Addressing the growing market demand and rigid competition, Mumbai-based Arihant Digiprint recently upgraded its digital setup with a new HP Latex 570 and two Mimaki CJV 300 ecosolvent printers.
The installations of Mimaki presses in April and May this year were soon followed by the HP Latex 570. The company’s plans for the extensive upgrade came through foreseeing the demand from customers looking for larger print surfaces.
The HP Latex 570 features a spectrophotometer to ensure balanced production with color consistency. The press is ideal for production of banners, displays, double-sided banners, exhibits, event graphics, exterior signage, indoor posters, interior decoration, light boxes (both film and paper), murals, posters, textiles and much more. What makes it interesting is that all the all the upgrades are eco-friendly.
The company already has an EFI VUTEk GS3250LX Pro, an 8-color hybrid printer with unique multi-layer white print capability and true grayscale technology. Installed in 2016, the VUTEk GS3250LX Pro has production-level speeds and continuous print functionality. The machine prints around 25,000 square feet daily. Meanwhile, both the Mimaki presses produce a combined capacity of 10,000 square feet per day.
Interestingly, Hemant Rathi, assistant manager, Arihant Digiprint observes, “We saw an incoming demand from flex and vinyl clients. With deadlines getting shorter, we felt a need to upgrade our machinery. Our clientele consists of vinyl, signage and others.”
Started in 2003 by Sunil Maheshwari and Mitesh Kothari, directors of the company, Arihant Digiprint made its shift from a small setup in Malad to a larger base in Kandivali within two years.
The company undertakes printing on surfaces like vinyl, acrylic, canvas, flex and others. The company recently procured a 4-feet vinyl plotter cutting solution from Mimaki—the CG-130FX. The cutting machine was installed in January this year.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
