Malayala Manorama has always championed Indian manufacturing wherever and whenever possible for its fast growing Malayalam daily and its other periodicals. Mammen Mathew, chief editor and managing director of Malayala Manorama and Sanjay Shah, vice chairman of Manugraph, earlier this month signed an agreement whereby the leading Malayalam daily will install 13 additional towers. The new order will consist of two 4 x 1 new press lines consisting of four full color towers and a half tower and folder each for producing up to 32 broadsheet pages in full color with 8 pages in black and white. In addition, Manorama will extend four of the five Manugraph Smartline 4 x1 presses already installed and running over the past four years with one full color tower on each press.
Manorama’s George Jacob comments, “After Manugraph sorted the teething issues with the first press delivered to Malayala Manorama, the next four presses were installed and started up fairly quickly. Today, five Smartlines are running with good print quality and total waste in the region of 2%. With a rated speed of 70,000 copies an hour compared to the imported presses running at 75,000 copies an hour, the price difference made it an attractive proposition.”
Mammen Mathew, chief editor and managing director of Malayala Manorama and Sanjay Shah, vice chairman of Manugraph, signed an agreement whereby Malayala Manorama daily will install two new presses and additional towers to extend four of its five existing Smartline 4 x 1 presslines.
Manorama was the first customer of the Smartline double-width singlecircumference press that Manugraph announced about six years ago, as it has been for other Manugraph innovations including the first Indian manufactured 2 x 2 press and other locally manufactured high-technology equipment including robotic reel transport vehicles. Over the past five years, Manorama has also added a considerable number of 4 x 1 presses from Mitsubishi with two more presses still on order.
South India rules 4 x 1 press growth
Over the past several years, South India has become the world newspaper industry’s growth hot spot in daily production capacity, especially for the production of full-color broadsheet pages. New 4 x 1 presses have been added by Manorama’s rival daily Mathrubhumi in Kerala, by newspapers in neighboring states including Daily Thanthi and Dinamalar in Tamil Nadu, and by Namaste Telengana in Telengana. Used 4 x 1 presses in good condition have also been installed by Dinamalar in Tamil Nadu and by Deccan Herald in Karnataka. These 4 x 1 presses are in addition to the large number of new 4 x 1 presses installed by Kasturi and Sons and Bennett Coleman across the whole of South India.
On the occasion of the agreement signing, Shah of Manugraph said, “Malayala Manorama currently has five Smartline installations at their centers in South India and signing another 13 towers was a momentous occasion for both companies. The five Smartline machines installed have an exceedingly good production capacity and are running effectively since their installation in the last four years. It is always a proud moment for us, when long-standing customers like Malayala Manorama repose their trust in our products. We are extremely pleased with this signing and look forward to many more Indian newspapers following in the footsteps of Malayala Manorama and investing in the Smartline.”
The Smartline is India’s only 4 x 1 double-width press manufactured at Manugraph’s plants in Kolhapur in Western India. It uses globally sourced automation components and technology including shaftless motors, and the company has long experience in engineering design and the manufacture of sophisticated auto-splicers. The Smartline 4 x 1 offers Indian newspaper publishers considerable cost savings, local engineering support and spare parts without the volatility of foreign exchange and import duties as well as considerable savings on freight and shipping.
