Managing director Shailendra Kumar says rapid digitization made it possible for them to enter the cosmetics and personal care market. Photo IPP
Providing a range of comprehensive designing, pre-press, and printing services to various industrial verticals for more than 30 years, Hora Arts has forayed into the cosmetics market through rapid digitization.
The Noida-based company, which was established in 1990, has focused on providing quality and customized printing solutions to corporate customers since its inception. Its clients include appliance-based companies such as LG, Samsung, and Panasonic.
Managing director Shailendra Kumar, Hora Arts, says rapid digitization made it possible for them to enter the cosmetics and personal care market. “We were facing a challenge in our orders wherein the quantities desired were less and variants were more. To solve this problem, we opted to go digital. And that has been a beneficial investment in improving both our efficiency and production capacity. With a recent Multitec 8-color press installation, we now have a complete set unit of flexo, offset, screen, and digital printing machines at our plant,” he adds.
At its Noida plant, Hora Arts has a Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 190 and HP Indigo roll-to-roll digital label printer. The company installed a Xeikon 3500 digital label press at its Western India plant in Ranjangaon near Pune.
According to Kumar, the industry has just started to recover the losses incurred during the pandemic and it will still take a while for printers to be self-sufficient. “The market is getting back better than ever, and the numerous global industries venturing into the Indian market is a testament to that. However, sourcing raw materials is getting more expensive. The price of paper has also gone significantly higher.”
“We have gained a long list of customers from all across the nation and are involved in providing a wide assortment of quality products at the best possible prices. All these offered products are available with us in diverse specifications and features. Our complete product array meets the exact requirement of clients. Our cost-effective rates and friendly nature make us well-known in the market,” he adds.
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.
