Meliorating customers, strengthening installation base

Accomplishing all around success amongst commercial, packaging and heatset web printing, Komori Corporation, Japan continues performing well in Indian sub-continent with their South Indian distributor Printools Corporation (Bengaluru). Taking an overview of some of their customers in India and Nepal, including Kayen Print Process, Nirmala HiPrint, Omkar Offset Printers, Print Point India, Rajhans Enterprises, Ramya Reprographic, Rashtrotthana Mudranalaya, and SAMA Printers, Supressa Graphics Pvt Ltd, Unique Offset, it becomes apparent that the printing machines from Komori are not only making happy to their users providing outstanding quality but also boosting their business with enhanced productivity. Also, each of the printers having installed Komori presses was upbeat on the services/support they have been getting from Printools Corporation of Bengaluru, the Komori distributor, to the maximum extent. Here’s a brief.

• Komori achieves all around success amongst commercial, packaging and heatset web printing
• Rajhans Enterprises, Bengaluru honoured with the ‘Largest Installation of Komori Presses in India’ award

Kaushik Thakore, chairman; Nimish Thakore, managing director and Murali, production manager, at Kayen Print Process, Bengaluru. One of the leading printers in Bengaluru, Kayen Print Process is now home to Lithrone S40, which is the second machine from Komori at this company. They already have a Komori Spica 429 installed in 2006. Director of the company Kaushik Thakore, a KOPA member, is lavish in his praise of Komori and absolute in his conviction that Komori presses offer unsurpassed ease of operation and highly customized designs. “Printing companies can guarantee production output and honour deadlines by continually increasing production efficiency, printing quality and installing equipment that requires little maintenance. We feel confident about Komori presses because of their reliability and ease of operation,” he said.

The family owned business Kayen Print Process was started in 1982. “When my father started this business, we had only fifteen employees. After taking the responsibilities of its operation, I had to invest lots of time and energy into learning the business to make the company growing upto the present level,” stated Nimish Thakore who is presently at the helm of the company as a second generation owner running it for the last eighteen years. “In today’s market place we need to rely on our core competencies. We are trying to grow our market share and put ourselves in a stronger position for the future,” he added.

Rajan Vattoly, managing director, Nirmala HiPrint Pvt Ltd, Thrissur. Established by Rajan Vattoly in 1994, Nirmala HiPrint Pvt Ltd, Thrissur, Kerala purchased a four colour Komori Lithrone semi PQC machine. After this the production has enhanced to four times a day. So, they were forced to settle more on adding in-house pre-press and post-press facilities. “As a part of developing the market size, a ‘HI- TECH’ step had to be planned and our new Thrissur unit is a consequent glorious outcome of it. Our ambitious plan with respect to this development prompted us to purchase a brand new Komori Lithrone Super 29 four colour machine, having the latest version of KHS-AI (Advanced Interface) system which reduces job changeover time and cutting paper waste to an absolute minimum. The press is fortified with functions that improve print quality and machine performance, shorten make ready, taking care of the environmental impact. We are happy and proud to have purchased the latest Komori press and look forward to go for more presses from Komori,” conveyed Rajan.

Since its inception in 1983, Omkar Offset Printers in New Tharagupet, Bengaluru has seen only growth and growth, keeping pace with the changing market trends, customer demands and technology. From meeting small individual and personal needs such as invitations and calling cards, it is today poised to deliver 50,000 multi-colour annual reports for discerning corporates in just two days! To an already existing array of advanced equipment and tech-support stuff, Omkar’s newest acquisition is the Komori Lithron LS440 4-colour 28”X40” work-horse. A carefully chosen addition to the equipment list that’s exactly aimed at meeting the demands of speed and quality.

Shanker and PS Venkatesh Babu (standing), managing partners of Omkar Offset Printers, Bengaluru. “We took a look at how the market was changing. We needed a press having outstanding qualities and that was the Komori Lithrone S 40,” conveyed PS Venkatesh Babu, managing partner of the company, who was among the founders of Karnataka Offset Printers Association (KOPA) and remained its president during 2008-2010. The outstanding qualities that drew Omkar offset to the Lithrone S-40 were not only the ease of operation but also the technologies Komori has optimized to the diverse needs of printing. “We have installed the new Komori LS-440 recently which has extended our capacity to print on thicker paper. We have also reduced waste in terms of paper and ink. Now, we are fully geared to produce a book or journal from CD to proofing to final in the shortest span of time, with no compromise on quality,” added Babu.

