Ahmednagar’s leading offset and flexo print house Aakar Advertising recently ventured into the digital printing segment when it bought a new Ricoh Pro 7100 4-color press. The new digital venture has been named Aakar Graphics and functions from a 1,000 sq. ft. space in the heart of Ahmednagar city. Aakar Advertising, which operates from a separate space outside of the city, has been in offset printing for more than three decades and in flexo printing for the last 15 years. Apart from the printing presses, Aakar Advertising also had a full-fledged finishing department equipped with a Polar cutting machine as well as creasing machine, perforating machine, lamination machine, binding machine, pinning machine, etc.
“Aakar Advertising is the only place in Ahmednagar city as well as the district to offer this level of complete finishing capabilities. So, a lot of customers were getting their digital prints to us for finishing work. It was then we thought of bringing digital printing capabilities in-house and offer these customers complete solution under one roof. That is how we decided to buy a Ricoh digital press. Now a customer comes to us with a file and goes out with the final product,” says Rohan Ghande, proprietor of Aakar Graphics.
Since late October 2016, when Ricoh Pro 7100 began operating at Aakar Graphics, the average monthly volume has been close to 30,000 impressions. Aakar Graphics prints brochures, wedding cards, promotional items, visiting cards, certificates, cards, etc. on the Ricoh 7100. “I want to emphasize that we are printing on a wide variety of paper—from 100 gsm to 350 gsm. In fact, we are the first ones to introduce printing on 350 gsm paper in the Ahmednagar market,” Ghande says.
Addition to the offset and flexo divisions
Having entered the digital printing space last year, the next move is to further add capacity to the offset and flexo printing capabilities. This year Aakar Advertising will get a refurbished 4-color Heidelberg, imported directly from Europe, to add to the single color Dominant press that is being used now. It also plans to get a new narrow web flexo press. Ghande says the new flexo press expected later this year will be a 7-color press from a reputed global brand. Aakar Advertising is currently using a 5-color UV flexo press, which is used to print bar code labels and stickers.
A Ricoh 5100 in Navi Mumbai
Following on close heels of Aakar, Navi Mumbai’s Siddhi Digital too has entered the realm of digital printing recently. Early January, Atul Panchal, proprietor of Siddhi Digital, installed a brand new Ricoh Pro 5100 after working in the print industry for more than a decade.
“I have been in the print industry for more than a decade now and have developed good working relation with many clients. I thought why not branch out on my own and get a digital print house running. That is when I decided to get a Ricoh press,” Panchal says.
In the last one month, Siddhi Digital has been managing to print about 500 impressions per day, which Panchal expects will rise to 700-800 impressions per day very soon.
