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Kolkata’s Arihant Printers gives a good account of itself - The Noel DCunha Sunday Column

Noel D'Cunha — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 19:45:00

In 2005, Sunny Jain experimented with a print job at his screen printing unit in Kolkata. Using a mosquito net, he made a screen, mixed glitter powder in UV varnish, and screen-printed the mix on a calendar and wedding card. It became the talk of the town.

“The calendar and wedding card was much appreciated, and we got a lot of business because it became famous all over India,” says Jain, who ran Diamond Varnish, a screen printing unit, along with his father, the late Dilip Kumar Jain, in Kolkata. “Later, we deployed a screen mesh for such a print effect.”

Jain’s father founded Diamond Varnish in 1980, first specialising in varnishing and then lamination. Jain joined his father in 2000. On cue, he expanded the operations and set up a letterpress printing unit for calendar headings.

In 2001, he added a spot and full UV coating machine from Hansa Enterprise, a manufacturer in Bengaluru (then Bangalore). Later, the company added foil printing and punching.

The beginning and beyond
By 2004, Diamond Varnish had started gaining traction. Jain worked with the equipment he inherited but he made some prudent purchases too. The older kit made work slower and the yield was less than good. “I told myself—those kits give print a touch of nostalgia,” says Jain.
In 2006, Arihant Printers came into being.

Initially, the Jains did lamination and UV coating for printers. Later, with Arihant, Jain specialised in printing catalogues, brochures, wedding cards, posters, calendars, and leaflets, using the in-house letterpress for its print requirements. For Arihant’s multi-colour print jobs Jain relied on fellow printers in and around Kolkata.

As demand rose and productivity ebbed, Jain realised that he needed to inject some magic dust into the business.

The expansion
In 2008, Jain expanded with a new plant in Udayan Industrial Estate and installed his first offset press, a refurbished Komori four-colour press with offline UV curing. In 2012, Arihant invested in its second refurbished Komori, a four-colour press.

Also, over and above commercial print, Arihant added packaging to its portfolio.

Despite facing challenges such as prohibitive costs and cut-throat competition, Arihant continued to innovate and grow. The firm’s success can be attributed to its commitment to providing high-quality print and exceptional customer service, as well as its ability to adapt and evolve with the changing times. “Our speciality has been our ability to produce special effects. Be it commercial print or packaging we can add value.”

In 2015, Arihant installed East India’s first brand-new six-colour plus coater, which was a fully loaded UV press from Komori. It also boosted its pre-press capabilities with a Kodak CTP and added the Maxima die-cutter and converting equipment. That’s how they became the first to introduce in-house print, converting and finishing for printing and packaging. “We did a variety of quality jobs, and our proficiency over pre-press enhanced our innovative printing capabilities,” says Jain.

In 2018, Arihant added new products—the Amaze premium notebooks and diaries with pan-India supply. It set up a new 50,000-sqft factory at Panchla. Today, it produces 20,000 diaries per day.

A new pitch
With momentum galloping along after 2021, the company ordered its fourth Komori, a new GL 40, a seven-colour plus coater IR and UV press. “The press has landed and is awaiting customs clearance at the port. We hope to have it installed at the Panchla site and be up and running by August 2024,” informs Jain.

Today, the firm has a combined area of 1,20,000-sqft, a team of 120 members and a turnover of Rs 50-crore. Jain has been a loyal Komori customer. “We have been using Komori presses for the last 14 years. Our people are trained on Komori, and their service engineers are good.”

Jain adds, “We invested in a seven-colour coater + UV/IR as the demand for Pantone jobs has increased in the packaging segment. This press will help us stay ahead of the competition, as no such press has been in eastern India until now.”

Topping print jobs
Recently, Arihant produced the ninth edition of its calendar. It was an impressive piece of printing, and Jain says that his customers and clients are impressed. “Some customers are refusing to believe that it is printed at Arihant because according to them, printing of such calibre is not possible in Eastern India,” says Jain.

Jain takes pride in Arihant’s pre-press department, which houses the Kodak CTP, which adheres to ISO 12647 standards. A team of 10 drives the department. “All files are checked, and colour corrections are done wherever required. We generally produce plates two to three days in before the job is taken to print,” informs Jain. Arihant’s pre-press team produces around 150 plates per day.

Packaging, the growth engine
One of the biggest challenges Sunny Jain faces is print price. “The rates of printing have been stagnant. There has been no increase in print price for the last 25 years, whereas expenses have exponentially multiplied,” Jain says. “We need the local print association in West Bengal to act and fix a standard rate chart,” implores Jain.

Having said that, Jain thinks that the Indian print industry is in growth mode due to the demand for packaging. “The commercial printing segment is dull, perhaps due to the impact of digital media, but the demand for packaging is compensating for the subdued demand.”

When asked about his profit mantra, Jain says, “Check how much ink you deposit on the substrate, control your waste, produce quality products and stick to delivery time. Stay ahead of the curve by being flexible and responsive to change.”

Sunny Jain: At a glance

Unwind in Kolkata
A mix of relaxation, cultural immersion and Durga puja.

Favourite spot in Kolkata
Parasnath Digember Jain temple in Belgachia.

Favourite snack at Arihant
Jhal mori, chai.

Favourite book
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

Favourite sports
Cricket.

Favourite sportsperson
Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni .

An international print factory you visited which is a must-see
Tosho Printing Press in China

One thing about Kolkata no one knows
As of 2006, Kolkata had no Kolkata station, and the Howrah Junction station in Kolkata was the busiest junction in the country, with 974 trains stopping daily.

One print factory you love
Pragati Offset in Hyderabad.

One phrase you utter at least once a day
Kuch naya karna hai.

IST Metz: Making UV the perfect cure for print - The Noel D'Cunha Sunday Column

Noel D'Cunha — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 20:00:00

IST Metz is in Nuertingen, Germany. Can you tell us more about the facility here?
We are providing our customers with a one-stop-shop for LEDcure and LAMPcure systems. The core components are produced and developed in-house. All of our units are tested under production condition before leaving the house.

Describe your partnership with Heidelberg?
We have a very strong relation to Heidelberg which gives the possibility to integrate our systems into their machines perfectly. Furthermore, we have a very good relationship with Heidelberg India too, and meet up frequently for joint customer visits on site.

What are the new developments that would be of interest to the Indian printers?
Energy efficient equipment. In that sense, we are steadily improving our systems with our very well equipped R&D department.

What’s the role of a good UV curing system?
A very well working UV curing system stands and falls by its heat management. The temperature has to be adjusted such that it is stable. This is the main reason why we produce the core components in-house. This procedure gives us the possibility to adapt all items to each other accurately and ensures the best curing performance.

IST-M manufactures its own lamps for your systems. How does this backward integration help?
That’s unique. We design the lamps for our equipment in-house. It is very important to have a perfect adaption. It ensures perfect output performance and long shelf life.

What are the sizes of UV/LED systems available? Is there a specific length that the printers should look for?
The length of a UV/LED system is always related to the maximum format of the machine. Our longest lamp in the sheetfed printing measures 215cm. In other application areas, we can produce even longer lamps. In LED you have the advantage of format switching, which means you can scale down the length in case of smaller formats.

Team IST Metz at the UV Transfer Center – a demo centre

You spoke about the benefits that the reflector surface / heat management provides. Can you elaborate how?
The mainly used reflector from IST in the printing world is called URS (universal reflector system). We apply a multilayer coating (about 80 layers on an aluminium profile in a vacuum chamber). These special layers provide a very effective reflection of the UV light, absorbing the IR rays. That reduces heat transfer on the substrate and machine parts.

Company fitted UV systems or retrofitted? When and why?
All of our systems are individually designed to suit the different press models and ensure the best output. We use special software called ray-tracing to calculate the best design related to the installation situation.

How strong are you in the packaging segment, and are you eyeing the potential of UV retrofits for commercial printing?
The packaging sector is still our biggest area of installations. Our first installation in the commercial UV application dates back to more than 20 years. We are facing a significantly growing acceptance in the last six years. A lot of LE (low energy) systems were sold within this segment of printing predominately to new customers.

Lately LED is getting more and more importance and offers great potential for further growth in all application segments.

IST UV systems working on coated uncoated / metalised substrates?
We have a very wide range of substrates that can be used with our system. Metalised substrates are mostly produced with the UV because you can easily run such jobs; instantly cured in one pass and it can be finished immediately. In case of coated or uncoated papers, there is normally no restriction. Especially on uncoated papers you have the benefit of a more brilliant printing results in comparison to conventional inks. The reason, therefore, is minimised ink absorption by the paper which is almost fully eliminated by fast curing.

There are different pigments, and each is different from the other. For example, a yellow can cure faster than a black. Why is this, and how would you explain it?
The reason is the absorption of the UV light through the pigment. Black has a very strong absorption behaviour to the UV light. That means from the beginning it is more difficult to transfer the UV light through the entire ink layer. If the light is not transmitted through the full ink layer you will have curing issues. This effect worsens with growing ink densities.

IST Metz manufactures over 1,000 different types of lamps with, about 30,000 lamps produced per year

In terms of the operating environment, what is an ideal condition to run a UV curing system – is air-conditioning in a country like India essential?
An air-conditioned environment is always an advantage for the printing process. Hot temperatures as you often find in India, can influence the ink and coating viscosity, which can result in unstable printing.

Tell us about the new LEDCure?
The new LEDcure offers industry-leading modularity and upgrade-ability with flexible optics and chip array, seamless integration concepts and a very small footprint. As a result, we can manufacture different LED systems based on one platform – with optics for long distances (as we have in sheetfed), as well as optics for short distances, and without optics. In order to deliver a focused and intense light to different distances within the machine, optics becomes an important element.

What are the benefits?
With these different types of LED systems, we can serve a wide segment of the printing industry as well as other application segments. The new LEDcure operates with the same power supply devices as we have in UV lamp operation. So if you invest today into a UV lamp system, the electrical cabinet is already prepared for the LED operation. Additionally, the possibility of format switching and cylinder gap clocking are good energy saving aspect.

The Hot Swap technology, what is it? How easily can you change the lamps?
The Hot Swap gives you the opportunity to run a LAMPcure (UV sheet-fed-drying system), as well as a LEDcure system in the same press with only one electrical cabinet. A similar design of the housing helps that you just have to remove the UV cassettes from LED to lamp or the other way around.

What is your LED installation numbers, worldwide and in India?
Together with our Subsidiary Integration Technology, we have more than 3,000 LED UV installations for different kinds of applications. Most of these installations are on digital presses.

And sheetfed presses?
In comparison to digital printing, the installations in sheetfed printing are of course lower but fast growing.

I see.
In India, we are still waiting for the first possibility.

LED UV and hybrid curing systems – which are the segments these technology are in use now?
We still see that the main installations are going to the commercial sector. The interest in other areas as packaging is also getting higher. Yet this is not reflected by many installations.

Switching from UV system to a LED UV means a move to more expensive UV inks. What are the benefits versus the costs?
To compare a normal UV system to a LED system is not really correct. These days we are still talking about two different printing segments. The major LED printing area in sheetfed application is producing commercial, while the full UV solution is used for highly sophisticated printing products.

So if you are comparing the use of LED ink to conventional inks you have the advantages of direct finishing, no powder, high pile production, no dry back, brilliant results on uncoated paper, and reduced inventory.

