This company began its journey as a distributor for Videojet, one of the world’s largest coding and marking companies. Over time, it moved decisively out of the shadows to establish itself as a strong independent player. Today, Control Print is the only Indian company with a leading 18–20% market share in the organized domestic coding and marking industry, competing head-on with multinational players such as Domino, Videojet, and Markem Imaje. This makes it a niche yet strategically important Indian manufacturing stock with durable competitive advantages. At current market price of ~668/- , the stock offers good value opportunity for long term investors.
Control Print’s core strength remains its sticky, cash-generating coding and marking business, where recurring consumables and service revenues provide predictable earnings. At the same time, management acknowledges that the domestic coding and marking market is mature, with growth largely tracking industrial output. To sustain higher long-term growth, the company has consciously invested in technology-driven adjacencies that move it up the value chain and deepen customer integration.
In the domestic market, Control Print offers a broad range of coding and marking solutions—spanning inkjet, laser, thermal, high-resolution, and large-character printers, along with consumables. This wide product coverage enables strong cross-selling and entrenches the company across diverse industries such as FMCG, food, pharma, cement, pipes, cables, and metals. Internationally, Control Print has expanded through focused subsidiaries:
These capabilities are further complemented by the company’s in-house Qrious Codes platform, which integrates hardware, software, and consumables to offer cloud-based track-and-trace and authentication—particularly relevant for regulated sectors like pharma and FMCG.
Collectively, these adjacencies shift Control Print from a standalone coding equipment supplier to a solutions partner embedded across labelling, automation, packaging, and supply-chain visibility. For investors, this strategy improves revenue quality, expands the addressable market, and adds meaningful long-term optionality to an already stable base business.
Key elements of this annuity-like model include:
As India’s manufacturing base expands and regulatory scrutiny increases across sectors such as pharma, FMCG, food, and agrochemicals, demand for reliable coding and marking solutions continues to rise. The industry is expected to grow at 1.5 times GDP, providing Control Print with a stable base that can compound steadily over time.
The most transformative, but also longest-gestation, initiative is the entry into mono-dose packaging through the acquisition of V-Shapes in Italy. This business is built around patented packaging machines and patented recyclable single-serve sachet material, creating a consumable lock-in similar to the core coding business.
While the packaging segment remains in the investment phase and is expected to breakeven around FY27, the opportunity size is meaningful. Management believes the global mono-dose packaging market is significantly larger than coding and marking, with strong potential in India’s SME segment seeking compact, low-infrastructure packaging solutions. Localisation of manufacturing and cost reduction are key focus areas to unlock wider adoption.
Control Print’s expansion into new areas is backed by a strong and conservatively managed balance sheet. The company operates with near-zero debt (D/E ~0.02x), standalone EBITDA margins of 24–25%, and trading below 5 year average P/E, and more importantly PEG of < 0.3 (much less than 1) offers good value, even at CMP. Operating cash flows have remained consistently positive over the past decade, highlighting the quality of earnings.
Importantly, management has indicated that all new ventures except packaging have already turned profitable, and consolidated losses from these initiatives are narrowing. The company has also demonstrated shareholder friendliness through regular dividends and past buybacks, reinforcing confidence in capital allocation discipline.
At the same time, the stock is trading attractively wrt its peers – of of the best picks in the sector.
Control Print fits well within a long-term value stock framework, combining downside protection from a stable core business with upside from optional growth levers.
Key investment merits include:
That said, investors should monitor execution risks in scaling new businesses, saturation in the core domestic market, potential technology disruption from global competitors, and structurally high working capital requirements due to inventory-intensive operations.
2025 was a tough year for the stock, with stock offering almost no returns in the past year. Few points to note on technical front. Key technical levels to note :
Control Print is not a short-term trading idea. It represents a steady compounder with embedded optionality, where near-term earnings are supported by a resilient base business and long-term upside stems from high-IP growth initiatives. For patient investors following a stoxsense-style approach and a 3–5 year horizon, Control Print remains a compelling smallcap value stock with the potential to quietly reshape its growth trajectory over time, with an approximate stock price of 1000/- at average P/E of ~17 at FY27E.
Disclaimer: This article is for information purpose only. It is NOT a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. Please consult your financial advisor before investing. Investing in securities market is subject to market risks. Please read full disclosures here.
Source: nseindia (financial reports, company data and announcements), tradingview, screener
