For many decades now Dhote Offset Technokrafts (DOT) has been pioneering the commercial printing segment and is now among the leading print service providers in Mumbai. Managed by brothers Tushar and Uday Dhote, the company has been at the forefront of bringing in fresh ideas and approach to how a print house should be managed. So, it was not a surprise when DOT announced during Pamex 2017 that it will be setting up a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for services to help the industry get more organized and also add value to the DOT brand.
“Of late, the print industry has become very static and we needed to look into how to add value to our brand. We wanted to now have a presence in services as well and that is why DOT established the SBU,” says Tushar Dhote, managing director, DOT.
This is a significant decision for DOT as it ventures into three separate services verticals through the SBU: education, print consultancy and web-to-print.
DOT Institute of Graphics Communication
DOT has forayed into the education space by establishing the DOT Institute of Graphics Communication (DIGC) through which DOT is looking to bridge the skill gap in the print industry. DIGC aims to introduce fresh graduates to the practical aspects of production and provide focused training in various aspects of print technology. DIGC will run a six-month course on prepress, press, postpress and press management. The theory classes will take place at DOT’s Jogeshwari facility while practical will be conducted at DOT unit at Goregaon where all the machinery is placed.
“We have to accept that there is a big mismatch in the skills that fresh graduates currently possess and what the print industry requires. DIGC will help bridge this gap,” says Dhote.
There are some eminent personalities in DIGC’s Board of Studies. They are Ramesh Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging, Dr Rajendrakumar Anayath, vice chancellor of Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University, Sonepath, Kamal Chopra, past president AIFMP, Naren Kalapi of Technova, Aspi Forbes of Jak Printers, Dr Akshay Joshi of Pune Vidyarthi Griha, Bhargav Mistry of Grafica, Dr Ashutosh Tripathi of IIT Kanpur and Ramu Ramnathan, editor, Printweek India.
DIGC is not the only endeavor of DOT to make print industry more professional. It plans to spread awareness about career prospects in print industry to students from non-print colleges as well. Initially, it will be targeting five Mumbai colleges where it will show two films dealing with various career options that exist in the print industry and create awareness about what the industry has in store for graduates who are not from print colleges.
“The idea is to attract top quality talent and intellect to the print industry. Initially we will target five Mumbai colleges and then take it to colleges in other cities of Maharashtra and then all over India in the coming years. I know this will not happen overnight, but someone has to make a start if we want to bring in more intellect into the industry,” argues Dhote.
Print management services
The second vertical in the SBU is the print management services which provides end to end consultancy for startups and new projects. Through the print management services division, DOT will do pre-initializing audit, feasibility study, project planning, implementation, resource procurement, process thumbnailing, and training and retraining.
“As of today, we have executed two projects successfully while a few more are in the pipeline. Yes, this is a business for us but I feel we are also creating quality and professional printers by offering our print management services to someone who wants to start new,” states Dhote.
Web-to-print
With the proliferation of internet and smartphones, the number of services offered through the internet and mobile apps has boomed. From food to electronics to clothes, almost everything can be now ordered through a computer or a mobile phone. Print services have also not remained untouched. However, a vast majority of web-to-print ventures that were launched in the last decade or so have been unsuccessful. Dhote believes, the reason is weak back-end.
“You can create a great front-end but if your print back-end is not up to the mark, you cannot go far enough. Most of the ventures that were launched in the past were unsuccessful because there were issues such as poor and inconsistent quality, patchy delivery, among others. That is why we have made sure our web-to-print venture is backed by a very strong back-end,” Dhote says. DOT’s back-end currently is located in Goregaon at its 15,000 square feet facility, which has prepress, CtP, offset, digital, postpress, packaging and logistics under one roof. It has two Ryobi offset presses, multiple digital presses from Xerox and Konica Minolta, Sakuria screen printing machine and a strong postpress section, among others. DOT has also ordered a slew of digital finishing equipment from Duplo, Technova and other smaller machines, which are expected to be installed in the next few weeks.
DOT’s web-to-print venture will have both B2B and B2C segments with former catering to items such as books and magazines while the latter will deal with stationery items. The beta version of the DOT’s web-to-print venture will most likely be launched around July.
Stake sale
Dhote is of the view that DOT’s SBU will reach a critical mass in terms of revenue by financial year 2021-2022. The ultimate objective of DOT, Dhote says, is to have multiple storefronts in various cities of the country by that time. For such an expansion, a lot of financial backup will be needed, which, Dhote feels, can be provided by an investor or multiple investors. However, he is clear he is not looking for angel or venture funding.
“I am not looking for funding. That we can have even now. We are only looking for an investor or investors who are looking to buy outright stake in the company,” he concludes.