The lamp being fitted into the case during the manufacturing of LED UV curing system

And LED?
The LED system can be instantly switched on and off, while a lamp system needs a start-up and cool-down phase. That helps during stopovers to reduce the energy consumption, respectively. Further cost for energy can be saved with the format adjustment options of a LED system. Last but not the least, there are no frequent costs for lamp replacement on a LED system as there are on a UV lamp system.

India is a tough market for LED UV. How are you planning to breakthrough?
Yes, that’s what we have also learned in the last few years. We hope there will be a change in future to think more in the direction of LED. With our product range, we are very well prepared.

And finally, what are your plans for India?
We are keeping a close eye on the Indian market, and are making efforts to intensify our market presence.

IST Metz factfile

Company Establishment details: The IST Metz group of companies, with head offices in Nürtingen, close to Stuttgart in the southern part of Germany, was founded by Gerhard Metz in 1977

Sales and service companies: In France, the UK, the USA, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, China and Thailand and also work with a worldwide network of distributors and partners

Location: The company operates from four buildings which comprise 21,800 sq/m of production area and office space in Nürtingen in Germany. It also includes the UV Transfer Centre with a Heidelberg CD102 seven colour sheetfed offset press for training and tests.

The UV Transfer Center allows both new and experienced UV users to benefit from working with a supplier with fresh ideas and a desire to share its UV expertise, further demonstrating our commitment to our "more than UV" philosophy.

Capacity to produce the UV Systems / LED UV systems: Over 13,000 UV equipment have already sold in total, which means several hundred per year

Capacity to produce Lamps: Manufacturing since 1989, over 1,000 different types are available, and about 30,000 lamps are produced per year

Employees: 550 employees worldwide across 13 companies.

Turnover: 73 million Euros in 2016

The main building, one of the four buildings which comprise 21,800 sq/m of production area and office space in Nürtingen in Germany

Protolab re-shapes the value of industrial printing

Shripad Bhat — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 11:01:04

Tell us about your recent expansion plans?
Since we are a quality driven company, we started getting orders from large companies and MNCs and also export orders. Hence there was a need to have a larger space to cope with the quantum jump in demand. We shifted to a new premise with 30000 sq.ft area in Navi Mumbai.

What is unique about your expansion?
We have acquired new facilities and we have set up additional 10000 sq/ft of clean room factory. In this factory, we have manufacturing facility for auto and white goods industry products.

When was your latest investment in screen printing machine?
We made our first investment in advanced screen printing in 2006, and then in 2010, and now in 2017.

How many machines do you have?
We have over 24 semi-automatic screen printing machines from Grafica and a fully automatic imported screen pritning machine, post-press equipment and allied accessories. Such advanced technology ensures quality and repeatability.

What is your perception about screen printing?
Today, a lot of advancements in technology is available worldwide in screen printing. Small printers, who have mostly manual set up, may find it difficult to adapt to the new technologies initially. In order to meet the dual requirement both quantity and quality - of print buyers (especially reputed brands), screen printers will have to move into automation or semi-automation. With the fast drying technology, better screen making, improved colour management systems, printers are able to achieve high volume, high quality with low price which the print buyer demands today.

Have you thought about investing in digital inkjet for industrial printing?
Yes, we invested in an HP Indigo but only to take care of variable data which is required in our photo ID and packaging line.

CAD sample of the product

What changes have seen in the world of industrial printing?
From printing on aluminium and acrylic engraving, the market has evolved. Textures and finishes, form and shape, colours and definition are in demand today. Plus there are the ever-increasing complexities of specifications.

What is the importance of quality in industrial screen printing?
Due to cut-throat competition, the print buyers demand quality print output from the print solution providers. This fact forces printers to move from manual to automatic. One may also try to offer low priced products by using low priced input. Use of low quality input will only produce low quality output at a cheap price. Today, customers are quality conscious and they do not mind paying a premium if the product is of a high standard. We do not compromise on quality.

What types of materials do you work with?
We believe in using finest materials like polycarbonates, polyester, polymers, for laminating and mounting layers, conductive paste, glass epoxy copper clad for the PCB, etc. Our aim is to give our customer nothing less than the finest and the best. We are committed to manufacturing products with a high degree of quality and reliability coupled with competitive price.

What are the quality measures adopted by your company?
We have implemented ISO 9001-2015. The global quality standards which are in process, namely ISO 14001 and the upgraded TS 16949 standards. These are required to match customer requirements. Manual operations in screen printing is labour intensive as a result of which turnaround of jobs was very slow, and hence achieving faster delivery was not possible. More so, in the kind of industrial job that we handle which involves multicolour printing. Besides, there used to be higher rejection due to dust settling down on the jobs kept for drying. With the advent of automation, all these problems are now solved. These days, we offer faster delivery of products with consistent quality, reliability and efficiency.

Are Indian printers at par with global standards?
Yes. India is producing to global standards but primarily it is focused on small volume niche market segments. I feel, if we automate and train our human resources, we can captivate the world beyond - and dazzle what the eye can perceive.

What are the industries catered by Protolab?
Protolab caters to the electronic, electrical, industrial automation, medical, defence, aviation, naval, automotive and the appliance / OEM manufacturers.

Which are the growth areas?
The automotive, medical and defence sectors are very promising; the industrial automation and electrical and electronic sectors are also equally encouraging.

Why do you say so?
The ‘Make in India’ initiative is not only an invite to the world, but also it has actually created infrastructure development opportunities and indirectly benefits the MSME. Further, with our talent pool of young skilled Indians, we are the destination to the world for value addition. This should be India’s main focus.

Your markets?
Besides the Indian market, we export our products to USA, Europe and Thailand. Our domestic and export market ratio is: 78:22.

Your company’s YoY growth:
We are averaging a 20% growth year on year and with the latest investment strategy we should add to a 35% growth and then maintain the year on year average.

What is the future of industrial printing in India:
It is here to exist. The demand shall increase as customer demands and product challenges will strive for perfection in opacity, definition and vibrancy of colour.

Your views about ‘knowledge’ and training in industrial printing?
Without knowledge there is no wisdom and without experience no expertise. Therefore knowledge is a combination of both and it co-exists.

How do you translate this into reality?
We believe in interactive participation and invest in training all through the year. We have programmes for self-development, team development as well as skill enhancement. We do group exercise of push and pull where team members are expected to perform the task of the preceding or subsequent department. This brings a lot of understanding of the challenges in task fulfilment. It's always important to understand from another's perspective too.

Your message to the screen printers doing industrial jobs?Our Protolab team believes in ruling tomorrow. We are passionate to deliver beyond endless possibilities and making impressions wherever you can imagine. Similarly, there is no replacement to screen printing, digital can cater to a market other than what industrial screen printing requirements. One must elevate and automate to print a perfect in every print. India has values and India is the value-added destination to the world. ‘Strive for perfection will at least help one in achieving excellence’.

Bobst powers Weepac’s novel venture into paperboard-plastic combo cartons

Rushikesh Aravkar — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 16:25:35

Surat’s Naimesh Naik has been a disruptor in his entire career. He is best known for pioneering UV printing in Surat’s textile packaging market.

Naik’s firm, Imprint, at its peak in 2015, consumed 3.5 tonnes of UV ink per month running the press 24/7 putting ink on paper. The firm deployed a 20x28-inch Mitsubishi five-colour plus coater press and a 28x40-inch six-colour plus coater Komori press and a lamination machine.

“We had mastered UV. We were churning out 60,000 UV printed MetPET sheets in a 24-hour production for over five years. We had acquired 40% market share of UV printing in Surat. Plus, MetPET and UV were becoming mainstream but growth was stagnant. All that could be done with UV had already been done. It was high time we climbed the next level. I wanted a niche ground to play and grow big.”

Now, when Naik realised that the firm had exhausted all the room for scaling up further, he came up with an unconventional plan – a new venture called Weepac.
“We completely stopped production in 2015 to work on this innovative idea,” says Naik. “I wanted to go slow to go big.”

The idea was to produce dual-material packaging cartons that combine paperboard and clear, rigid plastic to create a package, which forms an alternative to PP cartons and window-patched paperboard cartons.

“In India, clear cartons are used for suiting, shirting and undergarment packaging applications wherein white PP is printed and heat sealed to clear PP to form a carton.”

“The issue with such cartons is that the white PP has decorative limitations and clear PP is not as clear as transparent PET; and you cannot combine transparent PET with white PP as two different plastic materials will make a poor seal. That’s why the clear plastic cartons have limited shelf appeal.”

“When I saw the pick and place machine at Drupa 2012, I saw a solution to combine decorative effects on paperboard with transparent nature of PET to form attractive shelf ready packaging,” remembers Naik.

Valiant sample maker enables experimenting with new pack designs

The combination of paperboard and plastic enables numerous structural possibilities and out-of-the-ordinary visual effects that would not be possible with either substrate alone. So, Weepac was established in January 2016 and Naik started adding machines and investing in people.

Solid set-up
Naik’s self-financed project Weepac has invested in top-notch equipment: a brand new pick-and-place machine from Esatec, France, a Bobst Novacut 106 die-cutter, a Bobst Visionfold 110 folder-gluer with four and six corners attachment and plastic kit, plastic sheet straightening machine, and a soft creasing machine.

“When you are new to a process and technology, go for the best available one,” says Naik explaining his rationale behind investing in high-end Bobst post-press equipment. “We know printing and hence for the time being, the existing machines could suffice. However, we have zero experience in finishing of printed sheets so I wanted the finest equipment.”

“Secondly, when you invest in a new process, you want a supplier who becomes your technical partner and helps you with all the necessary process support. And finally, I was building an entirely new set-up so I was looking for robust equipment which could serve hassle-free for at least 10 to 15 years. Thus, Bobst was the only one which fitted the bill.”

When PrintWeek India team visited Weepac in December 2016, the production had started at its 30,000 sq/ft factory. It has a capacity of producing one lakh to three lakh combo cartons per day, depending on the size of the cartons.

However, Naik still wants to go slow. “This is an innovative product. We are the only company in the country which can produce combo-cartons with finest soft creasing and fastest turnaround. The combo carton is an appealing product but it is expensive. So we need to make extra efforts to convince the clients.”

Weepac has also invested in a sample maker from Italian manufacturer Valiant, which it uses along with Angview and PaSharp software packages to create prototype cartons for its potential clients’ products. “When the clients see their product in the combo cartons, that’s when they realise the value in it,” adds Naik.

By the end of 2017, Weepac will add a six-colour plus coater offset press, which is a final piece that remains in order to set its route to new turf, where it aims Rs 50-crore turnover by 2019.

Growing steady in blockout printing

Rahul Kumar — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:12:09

Established in 2000, the first generation printing company Colourmate Digital has increased its blockout production capacity five times in the last five years, from 2011 to 2016. Sandeep Bhutani, one of the partners at Colourmate Digital, says, “Today, we can manufacture 5,000 blockouts per month. In 2011, our capacity was 1,000 to 1,500 blockouts.” Now, the plan is to cross the 8,000 mark.

But what is a blockout? Blockouts are a combination of multilayer printed acrylic sheets and LED light panel behind the printed sheets. Light comes from the multicolour printed area and the dark area blocks the light. “Most of our blockouts are two to three feet and for indoor applications. Size varies from time to time,” says Bhutani. “It is slim and looks beautiful.”

Gandy Digital, the Canadian wide-format equipment manufacturer, played a role in Colourmate’s growth. “Demand increased, and and so did the need for quick delivery. Time is the key in promotional campaigns, so we replaced our existing Gandy printer with a new true flatbed printer. It had to be a Gandy because there are not many options in the market, and we were using the company’s products. The Gandy machine is fast, robust and the after-sale service is good,” says Bhutani.

