Singh Offset, a commercial printer based in Basti, an emerging urban center in eastern Uttar Pradesh, has expanded its production capacity with the installation of a new Komori Lithrone G-37.
Roughly 64 km west of Gorakhpur and about 216 km east of UP capital Lucknow, Basti is a major non-terminal halt on the Lucknow–Gorakhpur main line, specifically the Gorakhpur–Barabanki broad-gauge route, which extends all the way to the Northeastern states.
The printer owns digital production machines from Konica Minolta, offset machines from Koenig & Bauer and Heidelberg, and signage printing solutions from Epson, along with a notebook production unit 5 kilometres outside the city, backed by technology from LineOMatic.
Indian Printer & Publisher’s visit to the production unit in Basti’s Indra Nagar was met with a warm cup of tea and quite a wide portfolio of technology and offerings. The technology at the printer ranges from digital and offset to screen printing and signage.
Shivam Singh, the second-generation director of the printing business, said the quality and efficiency of the press and the constant support from the Komori India team backed his decision.
Singh talked about the company’s plans to expand with another unit in Gorakhpur, where the focus will also be on monocarton and corrugated packaging. It will be operational by December 2026.
The business was started by Singh’s father in 1997 with a stationery shop, after which they ventured into printing in 2007 with a single-color press from Autoprint. In 2010, another Autoprint press was added.
In 2014, they added their first digital press from Konica Minolta, a big investment at that time for the tier 3 city. But the willingness to do something better propelled them to take a leap of faith.
In 2015, Singh witnessed a gap in the market driven by a growing demand for 4-color posters, which were then being outsourced from Lucknow. Eventually, he decided to take the technology to Basti and introduced full-color poster printing and local plate-making equipment to provide fast services.
In 2018, Singh Offset launched dedicated notebook production facilities in Basti’s industrial area. In 2019, Singh Offset added a wide-format printer for indoor signage and established a B2B online ordering portal. The time between 2021 and 2024 was especially crucial for the company’s expanded color printing infrastructure and upgraded production line machinery.
From a small local team, the workforce has scaled to over 200 employees across two operational units and retail operations. The business currently services around 2,000 local printers, 1,800-2,000 hospitals, and numerous educational institutions across 10 to 15 districts, including Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Deoria, and Ambedkar Nagar. Product offerings have expanded into custom stationery, medical files, prescription pads, and monocarton packaging.
Singh says, “We were questioned for our continued investments but never felt cold feet as the added capacities continued to provide consistent ROIs. While our business peers in nearby cities still hesitate to add a new machine, our additions have enabled us to grow our production, meet growing demand, and create more jobs. Forty percent of our workforce consists of women and we have an annual turnover of around Rs 30 crore.”
To overcome local logistics and transportation bottlenecks in Basti, the enterprise is setting up a new production facility in Gorakhpur, expected to open by late December. The upcoming facility will focus on expanding notebook manufacturing, commercial printing, and packaging operations to better serve its growing clients.
