Mumbai’s Sandaw Prints recently ventured into the digital commercial print segment with the commissioning of a brand new Canon imagePress C910 digital production press at its Fort branch. The company operates two branches in Fort, a main hub in the western suburb of Goregaon and a branch in the far north suburb of Vasai. Traditionally a pre-press bureau and large format print service provider, Sandaw now wants to extend the business to the digital print and enhancement segment.
“The purchase of the Canon imagePress C910 is the first step toward our aim to offer digital print and print embellishment services. We are planning to buy a digital embellishment press soon, with the new press expected to be commissioned by Diwali. We are talking to a few companies but no final decision has been made yet. The demand for post-print value addition is steadily growing in the Mumbai market. The number of digital embellishment presses has grown in the city which shows that the market for such services is expanding,” says Hitesh Fariya, director, Sandaw Prints.
Sandaw will be using its Canon digital press and the embellishment press to add extra decorative value to items such as booklets, brochures, business cards, invitation cards, wedding cards, wedding card envelopes, book covers, cartons, labels, and posters.
“On the Canon we are currently printing items like stickers. We will also we exploring the market for the print enhancement services. Most of our existing customers already have requirement for such post-print enhancement work,” Fariya adds.
Founded nearly four decades ago, Sandaw is an established name in Mumbai’s pre-press market and operates a Katana imagesetter and BasysPrint CtCP system. It offers lamination services for digital prints, photographic prints and mounting services. The company also prints adverting hoardings, building wraps, mesh banners, and billboards on its wide-format inkjet printers.
The new imagePress C910 has a speed of 90 pages per minute and handles media up to 350 gsm at resolutions up to 2400 dpi. Available with a choice of digital front ends – Canon’s PRISMAsync Print Server Version 7 and the Efi Fiery powered imagePRESS Servers. Sandaw has purchased the Fiery version. Fariya says that he has been extremely satisfied with the technology and the quality and especially the support from the Canon’s engineering team.
Recovery in FY2023 has been good for Sandaw
Many of Mumbai’s commercial print service providers have not yet fully bounced back from the pandemic lows. However, for Sandaw the fiscal year 2022-2023 has been good as mobility returning to normal and all Covid related restrictions now revoked.
“The first quarter of the current financial year 22-23, that is from April to June 2022, has been good for us, and we hope to complete the year with respectable growth. Post Covid-19, the demand for short-run printing has gone up and our expansion into this segment should help our top-line. There are some challenges on the raw material costs, but that should be normalize soon. I am optimistic about the overall growth of the industry as well,” Fariya says.
