GB Centre sets up in-house pre-press with ThermoStar

Hasan Md Sardar of GB Centre said, “TechNova guided us technically to diversify into pre-press. As we have always been outsourcing, earlier we thought that investing in new technology would not be viable for us. But we learned the process as well and could see the ROI. So, we decided to invest in the ThermoStar T9. We’ve built a solid, trusting relationship with TechNova.”

On the benefits of investing in an in-house platesetter, Sardar said, “So far, we have been dependent on third-party pre-press bureaus. It was time-consuming. There were chances of plate rejection and there was no technical support. Plus, there were delayed and additional costs due to plate rejections.”

He added, “We chose the Thermostar T9 for its robustness and consistency of imaging, as well as for the reliability and quality it offers.”

Sardar established GB Centre in 2004 with a carton stitching machine. Today, the company has five offset presses, one flexo press and one gravure press as well a full post-press setup. The company offers services in commercial as well as packaging printing, with specialisation in calendars, books, ridged box manufacturing, labels, mono cartons, tags and inserts and so on. 

Sardar said in recent years, the company has seen a rise in the demand for digital printing plates, as customers are looking for short-run jobs with faster turnaround time. “Presently, the number of jobs is increasing but the print run is becoming short, and customers expect faster delivery. To meet customer expectations, every solution should be in-house,” he said. 

This is one of the reasons, Sardar said, the company has built a strong pre-press team who have adopted the technology. “Thermostar T9 is a user-friendly machine; we have found it very easy to use, even though it is our first CTP system. The TechNova team trained our team and we are getting immediate support. We haven’t faced any issues yet, but I am sure TechNova will support us to overcome any challenges,” he added.

For the future, the company is planning to install a Konica Minolta C4065 and a JINGWEI 0806RM digital cutting machine, both supplied by TechNova.