Beginning more than thirty years ago in Faridabad, Ronald Web Offset has supplied single width single circumference web offset presses to newspapers and book printers around the world. Its presses are popular due to their modular construction, easy up-gradation and simple maintenance, coupled with a reliable global network.
Starting with the manufacture of single cylinder flat bed letterpress machines, the company progressed to the production of sheetfed offset presses and by 1990 entered the web offset press market. Siddhartha Gupta, vice president marketing at Ronald Web Offset, says, “We have been in the web offset business for a long time now and have installed presses across the world with maximum exports to European countries.
” Other markets for the company include Africa, Russia, the CIS countries and single installation in Haiti in central America, and Japan. The highly satisfied Japanese customer plans to buy a second Ronald press next year. “It is a 4-color web offset machine with two towers and is smaller than the units which we sell in India,” adds Gupta. Ronald’s newspaper customers include Indian dailies such as The Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Dainik Jagran, Punjab Kesari, Rajasthan Patrika. It has executed a repeat order from the Turkish newspaper Dunya to which it sold a press in 2012.
“This was an A3 64-pages machine and since the newspaper was highly satisfied with our performance, we installed another machine of similar configuration this year at their plant,” says Gupta.
Maintaining quality standards
Ronald manufactures a wide range of web offset press sizes and features. “In today’s scenario, manufacturers are compelled to offer a variety of configurations to customers ranging from semi-automatic, automatic to computerized and manual presses.
A few customers still prefer manual machines so we have added features to our existing manual presses like spray-dampening systems and remote control with computerized color registration systems. These features are highly appreciated by our customers,” says Gupta. The company’s production of bearer-to-bearer presses machines is a recent feature to improve reproduction accuracy and control.
“We have recently imported CNC machines giving us the ability to manage our quality requirements stringently. We are attaining a precision of around five microns in our cylinder diameter which is a benchmark in the industry,” says Gupta. Ronald’s bearer-to-bearer presses are installed and performing well in Bulgaria and Vietnam.
Integrated pre-dampening systems and autopasters, coupled with pneumatic brake systems from Erhardt + Leimer of Germany, ensure high quality print from Ronald presses. “We have achieved a standard and do not deviate from those high standards.”
The road ahead
While financial year 2013-14 has been excellent for web offset manufacturers, Gupta believes that fiscal 2014-15 will witness a marginal dent in sales. “The upcoming general elections in the country saw a flurry of orders from printers due to high printing requirements and was a successful year for us. However, we can expect domestic demand for web offset presses to decline in the coming financial year as the boom in the market has subsided,” says Gupta. He remains optimistic about the subsequent calendar year as well as the international market. Talking about the newspaper industry in India, Gupta remains highly positive about its future. “Replacing the printed media in India is a distant thought as the advantages of accessibility and cost will always remain in favour of newspapers. Electronic media will surely grow simultaneously with the print media, but with the rate of digital penetration in India being sluggish, the near-future will not see newspapers being severely threatened by a digital upsurge,” he says. Ronald also plans to enter into commercial printing in around two years. “Commercial printing will be a paradigm shift from our current standard portfolio and we expect this new venture to reap profits in the near future,” says Gupta.
