B.H. Srinivas, owner of Usha Prints (centre) with the AccurioLabel 230 at Konica Minolta booth at Pamex Photo: PSA
Bengaluru-based Usha Prints has booked a Konica MinoltaAccurioLabel 230 digital label printing press. The deal was announced on the third day of Pamex 2023 in Mumbai.
Usha Prints is a premier offset and digital print service provider with multiple outlets across three cities of Karnataka. It has nine branches in Bengaluru, two in Mysuru, and one branch in Tumkur. It has four offset presses: three Komori and one Heidelberg.
On the digital side, it has 12 Konica Minolta digital presses. The company has a diverse range of clients, including small businesses, large corporations, and individuals.
Usha Prints offers a wide range of printing solutions, including brochures, flyers, business cards, banners, and other marketing materials.
“We have ventured into label printing as a new line of business. The demand for short-run label printing is growing and we want to be in this space. The new Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230 digital label printing press will be placed in Bengaluru,” says B.H. Srinivas, owner of Usha Prints.
The AccurioLabel 230 is the third re-design of Konica Minolta’s toner-based printers. It has a printing width of 250 to 330 mm and can handle substrates from 81 to 256 gsm.
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.
