Among the capital’s organized industrial areas, East Delhi’s Patparganj Industrial Area is also a hub for offset print businesses. One of these is Royal Offset, which started as Royal Scan in 2001 with small-time printing work. The company rebranded itself as Royal Offset in 2007 after acquiring a Dominant machine and got aggressively into commercial printing.
Recently, Royal Offset opted for a Komori Enthrone 429 sheetfed offset printing press. This is the company’s fourth Komori installation. It had acquired a Komori Enthrone 426 sheetfed offset press in 2015, a Komori Lithrone GL 537 5-color plus coater in 2019, and another second-hand 2007 model of a Komori Spica 4-color offset press. Since the first Enthrone 426, there has been a remarkable change in Patparganj with a further installation of 10 to 12 Komori machines, says Baljeet Singh, proprietor of Royal Offset.
Singh operates Royal Offset with his son Amanpreet Singh, an electronics engineer. “Komori machines are economical with low maintenance and low electricity consumption. The service support from Komori, both telephonic and in-plant, is exceptional,” he says on his preference for Komori machines.
Today, Royal Offset prints books, pamphlets, brochures, calendars, posters, catalogs, school diaries and notebooks. 70% of its printing jobs are outsourced from small-time printers and freelancers from places as far away as Kanpur, Rishikesh, Ambala, Bhiwani, Hisar, Rohtak, Srinagar, Himachal Pradesh, and Patna, who cannot provide fine printing work due to their limited machines.
Even though business is flourishing today, it hit an all-time low during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Whatever work came our way during the pandemic, we delivered it to perfection,” says Singh. “After a two-year low, we are back in full force. This is the first time school sessions are beginning in three years. At present, we have several orders in place for school diaries, textbooks, and notebooks. Diwali and New Year are other peak seasons for us, when we see a steep rise in demand for both printing and packaging. Election time is also busy as we receive orders for posters, books and calendars.”
Apart from the Komori, Royal Offset recently installed a dry lamination machine from Ample Graphics in the first half of March 2023. This is the company’s first machine installation in Patparganj and Singh aims to use it to his full advantage by enhancing the work done on the Lithrone GL 537 5-color plus coater. It will work on BOPP and metpet and give an output of 50,000 machines in 12 hours, says Singh.
Scaling new heights
Since acquiring the 5-color plus coater, Royal Offset has expanded into packaging and now produces cartons and monocartons for jewelry shops, wedding cards, sweets manufacturers, and sweet shops. The company has invested around Rs 25 lakh in advertisements in hoardings, posters and magazines. “There has been a massive jump in our print jobs ever since we have invested in advertising campaigns from 2015 to 2020. Before we got the Lithrone GL 537, these orders were mainly outsourced to Naraina and Okhla industrial areas,” Baljeet says.
He goes on to say, “Today, printers know we use top printing material on the best machines. We make it a point to ensure on-time deliveries. Even in case of machine breakdown or electrical faults, the maximum delay is 24 – 48 hours.”
Royal Offset has three units located near each other in Patparganj. The first one started in 2007 with a total working area of 6,000 square feet, a second 17,000 square-feet facility from where it is operating, and its own unit being built nearby, with an operating area of 3,500 square feet. Expansion plans include shifting operations of the 17,000 square feet building to the new plant and acquiring a Komori GL – 37 4-color.
