. Machines are mapped to print cycles. Software is matched to applications. Skill gaps are closed with training.
“A printer running 300 sheets a day could be running 3,000 in two years,” Vasudevan says. “Our job is to make sure the investment today can be scaled-up for tomorrow.”
That level of integration is what allows Konica Minolta to build relationships with long-term value. Clients don’t just buy again; they buy deeper. A shop that began with a KM Bizhub Press C6000 may now operate a AccurioPress C12000, with a label press and variable data software layered in.
A city and a brand both on the move
Tamil Nadu’s printing sector is shifting from a traditional offset print economy to a more agile, hybrid ecosystem. Digital printing is no longer niche. It is embedded in the system. What Konica Minolta has done in this environment is engineer both speed and certainty. In a market that prints everything from religious ephemera to export-ready packaging, the ability to serve without overproducing has become a competitive advantage.
As the company looks ahead, Vasudevan is optimistic. Packaging and labels are heating up. Customisation is no longer a novelty. And younger printers are bringing new expectations into the industry. “They want automation. They want low waste. They want software that works out of the box,” he says.
Konica Minolta is responding with an evolving product roadmap, a regional service network, and a demo experience that reduces decision-making friction. The goal is not to replace offset. It is to define the kind of digital print economy that works for the next decade. “It is not about being the fastest or the cheapest,” Vasudevan says. “It’s about being the most relevant press in the factory.”