Cost is the key reason why a majority of the printers prefer pre-owned kit

It was the spring of 2012 when PrintWeek India visited Premier Paper Packaging (PPP) plant at Greater Noida to cover the installation of Bobst VisionFold, a folder-gluer. PPP is one of the packaging printers who has installed pre-owned, refurbished as well as brand-new equipment from the same company. All of which run, round-the-clock, under one roof.
 

PPP has installed two die-cutters SP102 (one is a pre-owned kit while the second has been refurbished by the Swiss manufacturer); as well as two new folder-gluers, Amazon and VisionFold, also from Bobst.
 

Sanjeev Bhargava, owner of PPP, says, “Pre-owned or second-hand equipment saves your equipment buying cost around 75% and it is the main advantage to opt for it. On the other hand, services and maintenance costs tend to go up and production depletes by around 25% as compared to brand new equipment.”
 

“Operators do not feel uncomfortable with pre-owned machine but they learn a lot with the equipment. Few operators become 'the expert' and they repair the machine on their own many times,” says Bhargava.
 

Now more than three years has passed by since PPP has moved into a new premise with print infrastructure in Greater Noida. “We always implement good manufacturing practice (GMP) on our equipment,” Bhargava says.
 

The 12-year old packaging printing company operates from a 48,800 sq/ft owned land in Surajpur Industrial Area, which is equipped with a six-colour Heidelberg with online coater, a six- and two-colour Planeta presses, die-cutters, folding machines, coaters, folder-gluers and cutting machines. It has an in-house conventional printing plate production system, which produces 50 PS plates per day to feed the presses.
 

According to Bhargava, the company wanted to upgrade key pieces of the technological puzzle in post-press. “We wanted to gain productivity by adding speed and reliability to our print power. Though an expensive piece of equipment, we opted for Bobst for its qualities,” he said.
 

“New equipment is hassle-free for a subtantially longer time, and at least for six months, you have nothing to check but you have to invest a huge amount,” says Bhargava.
 

A family-owned packaging printing house is a venture of Manesar-based Kumar Printers. Abhinav and Anu are two other members of the Bhargava family, who support Bhargava in day-to-day operations and are responsible for capital instrument purchase and maintenance and finance and accounts respectively.
 

The Rs 24-crore packaging printing company converts around 500 tonnes of paper and paperboard monthly and has 165 employees on board.