The Gandy printer is equipped with Ricoh generation four heads. The company uses original printing inks from Gandy.

In blockout, multiple layers of printing means first layer of CMYK, then special colour or white and then black to block the light. Those layers of printing and effects can go up, according to the demand of the job.

Why digital? “Almost 90% of our production is special jobs and it cannot be done through screen because it is tough to match the registration multiple times,” says Bhutani, adding that the requirement of neon and pantone colours is negligible in digital.

“We have UV printers and can print on almost every substrate. Normally, we print on MDF boards, sun boards, sunbeds, cloth. Most of our jobs are for close view, niche application and best quality indoor applications,” he says, adding, “We do not work directly for the brands, but we have worked on lot of beverages and cosmetics campaigns. Most of our jobs are of six-colour.”

For indoor blockouts, a manufacturer has to give guarantee as assurance of quality. Typically, this guarantee period is of two years.

Right now, the wide-format printing company located in the Paharganj area of Delhi has seven printers from Gandy, HP, Seiko, Roland and the Chinese manufacturer Jumbo.

In the capital, Paharganj is the main market for signage and blockouts, and the market has been evolving in last 30 years. Earlier, the area constituted small shops, now it is a proper business district. Around 80 printing companies operate from here, with 450 printing machines running round-the-clock. The beauty of the Paharganj print district is that not a single firm has all the required machinery in-house. There is a space constrain, and it doesn’t make much business sense either, especially when there is someone else to perform the job next-door. So we have different shops doing different jobs – printers doing print, laminators doing laminate jobs, fabricators who fabricate.

“When we get a big order, we all come together and execute the order. Together, Paharganj can execute any kind of order, notwithstanding quality and quantity,” Bhutani says.

The word ‘mate’ in Colourmate has a unique significance, as three friends, Gaurav Kathuria, Sandeep Bhutani and Nitin Grover came together and built the company. No, not just friends, they are cousins and they started operations in their homes.

“When we started, we had one printer, one operator, one computer and three owners,” says Bhutani. “This helped, as we learned everything on the job.”

The company is growing at 25% CAGR from the last 15 years. “We have 50 people at Colourmate and they are our strength,” Bhutani says.

According to Bhutani, growth depends on production and number of jobs created. Turnover is a useless base for growth, as high turnover never means profit. “We are in the wholesale market. Drop your price by 2% and your turnover will go up to ten times. I know many people who are reporting huge turnovers and then investing from their pockets. You must be satisfied on the increment in the number of machines, quantity of converted media and employee retaining capacity,” he argues.

In the business of blockouts, time is of the essence. “We work for promotional and marketing activities and mostly those take place at the last moment. If a company wants to launch its scheme or product on 1 April, then they want to display the blockouts and other material on 31 March night. This puts a lot of pressure on us,” Bhutani says.

Colourmate prints and manufactures the blockouts while logistics and installations are handled by the agencies.

“It’s a team effort. A single company cannot handle it,” he says. He gives the example of Airbus, the manufacturer of aeroplanes, which manufactures different parts of the plane at different sites and assemble those parts somewhere else. “If we will do all the things on our own, we will not be specialising in anything. When you handle such operations, you have to be an expert of your field,” he adds.

Now, Colourmate wants to manufacture 8,000 blockouts per month. Also, a plan to upgrade the existing equipment, both printers and finishing, is on the cards.

The rise and rise of Dainik Bhaskar

Dibyajyoti Sarma — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 10:36:03

Let’s begin with the accolades. Dainik Bhaskar has maintained its position as the largest circulated national daily of India consistently for the last four times, for the last two years, as per the Audit Bureau of Circulation results of July-December 2015. Not impressed? How about this: Dainik Bhaskar, with a circulation of 3.89 million copies per day, is the world’s fourth largest circulated news daily, and the only Indian title among the world’s top five circulated newspapers, according to the World Press Trends Report 2015 published by Wan-Ifra. The other top three newspapers are The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan), The Asahi Shimbun (Japan) and USA Today (USA).

“These figures were calculated before the launch of our Bihar edition. If you include the Bihar numbers, we are clearly number three,” says Prasoon Pandey, head, investor and media Relations, DB Corp.

But Dainik Bhaskar is just one part of the story. DB Corp is India’s largest newspaper group with 62 print editions with 52 print locations, published in four languages available across 14 states. Besides Dainik Bhaskar, the group has Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar, Marathi daily Dainik Divya Marathi, Saurashtra Samachar, DB Star, DB Post and DNA. It also publishes three magazines.

And yes, if you take into consideration all the DB newspapers together, the group is clearly numero uno. Japan’s The Yomiuri Shimbun has 5.1 million copies per day whereas DB Corp has 5.3 million.

Impressive indeed, and this is just the beginning. “We are looking at a bright future,” says RD Bhatnagar, chief technical officer, DB Corp. “India continues to have the growth story, and there are still virgin markets to tap.”

“The numbers continue to grow,” adds Pandey. “We have crossed all barriers, geographical and linguistic.” The company started its Gujarat edition in 2003, and again tested the language barrier after a gap of eight years while launching Marathi editions in Maharashtra in 2011.

“Now, our topline is growing at double digit with advertising revenue registering a CAGR growth of more than 15% for the last 10 years, and we are consolidating our position.”

From these 52 print locations, besides the 62 print editions, the group prints 210 district editions. Besides, it has 353 editorial bureaus. In short, the group covers all of central, north and west India, up to Maharashtra, and the immediate plan is to consolidate this position, which is already happening, except perhaps in some pockets in some states.

Dainik Bhaskar has daily circulation of 3.89 million copies

Going colour
You can imagine the machinery requirements in 52 print centres. It has machines from companies, ranging from KBA to TPH, Manugraph to KK Printing Machinery and Ronald. Recently, it installed an eight-tower 533 mm cut-off M360 press from Manugraph in Jaipur and a 533 mm cut-off seven-tower press in Bhopal from Ronald web offset. And slowly, the company is moving away from B/W to colour, because customers want it, because advertisers want it. As of now, more than 30 of its significant editions are all colour.

Most of these presses are 2x1 single width, single circumference. In between, there was a trend for 4x1, but it was short-lived. Bhatnagar says as the market has become fragmented, with print runs ranging from 50,000 to one lakh copies, most publishers today are opting for 2x1 presses. “4x1 doesn’t make sense unless you have print run beyond three lakh,” Bhatnagar says.

This consolidation of machinery and the eye for quality has paid dividend. According to Pandey, in the last five years, the company’s circulation revenue has increased more than 15% CAGR. “With the upgradations, we have been able to offer best of qualities to our readers,” says Pandey. This has also increased efficiency. “We have reduced the time from page release to page printing from 45 minutes to just nine minutes,” Bhatnagar adds.

Changing technologies
Talking about cut-off, an issue that continues to plague Indian newspaper printing, Bhatnagar says the group has established 533 mm cut-off as the norm. However, only 17 of its presses have 533 mm cut-off. Now, every new press comes with this cut-off, and according to Bhatnagar, maintaining this is a challenge. This is because while cut-off changes, the print area remains the same.

Then the company shifted to using chemistry free VioGreen plates from TechNova. The best part of the plates, Bhatnagar says, is that it eliminates the use of water and developer for processing the plate. So there is no chance of water contamination and water waste.

The company also made changes in its old dampening system, which would leave ink residues, and has installed closed loop dampening systems. This reduces the contamination of water and the water can be used for at least for a week. Even the fountain solution has been highly optimised.

Talking about plate systems, the company had a long journey from CTCP to thermal to violet. Today, the company has mostly Krause CTP systems, though it also uses kit from Dotline and Screen. The company uses total 3.5 lakh sq/m plates per annum. Now, the company has settled for violet CTP for good. Bhatnagar agrees that the quality of thermal plates is better, but considering the shelf life of a newspaper, such quality is not needed.

Indian newsprint
The quality of Indian newsprint is an issue, but Bhatnagar says the group has been using India-made newsprint successfully. “We studied the quality of the newsprints and worked closely with the paper mills,” says Bhatnagar. So much so that today the company receives newsprints from paper mills like Rama, Murali, Shah and Nepa more or less custom-made to company needs.

In case you were wondering, DB Corp is the largest consumer of newsprint in India and uses about 47,000 tonnes of newsprint per quarter.

DB in numbers

Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar is India’s largest circulated national daily

Dainik Bhaskar has circulation of 3.89 million copies per day

All its editions combined, DB Corp has circulation of 5.3 million copies per day

52 print centres

62 print editions

210 district editions

353 editorial bureaus

More than 30 all-colour editions

3.5 lakh sq/m plates per annum

Largest consumer of newsprints in India with about 47,000 tonnes per quarter

Nitin Book Binding Works: The last of the binding Mohicans

Rushikesh Aravkar — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 19:14:00

In 1993, when an 18-year old ITI-trained maintenance mechanic Nitin Kandar landed an apprenticeship with Bombay Oil, little did he know that three months into the probation, he would be forced to take a leave of absence to care for his ailing father. And the family’s small bindery with its seven staffers became Nitin’s responsibility.

When Kandar took over the reins of the business, the six-year-old firm used to rebind old library books and produced small textbook pinning jobs for a couple of print firms.

“I was young with a throbbing desire,” says Kandar. “I kicked my heels up, knocking at every printer’s door, to add business.” After two weeks of heavy-duty sales efforts, this rookie binder was entrusted with a job for section sewing 10,000 copies of a religious book.

“It was Spectrum Graphics that allowed us this big job. It was an opportunity to make a difference and the entire team was brimming with enthusiasm to deliver something that is best in class. One big job led to another.”

This led to creation of brand Nitin Binding as an established binding house with bona fide credentials and knowledge.

By 1994, Kandar overhauled his binding unit and added a Polar programmable cutting machine and that “was the turning point”. “It brought us speed and control on our quality,” he adds.

It was a time when trade binders had started turning into printers, undertaking high volume jobs like textbooks. P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide, whose machines were at the heart of a binding revolution in the country, says, “There was a trade off between being a small or medium-sized niche player and becoming a volume player. Some of them succeeded in this transformation, but many failed.”

The next decade saw the printers setting up in house binderies and that saw some of the trade binders shutting shop.

Sajith observes, “Nitin Binding, decided not to follow the trend. It improved its skills and offerings, be it high quality hard cover binding, ornamental binding, and also undertook jobs like specialty brochures and complex catalogues. It invested in its core strength and became a solution provider such that the printers with in-house binding capabilities also chased him for special jobs.”

Nitin probably understood that finishing is the final word in print and did not get lured by the so called status upgrade to a printer. And so, today, this specialised binder employs 300+ people at three locations, producing over 35,000 spines and 15,000 hard cases every day.

It epitomises that being big and being niche aren’t mutually exclusive. Specialisation, not size, is its badge of honour.

An ace binder
Next year, Nitin Binding will celebrate its 30th birthday. The company was founded in 1987 as a trade finisher in Mumbai. Over three decades, Nitin Binding went from being a small shop doing re-binding works to become a multi-locational specialist binding company, which also manages binding houses at the locations of master printers like Mumbai-based Silverpoint Press and Surat-based Progressive Printing Press.

According to Kandar, Mumbai-based SAP Print Solutions’ Sanjay Bamne taught him the economics and technical aspects of the business, while Jak Printers’ Khushru Patel was his quality guru. Kandar humbly says, “I learnt how to harness machines for maximum output from Mr Bamne, and Mr Patel’s insistence for quality made me go that extra mile to produce the best.”

