IPP XI Conference, Mumbai

at Printech 2007
Bombay Exhibition Centre,
Goregaon East, Mumbai

What does a Small Medium Print House expect from a conference?

Well the answer can vary from printer to printer. Firstly there are a majority who think it is sheer waste of time and money. Some attend for the fellowship dinner that follows and that remains with us a bunch of dedicated printers who think they need to be updated with latest technology, the current trends, the challenges faced by the industry and particularly to absorb the knowledge shared by the speakers who over the years have gathered in their respective fields. Exactly these people attended the two day conference at the International Lounge Hall No. 1 @ Printech 2007. There were some dedicated printers who came down from far places like Delhi Saket of Impress Offset, Mahabal from Miraj, Panaskar from Kolhapur, four print technologists from Global Software, Pune along with a pretty sizeable crowd from Mumbai and its satellite New Mumbai.

The two day Conference was jointly hosted by Mumbai Mudrak Sangh & IPP, the focus being on Small and medium Print Houses, Print Market in Western India and Mumbai with the burning issue of Relocation to places outside Mumbai city limits. Locations like Navi Mumbai, Vasai, or suburbs like Goregaon, Kandivali on the western side or Bhandup, Mulund on the central side were considered for shifting from centrally locations like Lower Parels and Wadalas. Also adoption of newer technologies like CTP, digital or web to print to automate and maximize production within their existing set-ups was also looked into.

Mr. B.S. Kampani, President and Managing Director of Toyo Inks India Pvt. Ltd. set the tone for this conference with his keynote address on Print Market in Mumbai and Western India. He dwelled on the growth of print across the globe vis-à-vis the Indian Market. With the robust economic growth, he said Indian Print Industry has the potential to be the outsourcing hub for the global market. He pointed out the concentration of presses in each of the four regions of India with supporting statistics and emphasis on the Western Region.

This study on the development of print in the Western Region was impressive and set the mood for a lively debate with two successful printers of Western India – Mr. Anil Joshi of K. Joshi & Co., Pune who ventured from traditional blockmaking to offset and then onto CTP. He was joined by Mr. Pradeep Shinde of Printwell from Aurangabad - Central Maharashtra who claims to be one of the largest print houses of that region offering services under one roof. Both these print houses have installed brand new presses and claimed to be very happy with the growth they have achieved with these new presses. With this path of growth, Mr. Joshi felt the necessity to move out to a bigger set up probably out of Pune city limits.

On this note of relocation, Mr. Firoze Reshamwalla of Lucid Prints, a young entrepreneur, who recently relocated from Mazgaon to Mahape in Navi Mumbai, was invited to share his experience. His mantra which he endorses GROWTH = SPACE. Finally, Mr. Ramesh Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging shared his thoughts and experiences of travails of expansions to managing trained personnel for such presses or equipment. He preferred to cater to client’s requirements rather than pursuing brand new presses which may not justify the cost of the product. He claimed to have purchased, used presses after using brand new presses.

Mr. Naresh Khanna posed a question to the panelists. The answer was startling and mind boggling, 15000 to 40000 sft was the answer by all panelists which was an eye opener to the audience. On this positive note the first session ended.

This second session was moderated by the packaging expert Mr. S. Chidambar and there was a presentation by Mr. Prabuddha Dasgupta of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. describing the requirements of FMCG companies with respect to innovative packaging and specially labels, their uses and how the print houses would cater to these companies with short runs and print with consistency in quality of spot colours on various substrates. The other panelist included Mr. Ramesh Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging, Mr. Amar Chajjed of Webtech Labels Pvt. Ltd who has a series of Narrow web flexo presses installed at his modern press in Navi Mumbai. He shared his thoughts on Label options by flexo which had predominantly been the domain of the offset process and now being seen as a viable option on the narrow web segment. The discussion then varied to the options of having hybrid press units being fitted with additional flexo units to the conventional offset presses to get the advantages offered by the other printing processes or vice versa. This culminated in an interactive Q & A session which gave several insights to the futuristic trends in the industry.

In the first session on Dec. 18,  Nagesh Karuturi – Country Manager HP India made a presentation on global trends in the Digital segment and the potential it has in the Indian market as the print runs are getting shorter and shorter. He dwelled on the topic of offset and digital co-existing and complementing each other with each process garnering business for the other. Khagesh Patel of Patel Digital - Ahmedabad, being the perfect example of this scenario, was the panelist for this session. A Chartered Accountant by profession joined his family business in Printing and was a pioneer in Poly CTP. His shrewd business acumen made him convince his clients to convert their conventional jobs to CTP helping him overcome his stiff ROI’s giving them value for money. Another panelist Mr. Milind Deshpande of Malhar Digitech, a young entrepreneur who started with CTF then went on to wide format (outdoor) added a digital studio and shared his experiences of how in a very short span his Digital Yatra encompassed all forms of printing and who believes in quality and runs the print house from his heart.

Mr. Surendra Singh of Canon India made a brief presentation of the aspects of their new versatile digital press which was followed by Anir Dutta, Business Development Manager, Kodak GCG, Dayton USA who spoke extensively on adoption of newer technology and creating a niche market for the printed product with Variable Data and personalized mailers. He stressed the idea for tie ups with database management companies and offer excellent opportunities for the printed product. The session ended with audience interaction with panelists on topics like colour management, CTP and short run digital printing.

Naresh Khanna of IPP made a presentation of the growth in the Indian print industry supported by statistics to prove his point. The final session of this conference - Modernising and growing with the offset option - high value assets in small spaces was equally interesting. Having a four colour press in a gala of 500 sft in Mumbai and wanting to double the production in the same space is a daunting task but may be possible with a stack press. Mr. Siddharth Gupta of K.K. Printing made a presentation on a stack press and highlighted the options available for a small print house to print 4+4 colours in one pass with blanket to blanket printing that can print on 28 gsm uncoated to thicker coated stock by conventional offset process. Mr. Sanjib Baruah of Presstek India dwelled on Direct Imaging Press with a four page format for short run offset option which is the future technology. Asim Kulkarni, senior manager Kodak GCG put across his views on the viability of CTP as a necessity to optimize your print house. He spoke at length on Process less plates as the future of CTP to counteract the vagaries of plateroom chemistry and also ecological concern avoiding the harmful chemicals and contamination of water.

The other panelists included Arun Rawat of Print Services which is catering Commercial print segment has conventional offset as well as narrow web flexo press is well traveled and is abreast of latest technology put forth his views on current scenario of the Mumbai Print industry. He stressed on MIS for all print houses to be in place, right from job ticket to Invoicing and accountability of all press personnel for any rejections in the print house.

And finally Tushar Dhote of Dhote Offset Technokrafts spoke at length on high value assets in small places including automation in pre-press and postpress. He agreed with Arun on the necessity of the systems being in place and has installed a brand new 4 colour press with CIP 4 compatibility. He has optimized his prepress and press giving him excellent results. His print house is AN ISO -9001:2000 COMPANY which definitely gives him a cutting edge over his competitors. Naresh Khanna concluded the conference with a high note that Print Houses in Mumbai & western India are really moving ahead to face the global market.

Report by

Conference Chairman Kamlesh Dhargalkar