Mumbai’s Smruti Digital makes itself future-ready with Xerox Iridesse

According to Ganesh Pai, proprietor, Smruti Digital, as margins have shrunk to all-time low, there is a need for innovation in formats as well as investments. It has become imperative to provide CMYK plus printing solutions to the customers. This is the reason, he says, Smruti Digital went for the Xerox Iridesse.

“The Iridesse is a one –stop solution for digital printing. It has enabled us to meet this requirement, helping us differentiate in an industry replete with oversupply of printers,” Pai said. “Iridesse is a next generation CMYK + printing machine. It gives us the flexibility to do more for our clients. The investment is in sync with our strategy. For the next three years, we are looking to venture into newer end-customer applications.”

He also added how Xerox provides training through its pre-sales analyst and service teams on a periodic basis. “We were trained for work creation for specialty colours,” he said.

Pai said as the company was looking to invest in a machine which could print beyond CMYK, the natural choice was Xerox, as it had the solution and the technology. “The Iridesse is a four + two single-pass colour printing with option to print gold, silver, clear and white. Such technology is not available with the competition. Moreover, Xerox scores over others with respect to after-sales service, which is excellent to say the least,” he added.

Smruti Digital, which started operations in 2012, today has a team of over 18 people with expertise in graphics and digital applications, and caters to the textile industry, with majority of its end customers being the corporates. The company’s average job run length is 200 – 500, producing metallic effects, packaging solutions, print embellishments, wedding cards, and so on.

“Today, customers are looking for something more than a normal print solution. They are looking for value addition from a printer and the challenge is to go beyond CMYK,” Pai emphasised. Thus, the Iridesse has proved to be ideal. “It is CMYK + gold + silver and clear with white in the near future. We are working on gold and white-based applications at the moment,” he said. “We have already witnessed more than 40% increase in business since the installation of the Xerox Iridesse. Our volumes have increased and we have received a positive feedback about print quality and output. We have also been able to regain clients that had moved to our competitors due to various factors.”

The company’s present turnover is approximately Rs 2.5-crore and it is targeting a 50% growth in the coming year. Meanwhile, Pai expects to recoup the cost on investment within two – three years.

In the ever-changing digital printing industry, Pai believes print embellishment is the future. “We are happy to share that we are future-ready. Clearly our focus is to go beyond CMYK and differentiate our solutions. The focus will be on newer applications to better our current margin levels,” he said.