The trade finishing firm has earned a reputation for making complex binding simple. Case binding is his USP. Kandar is keen to champion the cause of the final piece of the print puzzle, claiming that he wants to “bring finishing to the fore”.

What makes him different from others in this trade is his scientific approach to binding. Kandar is a self-taught binder who exactly knows the size of needle to be used for the given sheet of paper and which adhesive is fit for the particular purpose and many such tricks of the trade. That’s what makes him premium among the lot.

“People may look around and find something that seems cheaper,” he says. “We take responsibility for the entire job. And with our experience, we can tell the printer how best to print it so we can provide the best quality,” says Kandar.

Kandar adds, “What most print firms ignore is that although binding is a post-press function, binding considerations need to be dealt with in the pre-press phase of any print job.”

That’s why Nitin Binding gets involved right from the planning stage to consult the print firm on several parameters such as setting the right gauge grippers for printing considering the parameters for the folding machines, selecting the right paper grain depending on the job size and orientation, grain direction of board to avoid warping, using collating marks etc.

“The paper grammage and folding endurance of a paper will affect how many times a sheet can be folded. The Bible paper may need special equipment in order to fold and bind the sheets without damaging them. The paper’s grain direction also affects the ease with which finishing operations can be performed.”

What makes Nitin Binding stand apart is his no-compromise approach to the quality of raw materials and process. “I spend a lot of time with raw material suppliers. For example, in the case of hotmelt adhesives, we worked with several vendors and zeroed in on Henkel as we observed the consistency in their supplies. Also, I work with Welbound engineers, who partner with Henkel in India, when they introduce new products. I try and understand how different grades perform and then select the right ones for my application.”

Men over machines
In 1994, the firm invested in a secondhand Polar programmable cutting machine, his first high-end investment, when it was a rarity even among print firms and that Kandar says was the turning point for this small-time binder. “It brought us speed and control on our quality,” he adds.

Since then, Nitin Binding has been adding equipment. It has steadily and organically expanded over its lifetime. From 12 galas in Mumbai’s Bussa Industrial Estate, to managing Silverpoint’s Mahape bindery in a 25,000 sq/ft consolidated space was an eye-opener for Kandar. “Operating from 12 galas was a logistical nightmare that we didn’t realise until we experienced the ease of workflow at Silverpoint’s binding-under-one-roof shopfloor.” As a result, four years ago, Nitin Binding shifted its 12-gala operations to a 20,000 sq/ft unit in Sewri.

Today, it operates three units: Sewri, Silverpoint in Mahape and Progressive in Surat. At Sewri, it deploys three Polygraph sewing machines, three Stahl folders, two Welbound single-clamp perfect binding machines, and three cutting machine. Against the impressive post-press arsenal, the craft of hand-binding is alive and well.

The 10,000 sq/ft Surat unit dedicatedly produces hard case binding jobs for the textile industry, while at Silverpoint’s Mahape unit, Nitin Binding has deployed 125 people for the print firms captive usage.

With a touch of pride, Kandar also points out that Nitin Binding produces the top-notch case binding in the country.

But it’s not the equipment that this specialised firm derives its strength from, it’s the men at Nitin Binding that matter. These are the men with a keen eye for book finishing.

“People are the glue that holds us together,” says Kandar. “We won’t claim to be ‘leading-edge’ in terms of investment, we do have top notch machines, but, more importantly, for us, it’s about the skills, it’s about the experience, it’s about the knowledge, it’s about the people that have a depth of industry experience. The key for us over the years has been to develop and retain skilled workforce.”

Versatility is the key
Nitin Binding’s clientele itself speaks of his quality. From Silverpoint and Jak to Kaleidographics and Akruti.

Kandar recalls the most challenging job he bound about 12 years ago was a 12kg book. The print run of this 624-page book was close to 6,000 copies. “It was a Raymond’s job and the printing contract was accepted by one Rajendra Kotian of Veekay Printers. There was a lot of peer pressure for not accepting this job since it seemed an impossible proposition by most standards. But, we accepted the challenge and delivered it on time in full.”

In one other instance, when Rajat brand of notebooks and diaries, which was synonymous with quality in the sixties and the seventies, decided to outsource its production, it found in Nitin Binding the quality deliverables to be a perfect fit to maintain its brand image. Thus being instrumental in the revival of Rajat brand.

“We offer such an expansive range of services, I would argue we are the most versatile finisher in the country, but people just see us as being whatever we do for them. We have added so many new strings to our bow in recent years, we want to be the first place people go for all their finishing.”

Its service bouquet includes lamination, pinning, wiro-binding, hard case, back-to-back pasting and long line of services that the company has added over the 30 years.

A couple of years ago, Kandar partnered with his partner Abhijit Shetty to establish a sister concern United Reprographics which deploys a Komori Lithrone 28 four-colour printing machine and a two-colour Heidelberg printing machine. “This investment was in no way meant to compete with my existing clients rather we cater to our existing clients by printing their excess work. With this we also attract extra run-off-the-mill book work.”

Last year, the company has spent Rs 30-lakh adding a rigid box making line, thus making its venture into packaging, like every other print service provider aspires to do these days.

Nitin Binding’s book volumes has taken a toll and rigid box line is an affirmative step for the future. Although, Kandar is optimistic when he says, books are here to stay. He is excited about his next project – a binding unit in Pune with the support of Akruti Offset, which will go live in the next couple of months.

One minute with Reva Printery

PrintWeek India — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:58:11

Where is Reva Printery based?
We are based out of Mumbai's busiest and happening suburb Malad.

How many staff do you have?
About 65.

What does your firm do?
Create dot provoking customised and innovative print solutions by systematic and consistent involvement with our clients and end-users. The task becomes practically possible as we have all operations under one 7,000 sq/ft unit. From pre-press (design to CTCP), press (Heidelberg SM74 five-colour with coater and Xerox Versant 80) post-press (UV, sound, light and other finishing units), meticulous binding, organised despatch and a dedicated Team supporting all above.

Who is your typical customer?
Pharmaceutical and automobile companies.

You invested in a Xerox Versant at Drupa. Why?
We observed that personalised car dealer requirements and multi-language short-run pharmaceutical jobs are on the upswing. We wanted a high-end quick and uncompromising digital printing solution. Xerox Versant was a complete package. A wider size of 13x26-inch, up to 300gsm duplex printing in one go, print quality closer to offset, printing on MetPET board as well as plastic and Xerox’s reliable support – clicked instantaneously.

Why are you investing in a UV CTCP instead of a Thermal or Violet CTP?
I have seen Creo in action and UV CTCP is a proven technology. The results are outstanding.

What according to you is Mumbai city's print USP?
It’s the human resource that is available for print operations. I am proud and happy to be a part of the ‘non-cribbing print fraternity’.

Your company’s motto.
A swift, innovative and transparent print solutions provider, whose quality, services and commitments are sworn by.

Where do you see your business in five years’ time?
We are looking forward to leverage print applications that are growing (some of which we presently import). These include augmented reality, 3D printing, innovative lenticulars, web-to-print and the unbelievable digital print applications seen at HP’s Drupa stand. The immediate objective is to be a MIS-powered company and become a fully-integrated colour-managed print shop.

What’s your team’s favourite paper?
Stucco from Fedrigoni and Rendezvous from Samwha.

Burda in India: Towards 18 crore books in FY2016

Rahul Kumar — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 11:14:00

B S Shesh, CEO of Burda Druck India says, "Burda Druck India is a very young organisation which has just completed five years of commercial production. We expect at least 50% growth in terms of revenue in the current year – and expect to achieve a turnover in the excess of Rs 250 crore."

A part of Burda Druck GmbH Germany, the factory in Greater Noida takes pride in being the first rotogravure printing installation in India in textbook printing, transforming the gravure process and making it suitable for printing on maplitho substrate. Burda Druck GmbH prints the world’s leading magazines, catalogues, and brochures such as Elle, Playboy, Focus, Lisa etc.

But the ace up Burda's sleeve is education. Shesh says, "Currently the company is strengthening its position in the education sector. We are planning to add various other services from next year." And so, the company's plan is to create a production facility in west and south to expand in western southern India and tap the market in Africa.

Shesh is clear about one thing, "The Bangladesh textbook market which gives a 15% price benefit to local printers means the company will not enter Bangladesh till this adverse term is eliminated."

Till such time, the Greater Noida factory will produce and execute orders for Africa. The numbers are staggering. Burda Druck India has created a brand reputation to "convert upwards of 35000 tonnes of paper this year and manufacture in excess of 18 crore books including the online bound products." Most of calculation depends on 54 gsm paper with binding options like saddle stitch, perfect binding (with or without PUR) pin binding, thread sewn binding.

The HT association
Burda Druck GmbH is a part of the Hubert Burda Media Group, 2.6-billion euro sales, 234 consolidated companies worldwide, over 10,000 employees, engaged in publishing and rotogravure printing with an annual output capacity of 350,000 tons of paper.

Shesh reminisces, "Burda Druck India was set up as a joint venture between HT Media limited and Burda Druck GmbH, Germany and was named HT Burda Media. However in October 2013 Burda Druck GmbH, Germany purchased the entire shareholding of HT Media in the joint venture."

After the share acquisition, Burda Druck Germany changed the name of the company from HT Burda Media to Burda Druck India a private limited company. Now Burda Druck India is a 100% subsidiary of Burda Druck GmbH, Germany and HT Media does not have any stake in this company. Shesh adds, "However Burda India continues to have a very good business relationship with the HT group and continues to print some of its important products."

Pre-press systems
Today the workload at the factory produces 60 international and 18 domestic magazines which depend on strong foundation of pre-press. Along with this, the Burda team is also co-ordinating with many Indian corporates for their pre-press work like handling their ad campaigns.

This hinges on some nifty pre-press work. The workflow is simple.
Customer Input : The Burda team receives inputs from customers through the Infocus Connect software. Immediately, an auto generated mail is sent to the customer stating receipt of files and inputs.

Workflow: Burda deploys the "Infocus Power Switch" software for faster and efficient error-free workflow right from getting raw images till the final corrected images being sent to the customer

In process: After which customized Apple Scripts for faster process is used in order to reduce repetitive manual work in terms of handling the files and inputs
Colour Enhancement: Camera Raw software along with Photoshop is used for better colour enhancement

Quality Check: There are soft proof stations, wherein colours can be checked in soft format as per ISO standards. This reduces the need of hard copy proofs viz. Epsons thus it is a cost saving method

Post-press clout at Burda
A lot of the work is produced on the 30-clamp Kolbus (model KM 412B). Shesh says, "This machine - the Kolbus Publica KM412B binder - has been differently designed by Kolbus for us. In real terms this means, it has a clamp size of 510mm which can take two-up textbooks, coupled with a slitting unit and two three knife trimmers."

This 30-clamp perfect binder has got a speed of 12,000 copies per hour which can produce double of the speed in two-up production mode. Shesh states, "We are producing on an average of 2,00,000 books per day in single-up on this binder. The present work involves textbooks for the domestic and overseas market, annual reports, magazines, etc."

In spite of a PUR unit, none of the textbooks are bound with PUR presently. Although Burda India has produced a few books for the Ghana textbook market with PUR glue.

Shesh says, "PUR is still expensive as compared to conventional hotmelt and short runs on PUR on a big binder is a non-profitable proposition."

He adds, "The textbooks industry is still on sewing or perfect binding with conventional hot melt and not accepting PUR as its replacement."

