Wedding card printers hit hard by Covid

Several printers say things haven’t changed much even after nearly an year since lockdown as most people prefer e-invitation

Hyderabad: It’s been more than nine months since Kishore Kumar received a sizeable order to print wedding invites. He is one among the many wedding card printers in Hyderabad who have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’ve been into this business for nearly 20 years and this is the first time I have come across such a big loss. The staff count has reduced and I’m unable to pay salaries to even those remaining employees. It is becoming very difficult to recover,” says Kishore of Gowliguda.

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Due to the lockdown and the government’s bar on the number of people attending a marriage, wedding card printers have experienced severe losses. The most crucial season of April to June went by without a single order, wedding card printers in the city say.

Even almost a year after the Covid-19 outbreak, things haven’t changed much. “Though weddings are taking place, people who used to come with orders of at least 1,000 cards are now are asking us to print not more than 30 cards,” says Naveen Kumar of Subhalekha Cards.

Couples are largely opting for e-invites while there are many who are turning to social media to invite people. Not just for weddings, people used to print invitation cards also for birthdays, anniversaries, housewarming ceremonies and other functions. Even for all those categories, the trend has come down now, thanks to Covid-19.

Narender and Sirisha got married recently after the pandemic put an unexpected halt to their plans like thousands of couples last year. They opted for just 10 wedding cards.

“Due to Covid, we wanted to refrain from going home to home and directly invite people. Instead, we sent customised invitations on WhatsApp,” the couple says.

Purna Chander Dudam, who runs Jyoti Printers in Bagh Lingampally, says “We usually expect a business that could run into a few crores during wedding season. Now, we are getting only a few customers a day, and they ask us to print 5 to 10 cards.”

The situation has forced many wedding card printers to temporarily switch their business.

“Invitations are going digital. A lot of portals are available online where one can easily customise a card,” Naveen adds, hoping for a decent footfall of customers this year.

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