Started in 1989, Mumbai-based National Printing Press supplies paperboard printed labels to the garment industry. The company produces about 2 lakh printed labels daily. Associated with the National Printing Press for more than two decades, Suhas D Mulam, general manager, says, “We have prepress, press and postpress all under a single roof. Our first brand-new press was a 2-color SORM Heidelberg. Not having a 4-color press didn’t make much of a difference to us back then as we were mostly restricted to Pantone colors.”
At present, the 2100 sq. ft. facility in Jogeshwari’s Satyam Industrial Estate, in Western suburb of Mumbai, is equipped with a single-color Grafica semi-automatic screen press for value addition in tags, a cold lamination machine, and a Xerox DC 260 for digital proofing. The company has also a Konica Minolta (KMI) 1052 and has recently installed a KMI 3685 press. The company prints the whiteboard or art paper of about 350 gm sheet on an offset press, which is then digitally printed on the monochrome KMI 1052 press for variable data.
According to Mulam, printing variable data on tags is a tedious process since there are different SKUs that need to be properly segregated and delivered to the client. The entry and exit time of each process is maintained through manual records. Since a majority of the people involved in the process are used to old-school methods, they are not comfortable with the latest automations. “However, the team at our plant must be appreciated for making the process simple and churning out maximum jobs every day,” shares Mulam.