Best practices
Shesh says, "The best practices wefollow include ISO and Kaizen. Mostof our focus is to have the best available skilled manpower to run all themachines. All the operators on the printing machines are diploma holders and none of our supporting staff on machine is lesser then ITI. We emphasize and spend good amount of time on training of operators."

Today, web offset presses getting wider and wider, so there is a bigger and bigger encroachment of offset into traditional gravure markets. There are 96-page offset machines being installed in a number of European businesses. While at the same time gravure has probably reached its limit in the 4.32m press. We asked Shesh about this view on this eternal web offset v/s gravure debate?

He says, "We agree that web offset is increasing in width size in European businesses, but rotogravure due to its flexible cut off and waterless printing has an extra edge in terms of flexibility and quality.

The quality produced on rotogravure paper is way ahead then print quality on offset printing machines. There will always be a comparison but both the formats have their advantages and disadvantages."

Shesh says, the mantra at Burda is: We are in the business of time, and we deliver with matching customers quality expectations."

Gravure v/s offset - at a glance

During a visit to the Burda plant, this is what the PrintWeek India team noticed. The gravure process is to print directly on the surface of paper with waterless Inks. Cylinders are engraved with Diamond Styler’s and coloured images, and text which is formed for every colour.

Eight cylinders are made for printing four + four colour on any paper. The cylinders are mounted on to the machine with help of trolleys. The paper is fed between a cylinder and impression roller. There is a direct contact of ink roller to the bottom of the engraved cylinder which continuously takes ink from the ink chamber at the bottom of the machine.

The RG rotogravure is specialised Ink having 45% of toluene content in the basic Ink. This ink is filled in the engraved holes on the cylinder and then the ink is transferred on to the paper with help of the impression roller. There are heaters after every unit to make sure that ink is dried before entering into next unit.

• Large size reel width can go up to 2.45 metres so the number of pages printed per form can be 96 pages per sheet for A4 size

• High printing speed speeds of 40,000 copies per hour can be achieved. One of the presses at HT Burda can print, saddle stitch and finish online 96 pages (A4) with self-cover (same inner and cover paper) at the same speed, providing a swift delivery time

• Efficient paper consumption The Rotogravure press used at Burda Druck has a 16 cylinder circumferences that allow for different cut-off sizes. Since rotogravure presses can accommodate variations in height and width due to the number of cylinder circumferences available, they are more efficient in paper consumption

• Sharpness rotogravure printing provides better opacity. The images are directly printed onto the paper rather than via a blanket cylinder. An electric charge helps transfer the ink from the engraved wells in the cylinder onto the paper, making the image extremely sharp and clear

• High ink density rotogravure colour is deeper and richer than offset, because more ink can be applied to an area than with offset. The maximum density of offset ink is about 260% for the four colours – cyan, magenta, yellow, and black – combined, while rotogravure can theoretically have a maximum density of 400%. Put another way, each colour on an offset press averages 65% density, compared with a possible 100% for rotogravure. It allows for precise registration of inks on press than offset because of the rigidity of the printing surfaces

• Better colour alignment rotogravure inks are drier and, therefore, more solid than offset inks when applied to the paper. Rotogravure printing does not use water, therefore, has less challenges in aligning ink colours. With rotogravure, the wells for each colour are etched in the cylinder with elongated or condensed shapes. Since the wells are interpretations of the halftone dot pattern of the digital files, the chance of a moiré is reduced

• Cost effective The paper web tension required for gravure is about 1 lb. per square inch, while offset requires 4.5 lbs. per square inch. With less tension, Rotogravure presses can run a lighter and less expensive paper reducing costs. Rotogravure can print on coated and super calendered paper that is lighter than 39 gsm.

• Environment friendly Gravure printing is environment friendly since 90% of the chemical in the vapor form from print is captured back, reprocessed and recycled. The printed paper is also easily recycled for use at paper mills. The Burda team says, "There is negligible hazardous waste generation in comparison to offset printing houses".

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Zero debt Update growing at 20%

Ramu Ramanathan — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 11:12:00

During a panel discussion as part of the LMAI Conference in Jaipur last year, we had noticed how Rajesh Chadha, managing director of the Gurgaon-based label printing company Update Prints, was unusually quiet while rest of the panellists were waxing eloquence. We were intrigued by Chadha’s unusual stoicism at the industry event held on 16-18 July 2015.

For one thing, the conference was organised to identify the changing trends and help gear the Indian industry to meet those challenges. Meeting challenges have been Update’s forte. Today, Update is a force to be reckoned with in the Indian label segment, with a 200,000 sq/ft state-of-the-art premises in Gurgaon, equipped with the latest high-end printing technologies.

When we visited the Update facility in February, what impressed us most was how affable Rajesh Chadha and his son Aditya, the director of the company, were. They made us completely at ease with their genuine personality, a complete contrast with Chadha’s stoicism in Jaipur.

“There are limitations when you share a stage with your colleagues,” Chadha senior explains the reasons why he kept his own counsel at Jaipur. “When you speak on behalf of the entire industry, sometimes you tend to sound artificial. Hence, I thought it would be better to keep quiet.”

Artificial Chadhas are certainly not. In fact, what impressed us most about Update was the simplicity of its owners. We were also impressed with the company’s focus. Over the years, Update has discovered its own rhythm, unperturbed by market trends and competition.

Rajesh Chadha is happy to be a part of the label industry. “It is an interesting industry,” he says. “There is lot of work and room for creativity and innovation.” He is also proud of his achievements. And why not? He has led the company to consistently achieve an almost 20% per annum growth rate, which is above the perceived industry rate. He beams when he says, “Growth comes naturally to my company because of the quality of our work. It is not fuelled by huge borrowings from banks.” No wonder he heads a fully family-owned successful and growing zero-debt company!

A historic legacy
Update Prints came into existence in 1994. However, the family has a long history of print. Rajesh Chadha’s grandfather initiated the journey into print in 1924, with PC Chadha and Company, which was into transfer printing on sewing machines and for railways. PC Chadha spent some time in Kobe, Japan, where he picked up the art of printing, and started his own business when he returned to Rawalpindi in British India. After the partition, the family moved to Delhi and set shop in Patel Nagar before shifting to a bigger factory in Naraina Industrial Area, New Delhi and then to Gurgaon.

The family started Update Prints in a bid to diversify into other businesses. The focus was on hardcore automation. In 2002, PC Chadha and Company and Update Prints merged into one entity. Now, the company supply labels to all segments in self-adhesive category. “We are the specialist in labels printing and we want to continue with it. We want to invest in our strengths. The label market is growing at about 10-15% every year and that growth can be captured easily,” Chadha says.

He joined PC Chadha and Company in 1976. “We were in the paper transfer business like sewing machines and the ceramics. During my stay abroad, I picked up new printing techniques. So, when I joined the company, I brought screen printing and lithography. Very few people started screen printing then and we were one of them. We used to import materials from America. In 1994, we brought one flexo machine with UV from Focus and then from Orthotec,” Chadha recalls.

Meanwhile, Aditya Chadha, the fourth generation of the family, an MBA from Rutgers University in the US, with a specialisation in marketing, has been involved in the family business since his college days. After a stint in AT&T as a marketing manager, he returned to India in 2005, and joined the family business.

Current concerns
According to Aditya, customer retention is a real concern in the industry. “At a time when competition is so stiff, customer loyalty is difficult to expect,” he says, adding, “We have to look at ways to retain our customers.”

More labels with short-run are another concern. “In fact, competition and end customers both have increased. Brand owners are tempted to bring in more products and to introduce more products from time to time. This necessitates going into test products and test marketing. Obviously, short-run is a big concern. Digital printing presses may be a solution, but in India, digital has a long way to go. Digital is very expensive,” explains Aditya.

Investments
In 2001, Rajesh Chadha bought an Orthotec intermittent letterpress at Labelexpo Asia held in Singapore. Two years later, he impulsively bought a Rotatek displayed at a New Delhi print exhibition, on immediate payment basis taking his industry colleagues by surprise. Update Prints under his leadership has been acquiring new state-of-the-art equipment at regular intervals. From the single 600 square yards factory, the company was operating three different plots, one of 1,000 square yards and two of 600 square yards, it was now time to consolidate for a few years.

In another strategic move in 2013, Update Prints moved all their manufacturing operations under one roof to a facility admeasuring almost 250,000 square feet in land area and 32,000 square feet covered area. This exercise required the involvement of a huge amount of money, time, effort and commitment. The land was designated agricultural land. Setting up an industrial project on it was illegal. Many people in the area have done it but Rajesh Chadha is committed to tread the straight path. He got the land use changed to industrial. Any Indian will know the kind of effort and time this takes.

Infrastructure was another problem. The nearest power feeder was far away and to expedite the matter of bringing power to the unit, Update Prints had to install 50 electricity poles at their own expense. The approach road to the unit was in shambles. It had to be re-laid at their own expense.

Reminiscing about his work in the initial days in labels, he says, “The first label I created was for Yardley Cosmetics.” In those days, he had bought two Newfoil three station hot-foiling presses. He used to love working with them creating innovative products. It was the most satisfying part for him because he could imagine and then create labels that would get appreciation from buyers.

He has, over the years, equipped Update Prints with diverse technologies in label printing, decorating and finishing. Whether it is offset printed labels printed on his Rotatek Brava or labels created on flexo, letterpress, hot or cold foiling, screen printing, etc, his company is never left wanting the ability to create. “I deliver quality, service and satisfaction to my customers and for this reason, work comes to me automatically. I do not have to waste time in running after work,” he says confidently.

Technology changes
The company’s latest acquisition, Rotatek Brava, is a high-end press, with offset, self-screen, embossing and flexo, all integrated into one. This gives Update an edge in producing labels of the highest quality. This has also earned the company awards in offset category.

While Aditya is now pondering over acquiring a digital kit, he confesses that the company cannot look into digital being its front line. “It is difficult, especially with the perception of the label printers and the converters, which are not there right now,” he says. “If you really want to make digital a success, you will have to really work closely with the marketing teams of the print buyers. It can add value.”

On the other hand, he swears by the Rotatek. “It gives us the ability to use best of all the technologies in a single machine. We do around 50 jobs per day,” he says, adding, “90% of our work is done on film.”

He explains: “We have our regular washable plates. We have offset for very high resolution jobs (up to 650 lpi). For high resolution jobs, compared to flexo, offset printing plates are more economical. Our biggest concern is the repeatability of jobs with the same result. We mostly run two shifts.”

Managing waste
Update Prints’ business has transformed over the years. It does very little transfers business now and mostly produce labels. Its customers are mostly leading FMCG companies. Ten percent of its produce goes into export. While in Patel Nagar, waste management was a big problem.

With the company growing continuously, disposal was becoming a gigantic issue. It was one of the reasons, besides expansion, that they moved to this present location some 35 km from Delhi. Here, the company has developed collectors who take the waste and convert it for various usages and applications. Chadha strongly feels that someone needs to work in the direction of managing or recycling this waste effectively and believes that a solution will evolve. He also feels going linerless is a good direction but like digital printing, it will be some time before this technology becomes adaptable extensively.

Update today
Today, Update has three key strengths that make it stand apart in the competition. It has zero debt. It has a huge infrastructure and it is technically and academically equipped.

“We don’t drive rash. We invest within our limits. Whenever we opt for a machine, we look at the most loaded machine the company has in its arsenal. Whenever we have the money, we go for it, and otherwise we don’t. The technology is upgrading every day. Whenever we get a good and long job, we just do it,” Chadha senior says.

