Viba: marking journey of vastness and successful printing

-housing a whole line of single, double and four colour Heidelberg presses leading an end-to-end commercial printing set-up producing the best in the industry Vinay Baveja with the recently installed Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 – four colour press. Since inception, Viba has been continuing achieving new milestones with its mentor Vinay Baveja in the vanguard. Coming from a working class family, the businessman in Vinay started from scratch, earning his first investment himself and also every subsequent investment to rise to a business with a current turnover of around Rs 5.5 crore that too at around half of total capacity utilisation. His company – Viba Enterprises now has become a private limited company – having a built-up area of around 18,000 sq ft and housing a single-colour, one double-colour and two four-colour Heidelberg machines all contributing their bit in the vast array of commercial printing. Of the two CPC machines, one is water based and other alcohol based. The company is also fully equipped with prepress including CtP, and post press section with two Stahl folding machines from Heidelberg, an eight station saddle stitcher, a gathering machine, and two perfect binding machines.

After completing his diploma in printing technology from Allahabad in 1980, Vinay went for his post diploma – doing it alongside his industrial training at Thomson Press. This was followed by a stint as a freelancer under the name and style of Viba Enterprises. Vinay put all efforts behind his business while taking Government orders and getting them executed in Delhi itself. In 1995, the business of Viba took a turn when Vinay got an export order which got delayed and as a consequence he had to buy a 1250 sq ft shed to stock material. At that time, he got the idea of utilizing the space that usually remained idle to install a press. The first single colour press got installed in 1996. It took just one more year to add another press – a two colour. In 1998, Vinay installed a four-colour and after one year, a five-colour. The shed got converted to a double storey to accommodate four and five-colour machines. As the need for expansion necessitated more space procurement, Vinay bought the present premises in Okhla (South of Delhi).

From the very first day, Vinay had in his mind he would go for a total Heidelberg setup. It was, part because of the brand Heidelberg enjoyed in the industry; and part because of the market experience Vinay had through years of working. “I had seen work done on almost every machine available and the work done on Heidelberg would simply stand out. It has remained an established brand. Everybody had this feeling that nothing can go wrong with this decision,” conveyed Vinay. However, before going for his first Heidelberg, he had to buy a Planeta four colour machine.

The first Heidelberg at Viba was MOV four-colour which was followed by a single colour MO. Both these presses were pre-owned. Some time down the line, Vinay bought a Speedmaster 28×40 and by then, he had sold the Planeta and continued this way – every single machine got replaced by a Heidelberg over time.

Though Vinay sees better prospects in packaging printing, which he once used to cater to as well, he thinks their expertise in book printing provides an upper hand over others. Due to the same experience, now they are pretty comfortable with the long payment cycles usually associated with the book publishing segment. Being an A-class printer for Government of India, they are more into it doing fewer other jobs because of the usual urgent nature for government ministries. The current capacity utilization at Viba is around fifty percent, which makes Vinay’s mind to work as how to increase the idle capacity at the earliest. But this great fan of Heidelberg has always loved to embrace every new technology fitting his needs. Only recently he has put into place cost estimation and MIS system which is in its early stage and all in the organization are getting used to it. With the proper working to start in a few months time, Vinay thinks it is going to give a fair boost to the efficiency as well as increased profitability.

For those who want to enter the field of printing, Vinay sees no better line. “It is the most promising field which is going to stay forever. Technology in this field changes overnight, and if one is updated technologically, one wouldn’t find a better field than printing,” he assures.