After working in the printing industry for many years, Pravin Totre decided to chart his own path. Starting Indraprasth Printers in the eastern Mumbai suburb’s Ghatkopar Industrial Estate nine years ago, the commercial print company produces promotional materials like folders, booklets, and brochures. Shardul Sharma reports.
After starting with a 2-color machine from Akiyama, three years on Pravin Totre bought a https://indianprinterpublisher.com/blog/2022/02/art-o-prints-productivity/used but modern Heidelberg MOV with a remote CPC console. Another used 2-color Heidelberg SORMZ was purchased overseas and added to the shopfloor in 2009-10. Both these presses were sold before a new Heidelberg SM74 4-color press was installed in November 2013. Along with its Heidelberg SM74, Indraprasth currently runs an Heidelberg SORM single-color press.
“Once I shifted from Akiyama to Heidelberg there has been no looking back as I have stuck with the brand all along. Even for my second-hand presses, I always used original Heidelberg spare parts. I maintained those used machines very well,” says Totre.
The reasons to switch to a new Heidelberg multicolor were several: “Although I always maintained the second-hand Heidelbergs and was producing quality work with them, a second-hand press is a second-hand press after all and has its limitations. With a new press the maintenance cost goes down, the degree of reliability goes up, productivity gets a boost and last but not the least, stress related to the machine also is reduced,” explains Totre.
The case for automation
Themostimportantfactorthat compelled Totre to buy a new press was the increase in automation that the SM 74 would bring in. “With the SM 74 the level of human intervention has gone down dramatically. Since installing the new press, I have witnessed a decline of almost 70 to 75% in the need for interventions.
Now the role of manual labour is restricted to finishing the job provided all the thumb rules of printing are followed,” he says. Totre states that
with less manual labour, the workforce goes through less stress, which results in higher productivity.
Economic slowdown and competition
Talking about the performance of the company in the recent years of relative economic slowdown when the GDP growth rate declined to 4.5%, Totre says that Indraprasth managed to have a decent run even in the past three or four slow years because they kept a close watch on the scale of operations.
“At Indraprasth my philosophy is not to stretch the company operation more than that the company can handle. My idea is to do limited work well and command the price. Many printers face setbacks during bad times because during good times they stretch themselves thin by adding more machines and manpower. We at Indraprasth did not do that and that is how we managed to tide over the slowdown in the industry,” explains Totre.
Commenting on the state of the commercial printing industry, Totre states that the fierce levels of competition in the industry is adversely impacting the bottomline of many companies. “As the industry witnessed rapid growth around a decade ago, many people with no printing background and idea about the industry invested in machines and became printers. This trend led to huge competition and gradually a lot of undercutting took place during the ensuing slowdown as the capacity was large but demand was declining,” he says.
Totre’s prescription for tackling the prevalent cut-throat competition in the market consists of more than one thing. “In an environment where the next person is as good as you are and can offer things that you also do, then you cannot go on for very long.
In the current market one cannot be a normal printer but will have to find ways to be different from others. One has to be innovative,” Totre says.
Finally his last but most important piece of advice for survival is to keep costs in check. “If printers can keep their operations in control without unnecessarily stretching themselves and keep their liabilities in check, they will earn their bread and butter,” he concludes.