He explains: “In pre-press, we have our designing department and whenever a design comes, we check how we should do it, whether in flexo or in letterpress. Later, we do pre-pressing according to the designated machine. Almost all the machines are in twins. If something is wrong with one machine, we have a backup. We believe in backups. We don’t want to disappoint our clients. Anybody can ask for a shorter run, and we have every kind of technology here,” he says.

The company also has the Ecoflex narrow-web flexo press from Faridabad-based Multitec. “Ecoflex is a good machine,” Chadha says. “If you have a good price and a good range of machines I would believe in it.”

Update has a team of 120 people. “We always keep three or four people extra. It starts from the customer account. We have dedicated people working for customers and when the job comes in, the production person decides on which machine the particular job will run,” he says.

Salaam Cricket

Cricket is a team game, says Aditya Chadha, director at Gurgaon's Update Prints. As he stated during his speech at the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) in January 2016, “I have observed that in Northern India the printers do not associate as much as they should be. Increased communication and discussing common problems can prove beneficial not only for one company alone but will also contribute to the growth of the industry as a whole.”

Update’s roots can be traced back to Aditya's great grandfather, PC Chadha in 1924 in Kobe, Japan. Today, Chadha oversees operations along with his father Rajesh Chadha at the five acre plant in the outskirts of Gurgaon. The plant epitomises the image makeover that label print factories in North India are endeavouring at. What makes Update’s operations daring is the architecture and the fact that plant shopfloor is a hidden gem.

Chadha did his management studies in marketing at Rutgers University (USA) and studied at Shri Ram College of Commerce. In the era between 1998 and 2001, he captained the cricket team, thanks to his dual skills as a dependable middle order righthand bat and left arm spin.

Chadha, who is in the midst of the technology shakeup at Update, recalls those cricketing days with fondness. He recalls his days at the net and his brief rubbing of shoulders with stalwarts at the Playmakers Academy like Rajkumar Sharma (Virat Kohli’s coach) and Chetan Chauhan. Plus, a brief spar on the pitch with Ashish Nehra. But what he recalls is his hand during a game against title favourite, Hans Raj College. Chadha recalls, “Our top order had collapsed. We were chasing a moderate target of 80 runs in the last 10 overs. I was at the crease but I had sprained by foot while taking a run. It was a grind. A fight to the finish. We needed ten runs in the last over. But unlike Bhuvan (Aamir Khan’s character in the film Lagaan), I could not take our side past the finishing line.”

No fairy tale end to the story but that game earned Chadha the tag: O Brave Captain!
Chadha’s a bit disconnected with the glorious game, post Tendulkar’s exit. The last time he saw “the great man in flesh and blood is in 1999 when Anil Kumble achieved the historic feat of grabbing all ten wickets in an innings against Pakistan at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium”.

Chadha says, “In India, if we look closely, there is still a lot of scope for label converters to grow their businesses, what with wet glue labels fast making its way for pressure sensitive and flexible film labels. Also, industries which were previously not using self-adhesive labels have now started to adopt them." He feels like India triumphed during the World Cup in 2011, the Indian label industry can be a winner.

Like the World Cup T20 game on 19 September 2007, when Yuvraj Singh hit the England pacer Stuart Broad for six magnificent sixes in an over, Chadha feels the time is ripe for a Yuvraj Singh in Indian labels.

Chadha learnt three solid lessons from that game

1. Beware of over confidence. Like Hans Raj College, never under-estimate your competitor.

2. Technique is important. Chadha speaks about the correct stance. He ‘rocked’ while facing the ball and therefore his body used to move when the ball was being delivered. Chadha remedied this basic flaw. Today, he uses his eye to correct an improper technique. For example, he pointed out to his son not to park his weight on his heels while participating in a race. This tip came handy when he observes his team perform on the shopfloor.

3. To perform under pressure like “a Virat Kohli”. Chadha’s all-time favourite is Sachin Tendulkar. “I like Kohli, but not fond of his abrasiveness. Tendulkar was most compact and most proper.”

Family life

Rajesh Chadha being the elder son in his family, like in most migrant Punjabi families of that time in New Delhi, joined the business while he was still studying. He is an alumnus of New Delhi’s Salwan Public School and later studied commerce in Dayal Singh College for BCom and finishing up with a Masters in commerce. His wife Anju is a Master’s degree holder in English and takes an active interest in the business.

These days for two days every week, she attends the New Delhi office operating in Naraina and looks after the HR department. Rajesh and Anju have two children who are both now married. Their daughter Upasna has studied at the prestigious London School of Economics and spent time at Oxford University. Son Aditya, like his father, studied commerce from Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce and later completed his MBA in marketing from Rutgers University in the US. He is being fondly mentored by Rajesh to take charge of the company.

1. 1976: PC Chadha’s grandson Rajesh joined the business in 1976. The same year they moved factory from Patel Nagar to a 600 square yards plot in the nearby Naraina Industrial Area. With Rajesh at the helm

2. 1978: The company started to produce stickers by manual screen printing process. For the next ten years, the screen printing business became the mainstay for Chadhas. One of the first major decisions taken by Rajesh Chadha was to buyEuropean automatic Svecia Screen printing machine to print a full 20x30-inch sheet, quite big for that time.

3. 1990: The company started to produce stickers by manual screen printing process. For the next ten years, the screen printing business became the mainstay for Chadhas. One of the first major decisions taken by Rajesh Chadha was to buy a European automatic Svecia Screen printing machine to print a full 20x30-inch sheet, quite big for that time.

4. 1994: Rajesh setup Update Prints in 1994 as his flagship venture thereon, gradually taking over all the business of PC Chadha & Co, which was eventually wound up later in 2009.

Sensing the need to modernise with faster machines at Update Prints, he bought his first rotary flexo label press, a Focus. There is no looking back since.

IPP sets Rs 500 crore target

Ramu Ramanathan — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 10:55:00

On 22 April 2016, Ramu Ramanathan along with Rahul Kumar of PrintWeek India visited the IPP plant in Noida and sat down to chat with the mother-son duo of Amila and Rishabh Singhvi.

Noida-based International Print-O-Pac (IPP) doesn’t need introduction. Over the years, the company, which started as a pre-press house, has established itself as a major player in all aspect of printing, except label. What’s more, it is among the few major business houses in India run by a woman, in this case, Amila Singhvi.

The PrintWeek India Printing Company of Year 2010, IPP made all the right moves at the right time, scaling up from pre-press to commercial to packaging. This trend continues as the company continues to expand, diversify into new technologies and invest in new equipment. Unlike other major players in the field who are diversifying geographically, setting up plants in different parts of the country, IPP is looking to consolidate its position from its 12-acre site in Noida.

And, the company’s major focus has been customer service. “Service is an area people from our trade do not want to focus. We are a service led manufacturing company. We are working on drive demand,” says Rishabh Singhvi of IPP. “A mix of people, technology and material towards customers will make you successful. You have to keep in touch with your customers and keep inventing yourselves.”

Ramu Ramanathan (RR): What was the reason behind investing in the Komori Lithrone GL40?
Amila Singhvi (AS): To add scale and for value-addition. Our focus is on value enhancement. We can print on substrates other than paper and board, like PET, MET PET, PP and PVC. We need such capabilities for innovative book and stationery covers. We may take up production for newspaper inserts andpoint-of-sale materials printed on special surfaces. With this press, we can print substrates from 60 to 600 gsm. It is primarily intended for packaging print, but will be beneficial for other verticals too.

RR: How much will it add to your converting capacity of paper and board?
Rishabh Singhvi (RS): It will add 20% to our existing print capacity. We may add more capacity towards the end of this financial year. We are planning one more press with similar configuration and commensurate post-press capacities as well.

RR: What would be your scale after the expansion?
RS: We are running five lines and will convert 2,000 MT each month post the new investment. For packaging only, we have the capacity to print 11 million sheets on a monthly basis.

RR: (To Amila Singhvi) You just returned from London Book Fair. What are the significant trends you picked up?
AS: We felt that London Book Fair met with positive response after a long time. There is yet a significant and growing market for books in many parts of the world. Digital and books will co-exist. Within books, the textbook market is a significant segment. Indian and the African markets are vast and have our focus.

RR: Many mid-size printers who are looking to expand ask me what’s next?
AS: Mid-size printers could consider consolidating to form a viable entity. Alternatively, they could pursue value addition and improve profitability. Merely chasing top line growth does not help. The bottom line is more important. That said, diversification is not as easy as people think. Stepping into a new segment is always a challenge. There is a learning curve involved. So, detailed homework is a must before taking decisions. Look at the market, everyone considers top line and no one speaks of the bottom line. Marketing people consider the order value and not the margin. We encourage our marketing associates to understand cost. Investments are huge so there have to be margins. Viability is foremost.

RR: How can we fix it?
AS: Each person needs to fix his own. Set a minimum pricing benchmark for the company. Learn to say 'No'. Offer 'no regret' pricing. In case business does not materialise, so be it. Learn from past experiences. And from past mistakes. Share information. Encourage honesty. Track your costs carefully for no one will pay extra.

RR:Most printers are looking over their shoulders. Plus they do not have a clear roadmap. The old guard thinks if you are not doing well in commercial print, they diversify into packaging ...
AS: Nothing comes easy. Packaging is not for everyone. Not only is it capital and labour intensive, it requires consistency of process and product. The market is demanding and unforgiving. One should look before one leaps.

RR: What is your business structure?
RS: It is a two-in-one structure. There is one mindset for the book business, and another for packaging which is essentially based on different characteristics of each business. The manufacturing facility is separate, as are sales and marketing. There are common support functions such as pre-press, IT, purchase, finance and commercial. There are silos within for each business. Each division has a business head and a manufacturing head. Thus, the two units under one company give us the requisite scale. It is a mix of value and volume.

RR: How does it work in terms of team structure?
RS: We have been fortunate to have a reliable team of senior professionals, most of whom are associated since long. They have an understanding of our culture, values and of the customer. Experienced business and manufacturing heads are ably supported by a capable, aggressive team.

RR: How do you maintain the skill levels of your workers?
AS: Training is most important. Skill training is required at every level. We emphasise on internal training and re-training. We have stability in that sense, with low attrition rates at mid and lower levels. We also have external people to train us. We encourage industrial training and general skill upgrades. Our supply business partners also support with regular programs to imbibe new technology and work practices. We try to inculcate all of these.

RR: What is the marketing strategy at IPP? Do you have one?
RS: A customer-centric approach. Easier to say but tough to do. There is a cost to it. One needs to strike a balance. This means being more flexible, broad-minded, always considering a situation from multiple perspectives. It also means that our team sometimes has to work under undue and unrealistic pressures. The demanding nature of the business has to be understood by all those involved. It is just not good enough if you do your job perfectly. One has to keep the end result in sight. I usually tell my team that we may not be the biggest but we want to be the best. Our customer should say that we are the best.

RR: How so?
RS: In business, you can either be a cost leader or a product leader. In converting, it is not possible either to be a cost or product leader. There is no cost advantage as everyone is sourcing from the same suppliers and selling to similar customers. It is not like that you are manufacturing something that someone else does not. When you cannot be cost or product leader, then the next option is to be customer-centric.

Nowadays, funds for investment, knowledge and information are available to all. Everyone is at par. It is only the customers' confidence that will generate sustainable long-term business. Service is area people from our trade do not want to focus. We are a service-led manufacturing company. We are working on derived demand. Except Paperisto, we do not directly sell to users. We sell mostly to other businesses.

