Situated at Ludhiana’s Dholewal Chowk near Manju Cinema Hall, Waka Digital, a veteran photo album maker, has significantly enhanced its photo album printing capacity by installing a Konica Minolta AccurioPress C4080 digital production press.
Established in 1988, the printer offers a variety of products, including photo albums, photo frames, pamphlets, and calendars. It also works extensively for the apparel industry, providing DtF printing on textiles and labels and tags for packaging.
In a conversation with Indian Printer & Publisher, Paramveer Singh said his father Haridayal Singh set up the business as a photo color lab for wedding photography and albums. He explained how photos were earlier printed using films, bromide paper, and chemistry in dark rooms in a highly skill-dependent process that slowly embraced automation. “We are pioneers in photo albums and the first to install a Noritsu QSS 3000 for developing pictures in 2005. However, the photo album-making scenario was revolutionized by digital printing.”
Waka Digital’s AccurioPress C4080 is an all-in-one print production machine, with features that efficiently manage workflow and print output. The digital press offers the flexibility of 2-sided printing of sheets up to 34 inches long with excellent image quality at resolutions up to 3600 X 2400 dpi and on substrates from 62 to 360 gsm.
Although Ludhiana is still developing, Singh says the wedding album market is witnessing a downward trend. “We kept adding value to our wedding album products over the years with technology and premium finishing. However, photographic services, which have been our core, saw more opportunities with sample booklet printing for the garment industry. We have many hosiery manufacturers as our regular customers and they demand printed samples of how the clothing will look when worn. We do the photography and printing, which they distribute to their customers.”
Waka Digital is witnessing growth. In addition to photo printing, it has diversified its products to include photos, frames, calendars, DtF printing, and customized jobs for its customers. “The calendar business is another strong sales point for us. We get many corporate and customized orders and personalized calendars are growing. Personalization is gaining attention as businesses are focusing on branding and marketing. We are receiving orders from schools for prospectuses and class pictures,” Singh elaborates.
To add to the versatility of its products, the company owns a Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-546 large-format inkjet printer. Waka Digital utilizes the large-format printer for glowing signboards, usually for temples, religious events, and local events. Some of the orders are for large framed pictures. It currently outsources digital embellishment, foiling, and spot UV enhancements.
The company plans to add an MGI digital embellishment machine from Konica Minolta to provide customers with all solutions under one roof. Singh feels that being a one-stop provider will benefit the business with enhanced efficiency and bring more growth opportunities.
