Meerut-based New King Offset Press installed a new Komori Lithrone G37 in October 2015. One of the bigger textbook and commercial printers in Meerut, New King Offset started its business in 1989. The company used to print only textbooks but of late it has started printing magazines, brochures, calendars and catalogs as well. “The new Komori will help us fit into the quality competition in the market,” says Tushar Arora of New King Offset. “Although we had been aspiring to install a new offset press since 2003, opportunity knocked our doors only this year. We had to generate enough jobs before buying a new press and Meerut being a small city, it took us almost 12 years to realize our dreams.”
Arora did an intensive market research of different brands and machines from different manufacturers before buying the Komori. “Finally we ordered this machine because of its capability to meet our requirements at a competitive price. It is a contemporary press in terms of technology and can print up to a maximum of 15,000 sheets an hour. With the new machine we will explore different markets which drives on quality – a market that we were not able to target earlier,” Arora says. “This is the first machine of its kind to be installed in India.”
The G37 is a compact press that More new presses in Meerut despite market setbacks King Offset installs India’s first Komori Lithrone G37 Mahan Hazarika L-R:Tushar Arora and Rahul Arora of New King Offset Press with the Komori Lithrone G37. Photo IPP can produce A1-size prints with a 640 x 940 mm maximum sheet size and is capable of printing sheets up to 37 inches wide, giving it the ability to address the full span of requirements in the publishing and commercial printing segments. Color management can be implemented by including a CMS color bar on sheets, even with 8-up A4 or American letter size impositions, making the machine suitable for producing high page-count products with high print quality.
Printing around 6 to 7 lakh books every month at its 32,000 square foot plant, New King Offset has a couple of pre-used Heidelberg presses and a 2- color web offset press apart from the new Komori. With the Komori, now this number tends to increase even further, says Arora. “We are yet to run the Komori in full capacity which we expect to happen shortly.” The company also has its postpress division under single roof that has two Welbound WB2000 six clamp hot melt PUR perfect binders, three folding machines from MBO as well as three knife cutters.
Installation of new presses by printers in Meerut has cut down Delhi’s demand absorption from Meerut to a large extent, but there are still more challenges that these printers face to which they don’t have a solution yet. Arora says, “The paper entry tax of 2% of the paper cost in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a huge setback in terms of getting orders from outside the state. As a result, we hardly get orders from outside UP.”
Like other printers in Meerut, Arora too is concerned about the delay in the government’s decision in settling the ongoing textbook printing fiasco. However, he is optimistic that with the new Komori he will be able to minimize the damage by getting into other quality-driven printing jobs. Meerut is one of the biggest textbook printing centres in India and there are printers whose business is 90% textbooks including those of private publishers.
The paper entry tax of 2% of the paper cost in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a huge setback in terms of getting orders from outside the state. As a result, we hardly get orders from outside UP — Tushar Arora
