Bindwel, the largest manufacturer-supplier of bookbinding machines in India, Middle East and Africa, has signed an agreement to acquire Imtech Industries, a manufacturer of bookbinding machines branded ‘Autobind’ based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Imtech’s manufacturing facility in Thiruvananthapuram is run by a team having decades of experience in understanding adhesive binding and manufacturing machines. The company is led by R Suresh Kumar, who has more than two decades of experience in the post-print segment. He is the treasurer of IPAMA (Indian Printing Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturers’ Association).
The agreement was signed by Pallippuram Sajith, who represented the Bindwel board and R Suresh Kumar.
“This acquisition helps us expand to a new geographical location. This new manufacturing location will help us address the requirements of a first-time user of a bookbinding machine. Imtech has extensive experience in building bookbinding machines and has a large customer base. This gives us access to a pool of very experienced professionals,” Sajith said.
Viswaprasad Nair, the director and COO of Bindwel, said: “Bindwel’s new facility in Bengaluru is encouraged by the market response to its machines and has reached its maximum capacity utilization. Here we build models that need high-end automation and superior in-line capabilities. Through these, we have managed to serve many of our customers in the upgrading and upsizing processes of their binderies.”
Nair said single-clamp binders have been the starting point for Bindwel decades ago. “We are always blessed by first-time adopters of HMA binding through these machines. Over time, our customers have demanded higher precision, accuracy and productivity from the single clamp machines. We have entered the digital post-press market with our offerings under the SigLoch brand,” Nair said.
“We needed an effective blend of scale, innovation and dynamism in our manufacturing ecosystem, that involves over 6,000 components and interacts with over 200 vendor partners. The Imtech unit is a ready facility that now adds agility and speed to our system to serve especially the mass market of single clamp and digital post-press customers”.
R Suresh Kumar has worked up his career, starting as a service engineer and learning the application knowledge of bookbinding by way of experience plus the tutelage of technical experts from Hindustan Unilever (chemicals division), who represented National Adhesives.
Kumar developed a single-clamp perfect binder branded as ‘Autobind’ that championed the cause of bookbinding centers that had serious infrastructure issues – be it the lack of stable electricity supply or skilled operators.
“It’s very fulfilling to witness the Imtech operations converge with one of the globally known manufacturers of bookbinding machines, Bindwel, like us, values the growth of customers and employees alike. Our team will continue to work with the best in the industry and will now co-create relevant solutions in perfect binding” says Suresh Kumar, who joins Bindwel as the vice-president, Operations.
“Bindwel has been witnessing its best years of growth. We are humbled and encouraged by the realization that we could be the largest manufacturer of single-clamp and six-clamp binders for the commercial printing industry, globally. Our in-line bookbinding solutions have caught the interest of the book printing industry in Africa and other markets that mirror India’s growth a few decades ago. And now we are entering the digital post-press segment with enriching solutions that will help the digital print service bureaus to offer offset quality finishing. We are upping our service levels which has been our key reason to exist in this market. The merger with Autobind gives us more strength and endurance to serve the market with agile products and solutions,” says Anilkumar B Nair, the sales director of Bindwel.
“I am excited to be part of this merger. This adds scale, geographical advantage and more depth and width to our team’s experience. Bindwel has taken up the mission to provide enriching solutions beyond the expectations of our consumers. I see this merger building energy to our unified teams,” says Suresh Mahaeswaran Nair, director Bindwel-Stelda group.
