Printo Document Services Pvt. Ltd (Printo), India’s first organised retail venture in the Rs 17,000 crore market for print and document services, has announced its retail expansion plans. The company, which already operates six stores in Bangalore, plans to open 250 retail outlets over the next three years covering major cities in India in a phased manner, entailing an investment of about Rs 100 crore.
Manish Sharma, co-founder and CEO, Printo, said, “Globally, the print and document services market is an organised business worth hundreds of billions of dollars dominated by large chains that operate across geographies. In India, despite the market growing at an exponential 80 per cent year-on-year, there has been no organised attempt in this space. In that sense, Printo was a venture that was bound to happen and going by initial market response, the timing of the venture has been perfect. The introduction of branded retailing in this space is sure to change the market contours radically in the coming years.”
According to Srivats Asur, head of Operations, Printo, “While it is innovation on the go with everything that we do, we recognise that for this format to succeed, achieving certain scale and efficiency quickly is critical. Over the next three years we plan to open 250 stores, which will allow us to touch and service a consumer wherever they need us. That will lay the foundation for us to make the next big push, which combined with our growing bouquet of packaged and value-added services will give us a competitive edge.”
The company also announced that Naresh Malhotra, CEO, Café Coffee Day, will be joining its Board as an active member from July 1, 2007.
Lalana Zaveri, co-founder and director, said, “A person of the stature of Naresh Malhotra accepting to join our Board and taking active interest is important, in that it clearly validates the immense potential of our business model and this space. Besides, from the point of view of the team at Printo, we are all excited about having him among us since we will have the benefit of the expertise and experience that Naresh has of building one of India’s biggest retail success stories from scratch.”
Founded in 2006, Printo leverages digital and internet technologies to reduce people dependency in delivering print products of international standards. Besides regular services, the company has a concept wherein customers can choose from its template bank, on the internet as well as in-store, and customise it to their choice – be it marketing brochures, event collaterals, business cards, brochures, posters, or invitations.
Promoted by Manish Sharma and Lalana Zaveri, the start-up has the backing of Pravin Gandhi (co-founder, Infinity Ventures and SeedFund), Naresh Malhotra (Café Coffee Day), and Raju Venkatraman (president & COO, ICICI OneSource) as advisors and investors.
