There are hopes India’s largest private newspaper industry supplier may be continued by family members following the death on Wednesday of Newstech owner and managing director Roy Alex after a short illness, aged 67.

GXpress understands his sons returned from Canada in recent months and are considering continuing the business he built over more than three decades.

Through his Mumbai-based Newstech India Pvt Ltd, Alex “opened doors” for Japanese press maker Mitsubishi, peripherals vendors such as IST Metz curing systems, Betz pumping systems, Denex laser counters, DSC chemicals, and more recently, Protecmedia editorial systems from Spain.

It was however with mailroom equipment manufacturer Idab Wamac – owned variously by Heidelberg, Harris Web and pop-group Abba, and now part of Schur Packaging – that Roy Alex made his name, regularly awarded as the Scandinavian company’s best dealer worldwide.

“Well connected and highly knowledgeable, he supplied to most of the newspapers in India,” Stephanus Peters, formerly southeast Asia regional sales manager for Conti blankets and now a consultant in Sydney, told GXpress.

Having studied printing and worked for prepress equipment manufacturer TecNova, he launched his own company in 1987, and established joint ventures with Idab Wamac and Betz. He was also southeast Asia representative of German press maker Koenig & Bauer, then KBA, and a director of Solna Print Solutions.

Later India was a ready market for the flexible Mitsubishi (MHI) web presses for which Newstech became the agent, with customers including Malayala Manorama, which ordered five four-tower DiamondSpirit lines in 2003, and then returned for two more. The Malayalam-language paper’s 2.3 million copy circulation made it one of the largest daily newspapers in the world.

Apart from Malayala Manorama, other leading publications on Alex’s Newstech India client list included the Times of India, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Delhi Press, Anandabazar Patrika (ABP), Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle, The Hindu, Dinakaran and Dinamalar.

Though they haven’t been able to meet up since DRUPA in 2016, Sam Varughese, now graphics general manager for Ball & Doggett in Sydney, remembers Roy Alex from the Government Institute for Printing Technology in Mumbai, where he graduated in 1977. “Roy's family was based in Mumbai although he hailed from Kerala in the South of India,” he says. “I was two years his junior, but we struck up a great relationship and he was very supportive, guiding me through the initial years.

“Even during our time at printing college his leadership and caring qualities were evident.”

TechNova – now one of the largest and most diversified suppliers of printing plates, chemistry, equipment and digital media – was a relatively young company when they selected Alex after a campus interview, and put him in charge of the initial phase of building up a sales and distribution network.

“He was my manager there for a few years, and his leadership, guidance and care was a great inspiration,” says Varughese. “He was the ‘go-to’ person if anyone needed help.”

In 1982 his entrepreneurial spirit got the better of him and he left TechNova to start a business with a colleague, venturing out independently a few years later to start Newstech.

“Roy was a self-made man, a first-generation businessman, very smart and astute, and extremely customer-focussed. He had an excellent insight into customer needs current and future, and would go out of his way to look after his customers, who liked and respected him. He was also very people-oriented and compassionate to his staff.

“He was a great personality and will be missed.”

Peter Coleman with Stephanus Peters

Pictured (from top): Roy Alex (centre) with industry colleagues including Stephan Peters in 2009;

At the WAN-Ifra India conference (right) with Peter Coleman;

Alex (second from right) with representatives of Malayala Manorama and Mitsubishi, celebrate the 2013 order (from left) P. P. Prakash, George Verghese, Harsha Mathew, ShibuGeorge, Mammen Mathew, Masami Shimizu, Takashi Uchiu, Mamoru Ito, George Jacob, Siji Joseph, Joseph P. Varghese, and P. K. Philip