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Installations and new orders

Printers in North India seem to be thriving as much as those in the South and the West. There seems to be a wave of optimism fuelled by the purchase of brand new multicolour sheet fed presses. Most of the printers are talking about their new plants for ex
November 05, 2008 | By Purva Sethi

Rave India orders Heidelberg SM 102 – 15,000 sph press Rave India, the printing unit of Rave Scan, founded in 1993 was the first printer in South Asia to install Heidelberg’s Speedmaster XL 105 sheetfed press, with a speed of 18000 sph in the 75 x 105 centimeter format in January 2007. Rave’s investment in new multicolour presses began with the installation of a new Speedmaster 74, 5-colour press in September 2005. They have now again placed an order for a series of machines with include a Heidelberg 4-colour SM 102, two Polar cutting machines and a Stahl folder. The SM 102 is among the first in Asia with the enhanced speed of 15000 sph (predrupa, the speed was restricted to 13000 sph). All the new machines will be operational by November 2008. Mr Rakesh Bhatnagar, Managing Director Rave India says, “automation has always been our forte and we believe in automating all printing processes in order to be more sure of our clients product quality and stringent demands.” Speaking about the economic crunch faced by the country now, Bhatnagar said print demand in the country will not be affected, and he sees demand within the country increasing by as much as three times in the next decade if not earlier. “A major reason for this is the increasing disposable income that people now have. He believes India is going to be one of the biggest hubs for the print industry. Although the paper price increase has hit all printers and that Sappi papers are currently in short supply and commanding a seller’s market. He hopes the situation for coated will improves with the second unit of BILT becoming operational.

One of the posters printed at Anupam Art Printers on their Komori Spica 429 at Naraina

Kwality Offset – from labels to commercial printing

Kwality offset set up in 1962 by Narendra Chattwal is a leading label printer. With a set up of 1400 square metres in the Naraina industrial area of New Delhi Kwality manufactures labels for Nestle, Ranbaxy and other FMCG companies. Manish Chhatwal, Director, Kwality Offset told us that to keep up with demand growth they had to keep increasing their capacity. This lead them to buy their first Komori Lithrone S29, 5-colour with coater. Installed in February 2008, it has been running at full capacity since April 2008. The machine has a maximum printing speed of 16,000 sph and is capable of printing ten short run jobs in an hour. The Komori has helped Kwality Offset to enter the commercial printing segment. The company is targeting a turnover of approximately Rs. 25 crore in the current financial year which reflects a growth of approximately 19 per over the previous year.

Radiant Graphics -- Tripling capacity by 2012

Radiant Graphics, another process house that started in 1993, entered the printing market only three years back with the installation of a used Heidelberg SM 102 5-colour with coater. In August 2007 Radiant was the first North Indian to install a Komori 4-colour LS 29.
Sunil Verma, proprietor of Radiant says personal involvement is extremely important to deliver quality in every job. He has focused on team work and given his employees freedom to make their own decisions as well. The new Komori fits his quality needs perfectly as he is able to do 40 to 50 sets per shift with the average press run between 2000 and 5000. According to him one of the best things about the Komori is its “ease of use”-- training operators for the machine is not an issue. Radiant Graphics currently employs 75 people and has an area of more than 330 square meters.

Verma plans to expand the operations with a new plant on a 4000 square metre in Greater Noida. For the time being the focus area of expansion is postpress. He believes a strong mechanized post press department is a necessity, although not all printers today realize its importance. He believes for a successful business, domain knowledge is essential and you can learn something new everyday.

Anupam Art Printers – two Komori’s in 6 months

Anupam Art Printers is one four companies run by Mr Vijendra Jain. The other three are packaging companies – A&A labels, Quick Pack and Universal Graphics. Anupam Art operates from Naraina with a space of 500 meters. Vaibhav Jain, a Director of the group said, when buying the machine his father’s focus was clear. Together they wanted a brand new machine that had “maximum productivity at the lowest cost.” Jain explained that old machinery production and maintenance costs were higher and many featured functions of used machines never work. Considering these factors they decided on their first Komori Spica 429, which was installed in May 2008. The machine is CIP4 data compatible and allows implementation of advanced digital workflows.

Anupam plans to begin exports next year in a big away and for this they have ordered another Komori -- a LS 540 which will be installed by the end of November 2008. They plan to dispose off some of their old equipment to make space for the machine. Jain says with the new machine they will increase production levels by 200 per cent. They also plan to strengthen their post press division and finalise their binding equipment purchases for which they will be visiting All In Print at Shanghai in November 2008. Anupama Art currently contributes 50 per cent of the Rs 15 crore group revenue.

Cirrus Graphics – another prepress house goes commercial

Cirrus Graphics has two divisions – commercial printing which currently generates 70 per cent of their revenue and paper conversion for manufacture of notebooks, which generates the remaining 30 per cent. Both divisions are run jointly by Udesh Kumar and Raj Gupta. Their commercial printing division installed a Komori Lithrone in August 2007. This is another company that has not had a very good experience with second hand machinery. The two factors that they considered before buying a Komori were productivity and quality. Gupta says, “we are critics of our own jobs,” and they knew they had to upgrade their machinery to deliver quality. They believe they have entered the big league of commercial printers with the installation of a new Komori Lithrone. In July 2008, Cirrus installed a Kodak CtP with a quantum head. Future plans focus on postpress and binding equipment.

L-R Raj Gupta and Udesh Kumar with the Komori Lithrone S40 at Cirrus Graphics, New Delhi

Cirrus plans to strengthen their notebook division as well which also manages to contribute to the commercial printing division. The company has bought a fully automated exercise book machine from Bindomatic, which will be able to carry out all the converting and finishing operations in one go which should reduce the labour inputs. The stationary machine will be installed at a new plant in Manesar by the end of November 2008. Cirrus plans to manufacture premium stationery and hopes to increase its revenues greatly this year to Rs. 15 crore.