How Delhi’s Zenith evolved with Intaglios

Incorporated in 2017, Zenith Engravure is a first-generation business entity in the printing and packaging industry. “As a family business, we are in diesel generator renting for government bodies,” says Rishabh Sobti, director, Zenith Engravure. “We were looking for a new segment to venture into and one of our family members had experience in chemical cylinder engraving. Following his suggestion, we decided to set up a facility for electronic cylinder engraving.”

To start with, Zenith ordered two Intaglios M14 electromechanical gravure engraving machines. The first one was installed in March 2017 and the second was in May 2018.
Intaglios is a brand from Monotech Systems. “We did a lot of R&D and Monotech Systems supported us in that area as well. Today, we are a demo centre for Monotech Systems and the biggest user of Intaglios electronic engraving cylinder machines in India,” says Sobti.

Intaglios is a 4K head and sturdy machine, which helps produce quality rotogravure printing cylinders. With three Intaglios electronic engraving machines, Zenith produces 1,200 to 1,300 cylinders per month in round-the-clock operation.

Sobti says the number is a decent one for a four-year-old company. “We are planning for expansion and hopefully in 2022, we will be adding one more Intaglios. Thus, we will be having four machines and the addition will help us for fast delivery and back up,” he adds.

The business is handled by three youngsters — Rishabh Sobti, responsible for business development; Pulkit Sobti, responsible for production and Gaurav Sachdeva, responsible for marketing.

“As we come from a business family, when we proposed the idea for Zenith, the first question from our elders was ROI. We were confident with our calculations and business plan, and we achieved that. In fact, ROI with Intaglios is not difficult as the initial investment and operating cost are affordable. The machine is user-friendly and there was excellent hand-holding from Monotech Systems,” Sobti explains.

He adds that one of the best parts of operating the machine is that the operator can use the machine as per his convenience. As it is a 4K head machine, the depth of the dots on the cylinders is accurate.
Currently, the company has 25 regular clients. “Most of our clients come from pesticides and grains sectors, especially rice. We produce cylinders for top brands from FMCG, pesticides and rice companies,” Sobti says.

He adds that initially the rice brand owners were concerned about the printed results, and it was a big task to fulfil their needs. “With our consistent research and development, we could achieve it,” he says.

The most important part of an electronic engraving machine is the head and the Intaglios is equipped with German engraving head – the best in the segment.

“We opted for the Intaglios because of affordable investment, and we had seen the results of the machine. Being from the chemical cylinder manufacturing background, we were confident that we would achieve the results. Our USP is the result. Our delivery time is a week, from receiving the order to dispatch,” he adds.

Zenith growth has been steady and has now is settled at 15-20% per annum. “More than 95% of the flexible packaging printing market is served by rotogravure printing, so opportunities are huge. The market is so versatile and huge that you cannot serve all types of customers; you have to choose customers according to your specialty and capability,” Sobti says, adding that the company is not going to expand its business to a large scale, but would like to diversify instead. Recycling of plastic waste can be an area to diversify.

A team of 42 people work in the 250-sq yards facility at Zenith.