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JAYAKRISHNA VALLURU PROFILE

Life begins at the end of your

comfort zone

H ailing from Bangalore in India, Jayakrishna Valluru has an educa-

tional background in printing. He has done a printing engineering
degree from BMS College of Engineering in Bangalore and a
Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from SDM-IMD
Mysore. And he was campus recruited by Kodak Polychrome
Graphics. He says he got into printing by chance. After the entrance examina-
tion, he was allocated printing engineering in his home town Bangalore and
pursued it. Jayakrishna loves to read books and owns a small library at home.
After his engineering, he first worked with Indo European Machinery, the
distributor of many well-known graphic arts equipment. Some brands
included Man Roland, Kolbus, Sigloch, Steinemann, Timsons, Aster, Ryobi
and Scan Graphic. He worked with Indo European for a few years and got back
to academics to pursue his business management course. Upon completion of
the two years course in 2001, he got campus recruited at KODAK Polychrome
Graphics. He continued to work with Kodak until he came to the United Arab
Emirates in 2004. He went on a visit and took up a job with AGE Graphics
Equipments. Now it’s 17 years, and he continues to serve the same company in
the current position of managing director.
AGE was started in Saudi Arabia in the year 2002. They moved to Dubai in
2003. An American entrepreneur started the company to help a friend of his,
who worked for many years at Heidelberg, Canada. They started the company
by getting an exclusive dealership for Presstek in the GCC Region. AGE was ting up QC labs. We also sell Spectro densitometers and plate readers. 4)
the first in the region to offer an ultimately chemistry-free plate. AGE was Certification Of Printers – We are a team with G7 certified experts, and we can
offering chemistry-free plates almost 18 years ago. They were a Pre Press help our customers’ get G7 Certification.
Company during the initial years, and now they equally focus on Pre Press and “For business owners, the benefits of being a G7 Master Facility are simple.
Post Press products. Initially, they were a bigger team to accommodate the Their customer base will increase due to print buyers actively seeking out sup-
consumable business. Now their focus is more on machinery. So they are pliers who are G7 certified. Also, their costs will go down because of reduced
rightly sized to meet the demands of the market. paper waste and ink consumption. The G7 methodology allows you to:
Jayakrishna names some of the changes he has seen in the printing industry Implement ISO printing standards and additional metrics Align all process,
in his long-term experience. They are more automation in equipment, e-com- substrates and inks.”
merce and web to print, growth in packaging printing, growth in print embel- When asked about the success mantra of his company, Jayakrishna said,
lishments, the importance of sustainability in the printing industry and “being Humble and understanding our customers’ needs is the key to our suc-
single-use plastic being replaced by paper or paper board. Also, he explains cess. We do thorough research before we represent and sell any of the equip-
how the print industry in his home country differs compared to the Middle ment. We have many very senior-level contacts in India and abroad who guide
East or elsewhere. He says, “I am from the printing industry here in the Middle us to choose the right equipment. We make sure that the equipment we pro-
East. There is much prominence being laid on the environment aspect in pose to sell is being used extensively by the big and the best players in print
Europe, America and some parts of Asia. A lot of environment-friendly pro- worldwide. Since my work experience in India involved working for a com-
cesses, materials and applications are being tried. We need to follow these pany that sold and serviced various graphic arts equipment, I have maintained
practices. We want to promote and get products and technologies that will good relations with most of the engineers, consultants, operators, CEOs and
contribute towards local environmental protection.” owners for a long time. We understand, printers are investing their hard-
He adds, “It is mainly the education we need to impart to make the print earned money into new projects, and we want to fully ensure that they are
community aware of sustainability. You should not look at things only from the selecting the best Brands/Equipment within a particular product category.
cost point of view. We will then not be able to implement anything green. It is With the time and effort that we put in to, before representing a brand, we
like the cost of electric vehicles at present. As more and more people buy make sure our customers get back the best value for the money that they
them, the cost will come down. It’s the same with products and processes for spend.”
our industry too. That’s the reason I say that education and push from the He continues, “We deal with only the best equipment brands from China
government to move towards greener alternatives will help.” and around the world. This is another reason for our success. To give an exam-
Jayakrishna opens up about the main challenges he has been facing in the ple, we represent DGM for their folder gluers/die cutters/foil Stampers. DGM
printing industry. He says one of the main challenges is the resistance to is a 37 years old company and one of the premium manufacturers for packag-
change. It is tough to convince many printers to consider newer technologies, ing equipment in China. They have brought over some European manufactur-
materials, and software that would change productivity levels and help ers too. DGM is the world’s largest manufacturer of folder gluer machines.
improve their business. Many printers are comfortable in the way they are They have sold 550 machines last year and close to 75 machines in the last two
operating even though they need to change. years in India alone. We are sure that our customers will succeed using the
Jayakrishna says, “AGE Graphics is specialised in four areas of print: 1) Post equipment that is time tested in the international markets.”
Press Products – That Include folder gluers, die-cutting and foiling machines, He added that AGE did win a trophy from Presstek for achieving the highest
lamination machines, paper bag machines, window patching machine, sales in chemistry-free plates.
sheeter, carton erecting machines, rigid box lines to name a few. 2) Software Signing off, Jayakrishna suggested, “my advice to the printers is to be unique
and Pre-Press – we sell and support packaging software for keyline generation with your product offering. How to be Unique is again a question that the
and Pre-Press design. We also sell colour Management software, Workflow printer must answer by himself. Environmental regulations will also open up
software, QC software for colour management, used and new CTP devices, to new markets for printers with applications that were earlier catered by plastic.
name a few. 3) QC Labs – We help the print and packaging companies in set- E-commerce will also open up newer applications for printers.”
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