The printers in Press Bazar, Ulhasnagar, located in Maharashtra’s Thane district near Mumbai, are increasingly shifting to digital from offset in a move to cater to short-run orders and signage printing both for local supply in its traditional market segment and for new digital segments in the big city nearby.
The Press Bazar was initially a market known for printing wedding cards but with changing times, the printers are realising the power of digital printing. Major printers in the offset category have old machinery but with the growing demand for short-run jobs, the printers are gradually moving to digital presses. Amir Inamdar, proprietor, Ronak Printers states, “Many of the offset businesses here are now adopting digital setups to meet the demands for short-run jobs. Flex printing for signage and POP displays is a category which is developing and is in great demand. There are around eight setups who have changed their old offset presses to digital ones.”
Location
Five years ago, in order to print high-quality flex inkjet print work, one would have to travel to Kalyan. Today, people can find the best suited solution in their vicinity. Press Bazar is surrounded with many educational institutions, hospitals, government offices, theaters and banks, making it the perfect destination for continuous business. Inamdar states, “We recently completed an order from a major theater chain based in the city. They needed all major walls to be covered with canvas posters of legendary prints. We not only delivered it on time but also designed the posters for them.”
Inamdars’ Ronak Printers has an EFI’s VUTEk GS3250LX Pro wide format inkjet printer with UltraDrop Technology for banners, billboards, bus shelters, commercial/ industrial graphics, outdoor graphics and posters. He also has a Konica Minolta’s bizhub press C1085, which Offset printers moving to digital and signage printing Ulhasnagar’s Press Bazar – A complete print hub near Mumbai Pushkar Oak offers flexible applications with automated workflow.
Shankar Seth, proprietor, Jolly Digital says, “We have been here for 30 years and have seen the area transforming to a perfect digital setup over the last decade. Major players in the area have transformed while keeping their wedding card printing orders intact. We are getting orders for our offset as well as digital presses and my print setup is growing almost at the rate of 8-9% in the offset category, which a decade ago was growing around 18-20%. We can see a diminishing growth chart for offset here.”
Short-run jobs include various forms of services from the nearby colleges and banks while offset still receives orders to print various jobs of visiting cards, leaflets, flyers, invitation cards, wedding cards and identity cards.
Interestingly, the old businesses which were operating their offset presses have now diversified and become suppliers of inks and paper to the local market. There are three major players in the market who provide inks—Panorama Printing Inks, KBK enterprises and Pashupati Printing Inks.
Uttam Enterprises owner Hiro Charha states, “We had an offset printing business earlier in the Press Bazar, which saw a drop in the orders. We currently have only one offset press for wedding cards in Press Bazar and are adding more space for our operations of supplying inks to the setups located in Press Bazar, Vitthlavadi, Kalyan, Neral and Karjat. We have our fixed and regular clientele for ink supply while usually we supply solventbased inks to Neral and Karjat. Our offset business is also better as we have restricted it to wedding cards where we provide all services from designing the card, to offering covers and innovative ideas for the same.” Charha also has service engineers to provide consultancy services to the printers located in the area.
