Bobst folder-gluer offers Arunodaya flow of uninterrupted service

This doesn’t take anything away from the fact that, according to Varma, the performance of the machines is excellent. The company’s recent Bobst acquisition is the folder gluer VisionFold 110 A2 with 4&6 corner attachment getting installed in December 2016.

“We already have a Bobst die-cutter in our facility,” said Varma, adding, “If you invest in brand-new Bobst equipment, you don’t have to worry about maintenance and services for at least 10 years.

The main advantage with Bobst is the process know-how they can impart when it comes to special jobs. When we get stuck on any particular job in terms of settings or runnability, we have the Bobst process specialist who can come and get our job going.”

Varma added, "Bobst is a proven technology. If you shift your jobs from manual to a machine, you need a reliable, easy set and productive machine to grow your business. Bobst gives us the confidence to deliver what our customers demand."

Arunodaya was established in 1988 by DV Suresh Varma and his younger brother Vijay, who came from an agriculture background. The senior Varma is a printing technologist from Vijayawada. “We came from a non-business background. After our studies, we entered into the business. We started with automatic letterpress, treadle and cutting machine,” said Varma.

More than 90% of Arunodaya’s packaging printing business, which it started in 1999, comes from the pharma industry. “We print cartons, leaflets and self-adhesive labels, of which 60% is cartons, 30% labels and 10% is leaflets,” said Varma.

In July 2012, the pharma printing company diversified into narrow-web flexo and installed a fully loaded eight-colour Omet. This year, it has added a six-colour Nilpeter FB 3300 to the shopfloor. “We are doing labels from 1999. We went for flexo four years ago to meet the quick delivery and quality demand of our customers,” Varma added.

Arunodaya converts one lakh sq/m labelstock per month on the two flexo printing presses. Meanwhile, it converts 125 tonnes of paperboard on its two Mitsubishi 20x28 presses, one five and one six-colour, and two perfectors of 28x40-inches. The shopfloor also houses a spot UV machine from Nikko, Japan.

Varma is quick to add that the company strictly adheres to the rigid printing norms of the pharma industry. “Most of our customers do not consider brand of equipment. They want quality as per their parameters, and they want delivery on time. They are hardly concerned about how you meet the parameters. Our customers audit our plant after an interval of two years. Few customers consider the infrastructure,” Varma said. Hence, the company follows GMP, GDP, and SOPs.

The Arunodaya factory, which PrintWeek India visited, is located in the cool, calm and green industrial area of Apparel Export Park, Gundla Pochampally village in the outskirts of Hyderabad, and it is rearing to charge ahead. For, the Varma brothers believe, that this is just the beginning of printing packaging in India and it has a long way to go. For the brothers, the only way to stay afloat in this growing segment is to keep investing. “It is a continuous process.” Varma said, the company is growing at 15% annually right now. “In the last five years, we have invested more than Rs 14-crore in development,” he said, adding that the company is ready to invest further to serve its clients better.

The brothers have a clear vision of the future. “By 2020, we would like to establish Arunodaya as a solution provider from bottles, caps, leaflets, labels, cartons and dispatches. For us, quality is first, compliance second and third is service. Cost comes at the end,” Varma said confidently. “If you give good services at economic rates and on time, then you can demand your prices.”

The brothers also believe that you have to understand that customers come first. To make the process transparent and reliable, now the company is planning to implement management information and customer service (MICS). “The project is a pilot at the moment and by the end of this financial year, we will implement it,” said Varma.

Now, the next generation of the family-run business, Rajan and Haindavi Varma, have joined the company, which operates from 80,000 sq/ft built-up area with a workforce of 250 people.