Mr Roy Thomas
Managing Director, Orange Printers Pvt Ltd
Email: roy@orangexpress.com
www.orangexpress.com

About: Mr Roy Thomas is the managing director of Orange Printers Private Limited. He has a strong expertise in the printing technology industry.
Orange Printers Pvt Ltd is a commercial printing and packaging company based at Trivandrum Kerala. It started its humble journey in 2008. The company follows the anthem “more than ink on paper” as its vision and is known for its impeccable quality and fast turnaround time.
We interviewed him regarding his entrepreneurial journey and the excerpts are given below:

1. What made you venture into the business world? By venture, I mean your founding vision behind your organisation?

Venturing into this business was rather a gradual happening and that happening further gained vision and that vision grew into a strong Instinct and that instinct became our passion for printing.

2. Can you tell me about the initial obstacles that you faced while setting up your business? And how did you tackle them?

The day to day management and surviving the tough competition were the initial obstacles we had. We tackled these obstacles with guts, planning and vision.

3. Is your home environment conducive to your entrepreneurial aspirations?

Yes. It is. My family is my primary support system.

4. What are the core values of your organisation and how did it evolve to be a successful establishment?

The Core values of our organisation were and are, to be genuine and honest in whatever we are doing. Based on these core values we have built a strong trust with our customers and that trust is still keeping us move forward successfully.

5. Did you build your organisation with your own capital or you opted for crowdfunding or partnership?

Our business is based on the partnership model, and we have built our company from scratch using our own bare-minimum capital.

6. How was the competition in the market when you were initially setting up the roots for your business? And how did you outshine your competitors?

We had to face extremely tough competition when we started initially, and we faced it with patience and vigour.

7. As you know strong foundations make a strong building and, in this context, according to you, how important is it to have a nurturing work environment for harbouring good talent?

It is highly important to have a strong internal platform to nurture and harbour talent whether it is good or bad.

8. Today’s market is consumer driven, so, how did you build a strong customer base and impeccable brand loyalty?

We render personalized customer service, and we made sure and still make sure that every customer feels like an extraordinary customer, very special for us.

9. If you want to pick one important factor that played a major role in your success story, what would it be?

‘Speed to market’ – we had the fast turnaround time from work order to processing to completion and to delivery to the customer. This factor played a major role in our success.

 10. Every person craves the fruit of his/her hard work, for you which was the most successful and happy moment in your professional life?

Well. The happiest moment for me was being recognized at the national and international level for our little initiatives.

11. There are moments in life when you feel that you are completely drained out. In this context, what energises you to get up and move forward?

My daily responsibilities and challenges always keep me on my toes and energise me, when I feel drained out sometimes.

12. We know that the latest marketing technique when successfully adopted brings in more business, so what are you doing to market your products and services?

Ok. We have used the same modern-day marketing tools and technology everyone and everybody uses, and they have given good results for us.

13. In the modern-day scenario, evolving technology is considered to be the backbone of any business, then how would you predict the effects of technology on your business in the next 10 years?

Well. I think it is going to have a major effect. In fact, the technology is going to transform the whole of the printing industry and take it to a new level and this has not happened in the last 500 years.

14. You are a successful entrepreneur and with this expertise, what would you suggest to others to make the best use of their time?
I would suggest them to be genuine and put an honest effort without thinking about success or failure.

15.‘To grow beyond stars’ is something that literally everyone wants for their business, but can you just tell me about your near future business goals?

Well, for me, my near future goals are sustaining the momentum and settling in with future technology as it evolves.

 16.Your business clients are the ones giving bread and butter to you. In this context, have you turned down any of your clients?

Yes. I have turned down a few of them sometimes due to genuine reasons and unavoidable circumstances.

17. Now that you are successful and happy, would you like to be a mentor and give a single success mantra for the newbies in your field?

“When the window of opportunity is open, that’s when you work twice as hard”, this would be my success mantra for newbies.