Gujarat's print sector sees a turning point

Come 2018, the print market in Ahmedabad, a city with more than 600 years of rich history, is only growing. The city is a home to diverse industries and thus, there is a need for diverse formats with varied length. Thus, in the recent years, we have seen a growth in high- and mid-segment digital production engines.

Also, the assembly elections held in 2017 helped boost the printing industry not just in the city, but across the state.

State-wide, it seems, Gujarat is witnessing a print resurgence, and not just in commercial and packaging printing, but also in publishing and newspapers.

According to a source, a couple of leading printers and publication houses in Gujarat have ordered state-of-the-art automatic post-press equipment from Japan. The machines are to be installed soon. This is a clear indication that there has been a demand for fast turnaround time and quality books in the state and printers are rising to the occasion.

There's a potential for embellishment work too, emphasised by the two installation – one a Scodix at Shree PrintWell and an MGI JetVarnish Evo, India's first, a B2 sheet size press installed at Satyam Scan. “Marketing campaign material, corporate collaterals, photo albums or packaging, we are scooping the cream of top jobs in decorative print in Ahmedabad and around Gujarat,” said Hemal Mehta of Satyam Scan. Recently, Satyam Scan has also installed Redland’s Komfi thermal laminator.

Meanwhile, looking at the growth of Gujarati language newspapers, a Gujarati daily is mulling to start its own printing plant in Ahmedabad. Dainik Bhaskar group’s Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar, which was launched in Ahmedabad in 2003. The newspaper has an average print-run of 4 lakh copies.

Towards the end of 2017, Ronald Web Offset, the Faridabad-based web offset press manufacturer, announced that it had installed more than 25 Ronald units which include four Hi Towers, three C stacks, mono units and folders in Gujarat. The company’s most recent clients were a publication house of Ahmedabad and a newly launched Gujarati daily newspaper in Amreli (Saurashtra).

Post-PlastIndia show, there was a lot of Gujarat related buzz. As it has been, the show was a big hit.

Then, during the show, Constantia Flexibles announced an investment of Rs 100-crore in the expansion of production capacity at its Indian subsidiary Parikh Packaging, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.  The new greenfield site is close to the existing production facility of Parikh.

At PlastIndia, Rajkot-based Pelican introduced the Cerrutti R-982 rotogravure printing press manufactured at its engineering facility in Rajkot, Gujarat. Pelican is the largest rotogravure press manufacturing company in India.

However, the biggest news of them all, the state will soon have approximately 10 brand new sheetfed offset printing machines. According to a source, almost all machines are coming in Ahmedabad. Thus, we can assume that the demand for short-run and the quality print requirement is real and immediate.

The growth story for Gujarat has just begun.