Selection Scan De Print adds a new RMGT 690 press

Adding print capacity

900
RMGT
Sanjay Gada and Kumar Savla of Selection Scan De Print with the new RMGT 690

Based in Mumbai’s commercial district of Ghatkopar West, Selection Scan De Print has been a leading commercial offset printer in the area for close to one-and-a-half decades. It has recently added a brand new RMGT 690 4-color press to handle the rising volumes. The press was installed in December 2019, and fully commissioned in January this year. This is the third press at its plant; the print house employs two Ryobi presses as well.

“The volumes that we were handling were growing consistently so we needed another press. Since we were already using two Ryobi presses, it was natural for us to go for RMGT. The growth in volumes in 2018-2019 financial year has been very good after a sluggish 2017-2018,” says Sanjay Gada, director in the company.

The RMGT 6 series are A2-plus size presses with the same advanced functions and features. They feature double-diameter transfer cylinder for stable sheet transport; program inking, an automatic plate changing system; various pre-set devices; and other automation systems to significantly shorten make-ready. The new RMGT 690 was supplied to Selection Scan by Proven Technos, the Indian distributor of RMGT.

Selection Scan specializes in commercial print jobs like posters, calendars, diaries, POPs, files and folders, brochures, leaflets, catalogs and stationery items. Its entire customer base is made up of corporates such as banks, insurance companies and mobile service providers, to name a few.

Apart from a stellar press department, the print house has a fully equipped prepress and postpress section.

Talking about the new press, Gada says that performance has been what he had expected. “We have been very impressed by our two Ryobi presses and now this new RMGT press. The service provided by Provin is very good. However, we would want their engineers to attend to our complaints a little faster. Otherwise we are totally satisfied with our relationship with Provin,” Gada says.

New plant under construction

With the addition of the third press, the space at Selection Scan’s present 10,000 square foot unit is now running short. Keeping the future growth in mind, the company has started construction of a new and significantly bigger plant at the Andheri MIDC.

“The new plant is under construction and would be five times bigger that the one we are operating from at present. We will then have a streamlined operation. The plant is expected to be ready in about one year or so,” Gada shares.

A much bigger plant will make Selection Scan future-ready if it wants to further expand in terms of machinery and even if it wants to diversify into carton printing. Gada informs that there is no plan to immediately start a packaging printing division, but that option is always open.

“Yes, we are very much open to the idea of diversifying into packaging printing. That is why we have planned such a big plant. If we decide to go into packaging it would mean investing in many more machines. And then packaging requires us to have a large inventory of raw material. All this requires space,” Gada argues.

Talking about why the company is looking to moving into packaging, Gada says that it offers high growth prospects.

“Packaging, especially carton packaging, is a fast-growing segment. We are sure we can succeed there as well,” he concludes.

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.

– Naresh Khanna

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