Soft offset landing for digital specialist SRK Creative

SRK stepped into the offset domain sometime in 2008, even as it was firmly saddled in the digital arena, started accepting offset jobs, but outsourced offset printing. Around 2013 one of the jobs got delayed, which prompted the management to think on the lines of bringing offset in-house.

“The first refurbished press was like a baby step,” said Vishal Mehta and Hemant Jaiswal, director at Shine. “In 2013 we started the process of going full-fledged into the offset domain with our own press.”

The SRK offset unit which started with a turnover of Rs 25-lakh per month doubled in six months after installation of the first press. “When you have your own machine, you are confident of taking more jobs, provide service on time, plan print movement and hence up business,” said Mehta. Today, the offset arm has a turnover of Rs 18-crore per annum.

The company brought in a new Komori Lithrone A37, which has a bigger size than the Komori 528, because it saw an opportunity in the market. “We used to decline jobs which required higher quality, and bigger size. Now we are sure of the quality and with the bigger size we can broaden our offering,” said Mehta. He added, “When we buy a machine, we also make sure that there’s enough work to feed the machine.”

Since 2014, Shine brought in a Kodak CTP platesetter, foiling, spot UV in-house. Shine now is eyeing a six-clamp perfect binder. “In the last three-four months we have added export of textbooks to our product offering. We expect our clients may demand quicker turnarounds in future, which our present two single-clamp machines may not be able to deliver,” said Jaiswal.

He added, “We don’t want to depend on outside help, hence we got CTP and other post-press activities in-house. Next is the plan of a six-clamp,” said Jaiswal.