A 23-year old ISO 9001 certified commercial printing company located in ‘electronic city’ amidst of leading IT companies in Bengaluru, Print Point India Pvt Ltd takes great pride to serve its large MNCs ranging from IT, telecom, pharma and automobile sectors. The transformation of Print Point from a baby offset printer to a major offset print house is an achievement which has been made possible by two of its eminent directors, Ashok Kumar and Sadanand Singh who are qualified engineers and have worked for large MNCs prior to starting Print Point. Starting with office stationary printing, and growing over a period of time to high quality advertising material printing was a arduous journey which they have always cherished. Keeping in line with its trend of continuous upgradation, Print Point has had the successful installation of its new four colour printing press, Komori Lithrone L440 with coater and extended dryer. “It has unique features like automatic plate change, blanket wash and level of integration of its various mechanisms and computerization is unique and simply amazing,” conveyed both the directors who are confident that this installation will accelerate the company growth.

Masaru Tsukamoto, group general manager, director of Komori Corporation, Japan and A Balachander, director of Rajhans Enterprises, Bengaluru. One of the largest printers in India, Rajhans Enterprises, Bengaluru has constantly looked ahead into the future and lead the way for the rest. Its pioneering spirit has resulted in it placing orders for sophisticated equipment that others saw little reason to acquire until shown the way by Rajhans. Continuing this policy, Rajhans has become the first printer in India to buy a fourth heat set web offset machine (System 38 machine cutoff 578 mm of speed 42,000 iph) from Komori Corporation, Japan this year. The company already had System 35 machine cutoff 546 mm of speed 36,000 iph; System 38 machine cutoff 578 mm of speed 42,000 iph; and System 35 machine cutoff 546 mm of speed 48,000 iph from Komori. Rajhans Enterprises was awarded by Komori as the ‘Largest installations of Komori Presses in India’. The award was presented by Masaru Tsukamoto, group general manager, director of Komori Corporation, Japan during his visit to Rajhans facility recently.

Over the years, Rajhans has created a large in-house infrastructure to cater to any type of sophisticated printing activity. The company prints the maximum number of daily national newspapers, apart from undertaking other printing and production items and packing materials for many multinational companies. They now print about 60+ magazines monthly ranging from 5,000 to 200,000 print length and several daily newspapers in India. The growing demand has made them invest in yet another System 38 machine this year. And to match the speed of the web machine, Rajhans had to add more of prepress and postpress equipments and today they have built an in house capacity to produce about 1,00,000 books a day. As per A Balachander, director of Rajhans Enterprises, “We acquired the first System 35 web press in the year 2006 because we knew that only Komori web would provide highly versatile production capacity and speed. As productivity, service and maintenance from Komori and their distributor Bhoj Raj, managing director of The Printools Corporation, Bengaluru had already proved satisfactory, we settled on a new Komori System 38 the 4th Komori web press. The new System 38 was commissioned in June 2011. We were convinced by Printools that with latest feature KHS AI, this web press will further reduce wastage level and improve make ready time.”

Another Bengaluru-based company is offset and digital specialist Ramya Reprographic who has been producing high-quality work in the city since the last sixteen years, having a total of seven offset printing machines including the latest Komori Lithrone LS-429 installed recently with coater. “Our new Komori LS-429 + C has fully automated plate changing, automatic sheet presets and KHS-AI quick make ready system replacing earlier brands. Moreover, it can print on thicker stock, speed is much faster, and automation level is higher, so we feel comfortable to work with Komori. Although we were aware of the other presses in the market, we chose Lithrone to help us maintain the thrust of our recent growth,” conveyed R Narendra, director of the company.

Since it’s inception, Ramya Reprographic has developed a niche in printing a variety of communication material, not just for clients in Bengaluru, but from those across the country and globally. Till a few months ago, Ramya Reprographic functioned out of a 2,600 sqm unit in Bomannahalli. This unit was the first one set up by the company, but over the last two years, the management sensed the need for a bigger unit, which would accommodate their new machines as well as provide a better working environment for the 250-member staff dedicated to the company. Now, Ramya Reprographic has shifted into 8,200 sq m unit just three kilometers from their previous unit. As per Narendra, they have been keeping constant eye on the future as well as the quest for perfection that has led Ramya Reprographic to the kind of success it has had. He wants to continue expanding. One of their key missions is to take Ramya to a more visible, national level. The company also wants to strengthen its already existing commitment to its customers. “We aim for zero rejection and zero complaints for any print jobs we do,” he said.