AS: The management needs to be closely involved and pay close attention to details. No matter how good a professional team one is able to develop, close day-to-day involvement of the promoter is a must.

RR: How much of this has trickled down? We are still an icon driven industry. We need a strong leader and he/she drives the ops.
RS: I joined the company with limited practical knowledge. I was fortunate to be armed with good education. From day one, I was given a free hand to learn and to shape the team. I did things my way. I got the best advice and great mentoring internally. Yet it took me five years to get grip on the business.

AS: We are lucky that our second generation is in place, so we were stable. I have seen many organisations which are struggling because there is no successor from the promoter family. In most cases, the second generation is not interested in the business.

RS: When I entered in this industry, FMCG was in a nascent stage. Packaging had just started taking baby steps. Our DNA has changed since then. We were a repro and commercial printing house at that time. Commercial printing has evolved into book, magazine and stationery, which we were not doing at that time.

At this time we saw an opportunity in paperboard packaging. Being a paper-based commercial printer, this was natural progression for us. It was not easy, but we have been reasonably successful.

RR: What are the old methods and bad habits you got rid of?
RS: The mindset. The reluctance to share information, to cooperate, to coordinate. We ensured team leaders replaced star individual performers.

RR: Do you have any strategic approach for marketing?
RS: We work with our customers in a manner where we learn about them and this knowledge helps us to help them better. We have customers who have been working with us from long. They have partnered in our growth. I spend a lot of my time with clients. It is time best spent, in my view.

RR: How do the machine manufacturers and your material suppliers help you?
AS: Now you have multiple choices for most products. Largely, we choose strategic partners from the vendor side. We work with same business partners for a long period of time.

RR: Where do you see IPP in 3-5 years?
AS: We see substantial growth and potential in all our existing segments. We are particularly excited about the stationery business. We see a stable growth in book printing segment and better than stable growth in carton packaging. Packaging will be an important focus area, but we cannot undermine the importance of other businesses. We expect annual double-digit growth. We are also looking at related opportunities and are open to new technologies and avenues. We are also trying to reach new geographies, in terms of more customers.

RR: What is the new big wave?
AS: Print-on-demand for books is very critical. Large-format digital could be promising. Everyone speaks of demand for rigid boxes. We will wait and watch. We are optimistic and hope to expect to achieve sales of Rs 500-crore by 2017-18 depending on how the market evolves.

RR: What are your Drupa plans?
AS: We will look at large-format digital, rigid box machines and cost-effective variable data printing at Drupa. Most of our business partners will be showcasing newer and improved versions of existing technologies. We will look at everything with an open mind.

IPP’S Business

We have three verticals - carton packaging, book and magazine production and stationery manufacturing. In packaging, we are cautiously expanding and adding printing capacity. We have some spare capacity in post-press, but will be adding more capacity by the end of this year. In book printing, we are adding more capacity in finishing. We have five webs and a battery of sheet-fed offset presses. Increased capacity can also be used for stationery business which is the fastest growing. Paperisto is our home-grown stationery brand. It is IPP's umbrella brand for its B2C business.

The new Komori at IIP

IPP’s Lithrone GL640-C is equipped with UV-IR, and is optimized for packaging and special printing applications. The kit was demonstrated during the Print China show in April 2015, with the machine’s special features, such as the new dryer that contribute to printing on heavy stock and high-added value printing, KHS-AI, PDC-SX (Spectral Print Density Control-SX Model), KID (Komori Info-Service Display) and UV and IR attachments in action.

Educate the print buyers about quality so that distinguish apples from oranges: Rishabh Singhvi

Q: We have discussed how no one wants printing to become a commodity market, but how can printers stop that from happening?
A: Set a minimum price for each sheet printed. Sell viably and generate adequate ROCE (return on capital employed). Invest returns in new technologies, materials and finishes that encourage value-addition and prevent commoditisation.

Q: One next-generation automation which “genuinely” improved productivity at IPP?
A: There are several – the sample-maker, the pile turner, the automatic laminator, the laser die-shop, the online quality inspection tools.

Q: All too often the industry lets itself down with its own marketing. Gone are the days when a printer’s marketing was based on a mail shot, featuring little more than a plant list and an out-of-date brochure. What does IPP do in terms of digital marketing, events, quirky initiatives and social media to engage with existing and potential clients and ultimately demonstrate your print prowess?
A: E-mailers are sent regularly to update clients on new initiatives and developments. Development workshops are organised fairly often. The website is regularly updated.

We make an effort to speak with and meet our clients on a regular basis with actual samples of new work, which they can touch and feel. The ‘real’ experience matters. We are selling physical products after all. The world may be virtually connected, but the importance of personal meetings and face-to-face interactions has never been greater.

Q: Please enlighten our readers about the concept of value-addition. For most offset / packaging printers, it means spot UV (matt/gloss). But at IPP, I noticed the samples had much more of UV special effects.
A: There is a whole range of special effects – matte and gloss contrast, texture, spot finishes, cast and cure, holographic 3D imaging, tactile UV, et al. We evaluate new options on an ongoing basis and working closely with supply business partners to develop innovative solutions and share these with customers.

Q: Years ago, everything probably would have been produced on the same press, screen or maybe litho. Of course, now we have a much wider choice, more options, more flexibility, but with that came complexity when it comes to press passing. I don’t think that Indian printers are necessarily where they need to be colour management-wise. Your view?
A: Colour management is no longer subjective. Values are measured. The buyer is provided such data to reduce ambiguity in decision-making while press passing. We invest in colour management hardware and software and support a workplace culture that encourages such data-based colour measurement. International clients now request for colour management reports and pay premium for such services. Print is now more scientific.

Q: You mentioned the system integration of your Esko with Microsoft Dynamics AX. Please explain the process.
A: We have a Microsoft Dynamics AX customised business workflow. The print workflow is from Esko. We have made efforts to integrate the technical and the commercial workflows with reasonable success. This integration can be improved further. We hope to seamlessly integrate these soon.

Q: Your views on educating your buyer?
A: It is important to educate the buyer on quality to ensure that they distinguish apples from oranges.

Q: The deadlock in narrow-web label printing is similar to what is happening to commercial printing, post the high of 2008, due to sluggish business opportunities, low margins, a flexo arena which is tough to operate in, bloodbath with prices. IPP made a strategic decision to exit labels a decade ago. Why so?
A: To focus on segments that suited our capacities, capabilities and mindset better. In hindsight, it was a good decision.

Q: How do you compare the three lines of businesses (packaging, publishing, stationery) in terms of cost, efforts to achieve high-quality print, business model, market opportunity and the future?
A: All are promising good business prospects. Each business must be managed well to achieve cost efficiency, product quality and customer delight. Any business is good when financially viable. Management must be focused and precise. It is important to read between the numbers, meet efficiency targets and limit waste.

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With massive investment, York is riding the wave of evolution

Rushikesh Aravkar — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 10:53:00

“This industry is capital intensive,” explains Ankit Mehra of York Print. “You shouldn’t be in the business unless you can generate significant cash on the bottom line that can help you to invest in new equipment for the future.”

York has done exactly this since the establishment of a packaging plant in Meghalaya in November 2002. Having positioned itself as a preferred packaging converter in the North East for the top FMCG companies, the business is cash generative.

The company has now embarked on a Rs 40-crore investment programme that includes capacity additions, new plants, and expansion in Bangladesh.

The fact that York has grown by 27% in FY 2015 and its sales turnover has exceeded Rs 170 crore from Rs 97 crore five years ago, tells you exactly how capital intensive print can be. Equally, it says something about the confidence the York team has in its ability to maintain profit levels in a difficult market even while operating from a geography characterised by frail infrastructure. It has implemented the expansion plan when a majority of companies are still playing a waiting game.

Mehra believes the essential quality required to survive in the North East is to grab the opportunity as and when you see one. “Our customers gave us the opportunity to operate in the North East in 2002, and we seized it. Here, the business is limited, and one should be ready to face challenges and grab the opportunities whenever they appear,” he says.

The Kolkata-based company, which started as a screen printing firm in the early 1980s is ready to face the challenges. “We don’t believe things are going to get any easier – it’s only going to get tougher,” says Mehra. “But we believe it’s the right movefor York to invest now in order to grow.”

The plan has already started yielding result, as the company has secured its place on the vendor roster of key FMCG players like Godrej, Emami, GSK, Pidilite, Eris Life Science and SC Johnsons, among others.

With this, the company is set to boost its turnover to Rs 210-crore in FY 2016. “We had to invest. The primary reason is the cutthroat competition. The latest technology gives us an edge over the competitors,increases capacity and reduces delivery time.”

A family business in every sense of the word, Mehra now realises that York Print Group needs to be a professionally-run corporate house. To this end, York has hired industry experts and consultants and has gone on board for quality approach with 5S, Quality Control Circles (QCC), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), etc.

“We only employ and train local people because we want to build loyalty within the organisation,” says Mehra. This local employee base, most of who live within walking distance of the site, is the heartbeat of the firm, the driving force that is the secret of York’s well-being.

Significant investment
However, as Mehra is quick to point out, a printing company requires constant feeding in both energy and cash. This year’s addition to the Guwahati facility has been a KBA Rapida 106 eightcolour plus coater press.

“The new Rapida 106 will give York extra firepower in one of the most crucial areas of the business. The eight-colour press is capable of inline cold foiling such that two stations are required for foiling and adhesion while the remaining six stations can be used for CMYK plus two special colours.

With the new KBA on its shopfloor, York’s conversion capacity will rise to 2,000 tonnes.

Besides the KBA, a significant investment has gone in York’s corrugation unit
in Guwahati and a fabrication unit in Dhaka.

According to Mehra, the 40,000 sq/ft corrugation unit is worth Rs 10 crore. Mehra explains, “There is lot of opportunity in the corrugation business in the North East, thanks to the lack of highquality corrugated box suppliers. Our existing customers need to source shippers from Kolkata and wanted us to manufacture good quality shippers locally.”

The corrugation unit is equipped with a fully automatic corrugation line with four-colour flexo printing facility. With this, the company can convert 1,000 tonnes of kraft paper and thereby will rank among the top five corrugators in the region.

“There are very few good quality players in this region. And hardly one or two are automatic plants. For us, the differentiator would be the technology we have invested in,” adds Mehra.

Dhaka: Opportunity from the East
The Dhaka operations will be set up in two phases. In the first phase, there will be die-cutting and side-pasting machines and in second phase a UV press and foil stamping machines. “This unit is being set up near Dhaka in Maona district Phase one of the plant was made operational on 1 May 2016,” informs Mehra.

“Packaging converters in Bangladesh are unorganised and not technically equipped. The local converters are using old equipment due to which they are unable to provide good packaging solutions and customers are looking for converters set up in Bangladesh who can provide packaging solutions similar to those available in India,” he adds.

The 50,000 sq/ft Dhaka unit is a fabrication unit and will be equipped with Bobst Novacut die-cutter, and Bobst Ambition folder-gluer with off-line blank inspection machine.

“The idea is to support this unit from the Assam unit in terms of printing and other value-addition related activities. Once we have established ourselves in Bangladesh, we will put up a complete line,” says Mehra.

Currently, the total size of investment in Bangladesh is in the tune of around Rs
7-crore. Mehra says, “With all the additional investments, we plan to touch Rs
210-crore in FY 2016 and Rs 250-crore in FY 2017,” he concludes.

