Home : News & Events : News & Press Releases : Venture breaks new ground with own branded product

Source: Business Times

By Kenneth James - Business Times
Aug 26, 2002

(SINGAPORE) Venture Corp's first self-branded product, a Singapore-designed digital colour label printer for businesses, will bring in 'several hundred million dollars' in annual sales, senior executives say.

And that's only part of the good news for Venture chief executive Wong Ngit Liong. The VP2020 printer - the first of its kind in the world - represents a significant departure from Venture's traditional contract design and manufacturing approach, and he's elated that the new business model has kicked off so smoothly.

'It's a new direction, an added dimension to our business,' he told BT over the weekend. 'We're stringing together world-class groups in a collaborative business partnership, and as a collaborative whole, we can access the market immediately.' For instance the VP2020 pulls together the industry expertise of VIPColor Technologies Pte Ltd, a newly-formed subsidiary; the design and production capabilities of Venture; ink-jet technology from printer leader Hewlett-Packard; and contributions to print media, software and equipment development from major players in the respective areas.

The breakthrough printer is only the first step in a new growth frontier for Venture, Mr Wong adds. 'Obviously we're going to look around for similar opportunities, in networking and communications, in all the other areas we are involved. We will be looking for enabling technologies, and interested groups which have complementary core competencies.'

And in a reference to market talk that Venture is an acquisition target, he quips: 'We will be looking for opportunities to acquire, rather than be acquired.'

For VIPColor Technologies co-founder and CEO Sean Marske the project is an entrepreneurial dream come true. Mr Wong explains: 'He approached us four years ago and said, 'I have this great idea, you have this team of (researchers); if we can create this product it will be a big hit in the market'.

'Working in this market, he knew that everybody would be clamouring for a product like this.'

Initial response appears to be proving Mr Marske right. He relates: 'We were in the National Hardware Show in Chicago two weeks ago, that's the largest show for manufacturers of hardware goods. And we were swamped every single day, everybody who distributes products in that industry were wanting to sign up.' He adds with a laugh: 'It's a very different situation from my previous career where we were always begging resellers to sell our product. Now it's the other way around.' The reason is that 'the product we have here is breakthrough, there's really nothing like it in the market today'.

The VP2020 printer addresses the needs of two key labelling market segments: on-demand barcode printing, and label printing traditionally done by big printing presses.

But the new printer also adds capabilities traditional offerings cannot match. These include high-speed, high-quality printouts at prices a fraction of the industry standards; rich, vibrant colour for bar-code labels; on-demand flexible batch printing, from one label to thousands, eliminating the waste stock that is an industry feature; Internet capability and the ability to network hundreds of the printers; and automated maintenance functions.

Mr Marske estimates that 'once we attain market volume (and) sales momentum', VIPColor products could take 5 per cent of the 700,000 printers sold per year for the bar-code label market, and about 1 per cent of the colour package label market, currently worth about US$10 billion a year. 'So in essence we estimate the market in a few years for VIPColor to be about several hundred million dollars a year.'

Mr Wong quickly adds: 'That's kind of conservative. If this really takes off, then of course it will be a lot more exciting.'

The trick, now, is to select the right resellers, Mr Marske says. 'This is clearly a disruptive technology in this market, and that creates workflow changes. So we really have to select carefully resellers who have the facilities to manage this type of change . . . '

Besides using what Mr Marske dubs Tier One and Tier Two resellers, the company will also adopt a strategy that goes back to Venture's roots: it will sell the printer through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), established companies which will put their brand on the product. That overcomes the reluctance of businesses to buy a new product from an unfamiliar manufacturer, he notes. 'For instance in the Basle area in Switzerland, two companies supply maybe 80 per cent of the labelling business to companies in the pharmaceutical industry. We will market through one of those companies. If it's an OEM they have been buying from for decades, they become very open, 'Come on in, let's talk'.'

The printer will be marketed in the US, Europe and Asia. Even Japan, traditionally a tough market because of its local production requirements, is showing 'strong movement', says Mr. Marske. 'We've got the two largest Japanese manufacturers of printable media now coming on board.'

* This article can also be found at http://business-times.asia1.com.sg