Rishab Behal (L) and Anukriti Behal (R), directors at Capital Graphics
Chandigarh’s Capital Graphics recently installed a Konica Minolta’s AccurioPress C12000 and an AccurioPress 6120. Having used a series of digital presses in its 25-year journey, the commercial printer is happy with the enhanced production capacity and cost-effectiveness of the machines.
Started by Nipun and Anoop Bahel, the print solution provider produces books, magazines, brochures, visiting cards, notepads, letterheads, and customized office stationery. Its director Anoop Bahel, said, “Over the years we have seen numerous transitions in the industry and technology and have adopted these to meet customer’ requirements. Earlier we were using a Xerox digital press, but we felt somewhere that our end quality wasn’t up to the mark. The installation of the Konica Minolta digital press came with all the features we could hope for. It becomes an enabler for increasing our production capacity and decreasing our costs.”
According to Bahel, the AccurioPress C12000 is one of Konica Minolta’s next-generation flagship production print models offering enhanced print quality, media flexibility, and automation for high quality, high speed, and high volume color printing. The AccurioPress 6120 offers high-end monochrome production, accelerating transfer from offset production, with its high quality, labor saving work efficiency, and reliability.
Bahel claims his company is very strong in print finishing, “We have our own set of complete post-press solutions that includes perfect binding equipment making us a prominent end-product solution provider alongside printing. The new machines add charm not just to the prints but to the end products and this will certainly help in increasing our turnover. We are still under the recovery process due to the effects of the pandemic but with our quality problem solved and production enhanced, with Konica Minolta’s presses, I can say for sure that we will be back stronger than ever.”
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.
