Dulari Digital in Ludhiana was set up by Aman Goyal and Rahul Goyal in 1998, mainly for producing photobooks. Starting with small Japanese analog chemically processed photo print machines, in 2010 it purchased its first Konica Minolta bizhub 70hc digital production press.
The first company to purchase the new KM 70hc press in the country, Dulari was planning to buy an HP Indigo. According to Goel, the production capabilities and print results of the KM press were fascinating, leading the company to immediately order it. The next purchase was a KM c1085 digital printing press.
Dulari’s top-of-the-line MGI JetVarnish 3D
Recently, the company installed a brand new, top-of-the-line MGI JetVarnish 3D along with the IFoil feature. Goyal says that the post-printing capabilities of the JetVarnish helped him assess the value addition that it can bring to print. “MGI has helped us offer enhanced value-added services to our customers. Many electroplating requirements especially for the wedding album market, were converted to UV and foiling with this machine,” says Goel.
MGI’s decorating and print enhancement machine is capable of variable data printing ranging from a single print to thousands, making it ideal for operation with offset, packaging and digital presses of up to 64 x 120 cm format. It enhances high quality print with 3D or traditional flat spot UV coating. It’s extremely handy for decorating book covers, brochures, business and invitation cards and packaging.
Apart form this, Dulari houses an HP Indigo 5600 digital press, two Konica Minolta AccurioPress C6085 presses and a monochrome Canon digital press. While buying the MGI, Goyal said that he also looked at the Scodix as it also comes with a foiling option.
“We were in a fix to be honest. But the print result delivered by MGI was taking an upper hand over Scodix Ultra. The main reason we opted for this machine is that it can print smaller fonts more precisely as compared to the Scodix machine. We have purchased a 20 x 40-inch offset press, which is ideal for supplying to Ludhiana’s market. MGI can help us supply to the photobook and the commercial segment as well. Our main focus area right now is wedding boxes and visiting cards.”
Growth in digital print
“Digital is the future mainly because it is faster. It’s an easier process than offset. All the jobs from screen for UV and foiling are easier with the new technology. Nevertheless, as digital players increase in every market, the competition is growing. The MGI installed last October has helped us increase our business pretty well,” shares Goyal.
Many of Dulari’s digital presses are from Konica Minolta. Explaining his repeated KM investments, Goyal says, “Konica Minolta has been helping us and guiding us through very well. They have played a massive role in educating us and in improving our processes. They taught us how to operate this machine and educated us about the various value-added print services that we can provide with the new MGI press.”
However, speaking on the ROI and the business generated through the new MGI press, he says, “Our only concern is that KM could have helped us even more in marketing our MGI-enhanced products. We know that Punjab is an extremely hopeful market for value-added print but we were expecting even more support from KM to help reach out to more customers in this segment. A wide base of customers will help us achieve our ROI much faster. We are doing our best to reach out to more customers, to expand our base and supply to as many customers as possible to improve our business,” says Goyal.
Dulari plans to purchase KM1 in 2020
In FY 2018-19, apart from adding the MGI, Dulari also purchased a lamination machine from Daya. The main focus for FY 2019-20 will be to increase the customer base and increase production on the MGI from 5,000 to 10,000 sheets in a day, which is only run for a single shift currently. “Apart from this, we are also looking to purchase the KM1 digital UV inkjet B2+ press in the next year. We hope to order it by the end of 2020,” Goyal concludes.
