Repro India Ltd. Chairman Speech

Dear Shareholders,

Today, we are standing at an exciting point in our growth. We are 25 years young. 25 - the perfect age where we are ready to leap into the opportunities of the future, with the experience of the past to support our newer initiatives.

The emergence of aggregation

It’s been an exciting year. The world has experienced more change in the last 10 years than it has in the last entire century. If 10 years ago, anyone had predicted that the average person would do his or her shopping on a phone, that prediction would have been met with disbelief. But we are in 2018 and the reality has hit.

Companies like Uber, Airbnb, Zomato, among others, have changed the way people shop and use services by creating tech based platforms where buyers and sellers can come together.

What these companies are doing in the people transport, travel, food and other industries, Repro is doing in the publishing industry. And all this is possible because of the e-commerce revolution.

The e-commerce boom

India is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market places. Millions of internet users are being added continously, all of them shopping using the inexpensive mobile connections they now have access to. As of today, there are about 148 million people shopping online in India alone, with rapid growth projected that will see an additional 210 million users shopping online by 2020. In 2015, e-commerce in India through the mobile amounted to $7.78 billion. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach $63.53 billion.

When one co-relates this figure to books, the potential is mind boggling. With books accounting for 15% of the overall e-retail trade, one can see the potential of the market.

The market for books in India will touch $12 billion by 2020. Repro has taken the lead in the online book sales revolution in India, to explode this growing opportunity.

Giving publishers a tech platform

In this environment, publishers that have not digitised to reach their customers online, are being left behind. At Repro, this is where we have seen our opportunity, where we are disrupting the traditional publishing industry and creating a new normal.

A strategy gaining traction

Over the last year, our strategy of aggregating books and making them available to more readers has gained traction and the results reflect this change and focus. We aggregate publishers’ books in our digital warehouses, and make them available to readers online.

Continuing a strategy of growth

We have continued our aggressive growth strategy of aggregating more and more titles, and tying up with more and more online channels. We have invested in relationships with leading online retailers like Amazon, Flipkart and other key players. As a part of Ingram’s Global Connect Program, we offer customers access to millions of international titles in India.

We have also put into place strategies for reaching all stakeholders in the publishing value chain. We reach school books directly to students by aggregating and archiving prescribed books on digital storefronts.

To achieve these objectives, we have invested in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that has been custom built for the e-tail business. The facility, based in Bhiwandi, prints and delivers even a single book to a customer, who can place the order online.

Strengthening current businesses

In terms of our traditional print businesses, our focus on value added services for MNC customers - leading to predictability of business and better realisations.

In Africa too, a similar strategy is followed, in a now reviving market. Our existing relationships with publishers in more than 27 African countries is ensuring that our business in Africa is picking up as the economy revives.

The cost rationalisation strategy that we had put into place last year has borne fruit, and we have achieved significant efficiencies due to the right product mix.

Being Future Ready

We are set to harness technology to greater effect and build newer platforms to increase business opportunities and explore new models of growth. The future looks very exciting.

In conclusion, e-commerce is changing our lives; Aggregators like Uber, Airbnb and others are growing rapidly; the book market is exploding; online sales and e-retail giants like Amazon, Flipkart etc. are changing the paradigm, and Repro is seizing the booming online opportunity by creating disruptive solutions for its customers.

I take this opportunity to thank all of you and also congratulate you all on this milestone moment.

I look forward to your continued support in the years to come.

Thank you Vinod Vohra