R Narendra, director, Ramya Reprographic Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru. Involved in execution of commercial printing jobs, Rashtrotthana Mudranalaya is a charitable trusts / voluntary & welfare organization in Bengaluru managed by Dinesh Hegde, chairman, who first purchased a Komori LS-426 in April 2008. According to Hegde, the machine has been in production with excellent results and our jobs increased subsequently. The company enjoyed good business and two years later they realized that their efficiency could be enhanced if they could execute jobs on two machines, which led to the decision to go for another LS-429 from Komori.

“Komori LS-429 was chosen unanimously with no second thought in mind due to its performance and quality. With the new LS-429, we became competitive as this press is highly automated and reliable,” commented Hegde.

Kathmandu-based SAMA Printers Pvt Ltd also went commercial with the installation of Komori Lithrone LS-540, Nepal’s first Komori Lithrone series five-colour offset press which is the perfect size for magazine and packaging works. Komori offers excellent performance, high reliability and the shortest make-ready time compared with similar machines of other manufacturers. The features of Lithrone are also a perfect fit —high pile delivery, low power consumption, a double-size impression cylinder that prints paper or cardboard from 0.04 to 0.6 mm in thickness without compromising on quality and speed. In addition, job changeover time from light weight paper to heavyweight cardboard is significantly reduced. With the LS-540, SAMA has now become a one-stop shop in Kathmandu. “The Lithrone’s excellent adaptability to our prepress and post-press setup saves our customers critical time. We are very impressed by the Lithrone’s print quality and low maintenance cost,” conveyed Neeraj Bansal, the company’s CEO.

Atul Pandey, senior print manager and Rishi Raj Singh, senior IT manager, SAMA Printers Pvt Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal. Established ten years ago for newspaper printing, SAMA Printers prints four national daily newspapers in Nepal, and now has extended the print business in commercial side with Komori Lithrone in Kathmandu. SAMA is also equipped with entire range of book binding and post press operations. Neeraj Bansal started exploring the commercial market in Nepal and found that there is enough potential and growth in sheetfed printing and packaging. Neeraj along with Atul Pandey (senior print manager) could make the key decision to opt for the newly launched Komori Lithrone, after conducting serious research to find new machine. They conducted printing trials on various machines, and then visited several Komori users in the southern region of India before reaching to a clear conclusion.

Mumbai-based Supressa Graphics Pvt Ltd installed India’s first Komori Enthrone series four colour offset press. Operating from one of the most printers populated industrial estate in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai popularly known as ‘print city’, Supressa Graphics is more than forty-year old company started by Dilip Sawant, chairman of the company. His son Prasad Sawant, graduate in printing from UK who takes responsibility of managing director at the company, is the key person along with his team to opt for newly launched Komori Enthrone. After series of print test they carried out on several machines, Supressa understands why Komori offers excellent performance and high reliability, shortest make ready time comparing with the machines of other manufacturers.

For Supressa, Komori Enthrone is right choice for the machine features, height, length, semi high pile delivery, power consumption double diameter impression cylinder to print from 0.04 to 0.6 mm thickness of paper/board without compromising on quality and speed. Job change over time from light weight paper to heavy weight board is same as normal job change over time. Most important fact is that machine is installed adjoining to their office in Lower Parel. This location offers them great advantage of getting short run Job, where people slashing prices as a competition to get business. Besides the quality and productivity benefits this press is extremely beneficial in terms of production costs. “We are able to offer high quality products at competitive prices. We normally talk more about product and less about product cost. We had been impressed by Enthrone print quality and the low maintenance cost, resulting improved profitability with satisfying client’s requirement,” commented Prasad Sawant.

Recognised as a premier offset printing press in and around Pune, Unique Offset has now become a one stop shop for the printing requirements, with the addition of LS 440 after Spica 426 from Komori. “Having experienced the quality and results of the Komori Spica 426 since 2007, we decided to purchase the latest version from Komori – LS 440. Being one of the first buyers of this KHS-AI version in India, we are confident that our progress will be even more accelerated with this new gem,” conveyed Mandar Thakurdesai and Nandkumar Navale, owners of Unique Offset who have been in the printing line for the past two decades.

“We decided to purchase the KOMORI- LS 440 after a thorough comparative study of the machines being used and available in India. We felt that the LS 440 suited almost exactly to our needs. The main advantage is the size and the unique features of the machine which will enable us to expand into a wider spectrum of jobs, which hitherto we were unable to execute for want of a machine of these features in this category. The most important features of the machine which met our needs were: fast makeready including de-inking and pre-inking, good speed, and preset of paper size and thickness. Being the latest version, it enabled us to keep abreast of the competition in the field even technically,” added both partners of the company, who also visited Komori’s Tsukuda Plant to get an on the spot feel about the company. ]