Best Digital Prints installs Konica Minolta AccurioPress C6085

Digital printing goes mainstream but diversification is key to growth

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Best Digital Prints
Akash Bhardwaj, founder, Best Digital Prints at Gurgaon, installs Konica Minolta's Accuriopress C6085.

Gurgaon-based Best Digital Prints, established in 2004, is a digital and offset printer. It is also known for wide-format printing, screen printing, letterheads, diary printing, menu cards, canvas printing, and stickers with more than 650 clients in the bustling business and commercial hub. With many large corporate headquarters of Indian and global companies as well as software developers, Gurgaon is in some ways the most modern and future-oriented part of the Delhi NCR. 

Indian Printer and Publisher interviewed Akash Bhardwaj, founder of Best Digital Prints on 16 May 2022. Bhardwaj discussed the company’s new installation and the improvements in efficiency that it has enabled. While discussing both the new equipment and the overall success of its various Konica Minolta digital presses over the past ten years, he noted, “We installed the new AccurioPress C6085 machine in October 2021 since the print customers are now demanding digital prints. The market for simple monochrome or 4-color digital printing has gone mainstream.”

Nutech

The Konica Minolta Accurio Press C6085 was added in October to enhance the company’s digital print. It runs both offset and digital presses including a preowned Heidelberg Speedmaster 5-color and three Konica Minolta presses – the AccurioPress C2070, C1052, and C6085 engines. With its two locations – one in Gurgaon’s Sector 14 and another on Sohna Road, Best Digital Print’s combined monthly capacity is around 70,000 to 80,000 A3 pages. 

With the Covid-19 pandemic not yet definitely over, and with the uncertainty of news strains and possible waves of infections, the commercial offset print is gradually recovering from the lack of demand, especially with the demand for textbooks since the opening of schools. However, the digital print industry appears to be further along on its recovery path. Bhardwaj expressed his concerns, saying “Covid-19 touched everyone in the past couple of years, and we are no exception. Our company has seen some issues as well, but since we have our own facility where we perform all of our in-house manufacturing, we have managed to stay afloat, and now that the covid limitations have been lifted, we are back in full gear with our in-house production.”

Speaking about some of the next possible steps in his expansion plans, Bhardwaj concludes by saying, “The company is looking for more investment in offset printing. And we are also planning to start the label section.”

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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