Fact file

Managing director: Anil Kumar Mehra

Director: Ankit Mehra

Turnover: Rs 170- crore

Certification: ISO 9001: 2008 & FSCTM COC Certified

1980:Established as ascreen printing unit

2002: Plant-1: Meghalaya unit

2009: Plant-2: Assam unit one

2013: Plant-3: Assam unit two

2016: Plant-4: Assam corrugationunit and Dhaka fabrication unit

100 years of living legacy

Ramu Ramanathan — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 10:31:00

Ramu Ramanathan (RR): ST Reddiar has been around for 100 years. Fair or not,
there was an impression from the outside that the company was on the decline. Is it true? If yes, do you feel you have arrested this since your arrival on the scene?
Mahesh Karthik (MK): Well, the outside always had its versions about ST Reddiar.
The fact remains that in the last 35-odd years, we have had some good years and
some bad years, but there was no decline. I have not contributed anything to arrest this “decline”, simply because it never existed. Yes, I have contributed towards increasing the growth rate of the company.

RR: You are the fifth generation at ST Reddiar. A word about the famous ST Reddiar legacy. How your grandfather made it big?
MK: Interesting fact: Many believe that my grandfather Rajendran inherited ST Reddiar. This is not true. He was not even directly related to Subbiah T Reddiar, the founder. My great-grandfather was Reddiar’s nephew and he received the controlling rights of ST Reddiar & Sons, the original company based in Quilon (Kollam) after the sudden demise of the founder.

Later, the company was handed over to the male heirs of Reddiar. As a token of gratitude towards his services, my great-grandfather was given the rights to use the name ST Reddiar & Sons. Later, Rajendran, my grandfather, used the name when he started ST Reddiar & Sons (EKM) in Cochin in the late 1950s. He started it from scratch, investing his own money, which he earned in Mysore working for a tire manufacturer. Until 1996, whatever was under ST Reddiar & Sons (EKM), it was all my grandfather’s creation.

RR: Your father, Suresh Reddiar is a larger than life personality, isn't he? A president of the All India Federation of Master Printers plus the Finat group. How do you view him?
MK: My father, R Suresh, could remain calm under pressure. This is probably why he was successful in tackling the most difficult years in 1980s. When things were returning to normal, he lost his biggest support, his father, in late 1980s. The 1990s were redemption. By mid-1990s, he got out of the chaos of the decade that preceded and started building up from where his father had left off. I joined in early 2000s. From then on, we started looking at things from both our perspectives and got our business operations to where it is now.

RR: So are you the fifth generation printer or a third generation printer?
MK: Basically, I am the third generation, but in order to honour those who kept the legacy of the founder going until the time my grandfather started what it is today, it’s always said that he is the third, my father the forth and I the fifth generation. I consider the company a legacy of my grandfather whom I consider the first generation entrepreneur and my father, who has succeeded in keeping it up.

RR: When I met you three-four years ago, you told me about the changes you have initiated. Do you feel the changes have yielded results?
MK: Some of these changes have had huge impacts. This has changed the way we look at our business today.

RR: On 29 April 2016, you printed Kerala's first UV produced Ganapati print on your brand new LS 29 (six colour + coater).
MK: Yes, it was printed on a 300 gsm silver MetPET sheet. With opaque white base, four-colour and drip-off UV coating.

RR: What are the different UV effects you have tried out on it?
MK:It’s just the beginning of a very exciting UV journey for us. The excitement is not only for our team but also for many of our customers and potential new customers who are looking to go the UV way. The best part of this exercise is that the design for the silver MetPET with white base was completely done in-house for the first time. Interestingly enough, I was the only one in our company who has worked on UV machines and designs for UV printing in the past. However, thanks to our award winning press and pre-press team who came together, we pulled out the right print after 3-4 trial and errors.

RR: You are quite a tech adopter. What are the trends you have been spotting?
MK: To be honest, the investments we thought would influence our business 11 years ago are still paying off for us. Nothing has changed much. We made our last major investment in 2006.

RR: What gives you confidence at ST Reddiar about what lies ahead for print?
MK: For now, I think, we must strive to be the jack-of-all-trades. You never know what is going to stay and what is going to go. Instead of mastering one trade, we must wait until the market consolidates and we have a clear vision of what will survive and what will not. In any case, you would already have the basics of the trade that would stay. You would just need to master it.
RR: On our Hisar trip (RR and MK, along with Ankit Tanna of Printmann and Manu Choudhary of CDC Printers, travelled to Hisar from Delhi airport in a car to attend the two-day international conference, Romancing Print, in February 2015) ...
MK: Ah, the famous Hisar trip! And to think I almost cancelled the trip. My father got a call from Anand Limaye, and that's how I showed up. What a miss it would have been!

RR: Yes, at that time, you mentioned that print needs to increase engagement and Indian printers should re-work their strategies. What is your philosophy about how print should grow?
MK: A few years ago, print was produced with a costing methodology of ‘add up your cost’, ‘mark your profit’ and ‘sell’. Now, it is ‘work around the customer’s’ budget and then see where you can make your profits’.

RR: What is your philosophy about how print should grow?
MK: What I meant by engagement is a clear understanding of processes and seeing what makes money and what does not, in a bid to eliminate processes that do not make money and add processes that do. Today, this is the key to count costing for a print buyer.

RR: One of the other things you said in Hisar was, “I think as anything grows, you get in this mode of paying more attention to the customers you don’t have instead of the customers you do have." Why so?
MK: I think I spoke a little too much that day, didn’t I? I should have realised that I was sitting next to a media person.

RR: Quite true. You said, "We have a mindset of making sure that we’re building a stronger tool and a more powerful tool for the people we do have. And when you have that focus, and when you’re really listening to your customers, it tends to grow.”
MK: I see growth in two ways. First is giving a better solution to an existing customer by making new investments, which would help him grow his business. It can be anything from value-addition in print to creating a software solution. Second is to venture into new territories and get hold of buyers in that segment. This needs a lot more thought; this needs much more data in terms of feedback from potential customers.

RR: Easier said than done?
MK: The first way of growth can come from customer feedback or your own observations. It offers potential opportunity for both you and your customer to make money. This may take time, but it is rewarding. The second way may take more time and may be far less rewarding. However, I believe a good combination of both the ways is the ideal way to move forward.

RR: You also said, “The new print consumption culture has been redefined from years to months to moments to micro-moments. It is multi-device and personalised. Therefore, print has to work in order to deliver round the clock content. Print needs to adapt to ensure delivery.”
MK: A simple way to put this across would be to say that print is becoming more and more service-oriented. The terms like moment to micro-moments, personalisation, etc simply means that the opportunity is there in better servicing. Most of these solutions vary depending upon the customer and his line of business. So it’s best to be prepared and find out how we can service the customer to the best of our abilities and to his satisfaction and requirements. We also need to have an open mind to accept the changes in the market scenarios.

RR: In what way your new investments, such as AGS, Naph, other than the Komori will strengthen the path for ST Reddiar?
MK:All the names you mentioned make us jack-of-all-trades. Some of these investments were made following customer feedbacks. We invested in the others with the hope to attract print buyers who are not yet our customers. I also hope it covers all the “dimensions”.

RR: You told me, data is the trump card.
MK: Digital has spiraled up into many dimensions today. I think this Drupa will
throw a lot more light on the digital side than anything else. Having said that, we are yet to find that one concrete (which is going to survive the ongoing disruption) dimension that would make digital (which in itself has many facets) the next big thing. With regard to digital, on-demand is becoming one of the go-to aspects. Personalisation has been there since the first digital machines were introduced in the late 1980s. I feel its charm has reduced while being associated with ‘digital printing’.

RR: And so, the more print invests in generating expert, curated data, the more we will trigger print engagement. Is it doable? If yes, how?
MK: The effective use of data is the way to look at personalisation, but compilation,
usage and profiteering seems quite subjective to markets especially in the area of data collection.

RR: You have done some interesting print work. How did you come up with those?
Did the customer drive it? Did you set the agenda?
MK: Some of it came from customers pushing us. At the start of some of these projects, we believed this may not be our forte. In case of some of the jobs, we provided all the solutions to our customers.

RR: You were part of the first corrugation conference and show in Kochi.
MK: I was lucky to be a part of the first corrugation conference in Kerala. It was a
wonderful event and a chance for all of us in Kerala to interact with some of the big
names in the industry.

RR: Kerala is also a hub for Komori installations and is perhaps the largest
base for HP Indigo. Could you explain the Kerala print conundrum?
MK: Honestly, I don’t know why Kerala is a hub for one particular machine manufacturer. Earlier, it used to be a hub for a manufacturer from Germany. I guess, someone is doing a better job at selling than others.

As far as I know, Indigo has sold bulk of its kits in the photo album segment, which is a big industry in Kerala. Apart from that, yes, there has been an increase in the commercial segment, mainly for short- and medium-runs.

RR: At the KMPA-PWI roundtable in Kochi, you told us, “Dubai or even Gulf countries are cheaper because their pricing or conversion ratio is constant with the USD. So they can get paper from Indonesia or Malaysia for a year steadily. We can't give a long-term quote to our clients as paper price fluctuate.” Have things improved?
MK: The situation has only worsened. The dollar to currencies like UAE Dirhams has
been quite steady, whereas we have had at least 10% decline of our currency against the USD. So buying anything in US dollar has not had any positives.

RR: What do you think about a show like Drupa? Still relevant?
MK: Drupa, for me, is not the once-in-fouryears excuse to have a European vacation, as I have heard some printers say. I always look forward to the show, since most of ‘what’s next’ from exhibitors debut at Drupa.

Thankfully, today, they have brought Drupa closer home to us, instead of us flying to Dusseldorf. I caught most of the big events of last Drupa on Youtube. It went a long way in helping us choose some of our investments.

A day in Mahesh Karthik's life

The usual drill is home to office; and then office to home. It would be better if I don’t get into hourly details, as a printer’s life is terribly boring. I don’t work fixed schedules. It depends on the amount of work that needs to be finished. Outside of work my wife is the one who pushes me to weekend events or movies, otherwise I just love lazing after work.
Sunday evenings is hangout time with friends, and once in a year I take off for 10-15 days to a relaxing vacation. Even my vacationing started only after my wedding a couple of years ago.

Among many, quoting some of my friends and family members (not the ones that are part of the print legacy) would say "You look like the guy who came out of an island lost for decades". This happens mostly after a very busy season ends. But anyway thankfully long hair and beard are returning back in fashion.

The ST Reddiar machine fleet

Pre-press at ST Reddiar

▸ Screen and Kodak 8-up Thermal CTP platesetter with
a Fuji XMF.

▸ The Kodak CTP system outputs 50 plates an hour;
and caters to the newspaper segment

▸ The Screen with Fuji Zack processor with conductivity
based replenishment system for commercial and
packaging requirements

▸ Adobe full pack and Corel; the rest, such as preflight CIP
and proofing are part of the workflow.

Press kit at ST Reddiar

▸ Sheetfed: Komori, sixcolour + coater UV press

▸ Mitsubishi five-colour and four-colour

▸ Web: Naph, 546mm cut-off for newspapers.

▸ Komori commercial heatset web 38S for magazines and
newspaper supplements

Post-press at ST Reddiar

▸ Muller Martini – six-station saddle stitcher with inline three knife trimmer

▸ Muller Martini – fourclamp perfect binder

▸ Kolbus – 22-clamp perfect binder

▸ Stahl folder

▸ Welbound - 22 station gather and perfect binder