Web-to-print company Vistaprint enters India with acquisition of PrintBell

Mumbai-based PrintBell, India's first online solution for corporate identity and marketing products, has been acquired by Vistaprint - a leading online provider of professional marketing products and services.

This acquisition is a part of Vistaprint’s strategy to enter the Indian market and increase its worldwide presence currently prevalent in 24 countries in the form of 24 global websites delivering services to 130 countries.

As part of this agreement, PrintBell founder and CEO Nilesh Parwani who established the company in 2007 will serve as the managing director of a new wholly owned Vistaprint subsidiary in India.

"We are excited about future expansion in India," said Robert Keane, president, chief executive officer and founder of Vistaprint in Paris in 1995.

Vistaprint’s revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 grew to $212.4 million, a 25% increase over revenue of $170.5 million reported in the same quarter a year ago.

Parwani added: "Vistaprint has established itself as a clear global  industry leader and I am certainly excited to launch its unique and disruptive platform in India.  I truly believe that a combination of PrintBell’s local market presence and Vistaprint’s proprietary technologies will offer the Indian consumer a unique product offering ranging from basic visiting cards to customised corporate gifts that will help Indian business owners enhance their brand image and awareness with just a few clicks."

Vistaprint applies the principles of mass production to printing. It uses presses and processes of industrial printing for short-run commercial printing, with an aim to achieve units costs close to that of industrial printing. It uses self-service design, proofing and ordering at the front-end through the web, and controlled printing, cutting, packing and dispatching at the back-end through printing plants. The key aspects of the process are system integration, aggregation, standardisation and automation.

Based in Venlo, the Netherlands Vistaprint employs over 3,100 employees globally in its offices and printing facilities. Its three printing facilities, which total almost 8,00,000 sq/ft of production space, are in Deer Park, Australia, Windsor, Ontario and Venlo, the Netherlands.