– Combining the best of high-gloss Offset Inks and dots with density of Screen Printing.
A decade back, Bhanu Media Centre of Agra started catering to a varied market segment with the traditional commercial offset printers with commercial printing as their main line of business. ‘However with the advent of digital printing we soon realized its potential and made our entry into this segment,” says Suresh Dhanwani, owner of Bhanu Media Centre.
With short runs in the commercial printing segment still an important part of their business, Suresh considers it to be the zone of disruption. He looks after the overall administration and business development and is assisted by Mr. Jai Dhanwani who is the Production Head and primarily manages the shop floor.
“We started with traditional Commercial Offset printers but eventually forayed into digital printing as a separate division. At present, digital printing has grown to a level wherein it contributes to the business group as a sister concern. Our major area of business still remains the short runs in the commercial printing segment,” says Suresh.
Bhanu Media Centre’s principal clientele includes jobbers, screen printers, offset printers etc and the segment catered to by the organisation are Tags, Brochures, Visiting Cards, Point of sale material, Visual lets, etc.
Taking up the Digital Printing route and Xerox 1000i
“With the growing demand of personalization taking over almost every industry segment, printing has become more targeted, thereby giving a boost to the digital printing,” observes Suresh. They have also witnessed a steep rise in the volumes in the past decade. Moreover, with the technological rapid advancements, the horizons of creativity have grown by leaps and bounds, making the jobs more complex and almost imperative to take up the Digital Printing route. This leaves the traditional Commercial printers little choice. “In order to continue their hold in the market place, they ought to adopt the technology and explore this new revenue stream. We personally believe that Digital Printing industry has a huge potential,” continues Suresh.
With an earlier 400 sq.ft. area dedicated to Digital printing set up, Bhanu is expanding the facility by another 200 sq. ft. which is chiefly to accommodate their new Xerox Color 1000i Press. “We expect a volume increase and greater flexibility with this new investment and hence decided to add more area for a dedicated packing division to ensure smooth operations,” says Suresh.
All behind the decision to invest in Xerox 1000i
“We realized,” says Suresh, explaining the decision to invest in Xerox 1000i, “that in order to grow and lead the Digital Printing segment we needed to focus on:
- increasing productivity while simultaneously maintaining the quality of the outputs; and
- investing in applications which hold promises for the future growth and give us an edge in the market.
Keeping the above in mind, we zeroed in on two factors which seemed to be the most critical for growth:
- high-gloss printing for the specialty applications; and
- clear ink highlighting applications.”
“We then analyzed the products in the category of productivity and speed of 6000 prints per hour and compared the various solutions available through different vendors in the market. We found that Xerox stood out as a clear winner by providing Gloss at the rated speeds and the Fifth ink Option,” he adds.
Moreover, he is excited that at a later stage, they can easily upgrade up to seven dedicated colours. Another factor which stood out for Xerox was the fact that Bhanu Media Centre was already running a Xerox Versant 80 for over 2 years.
“Xerox takes care of imparting trainings to the operators and advanced level of support for creation of new jobs is also one of the major factors,” puts in Suresh.
Adding up the best of both worlds
Suresh looks forward to adding more customers with requirements of high gloss printing to their portfolio. The gloss of Xerox 1000i Press can be controlled and it surpasses the quality of High-gloss Offset printing inks with the kind of density of Screen printing and the dots of the Offset that it provides. “Therefore, with one equipment we can produce the best of both the worlds which was not possible with the existing ways of printing,” claims Suresh.
With typical run length range of 1 to 200, the run lengths, says Suresh, also depends on the turnaround time, nature of job, presence of variable data, etc which a customer might need for his job.
Internally, Bhanu Media Centre has a training program for its staff. “We firmly believe that gaining an edge in the market depends on the knowledge we have today. Additionally, we have been interacting with the Xerox Support team at various levels to understand the new technologies in the digital printing space,” explains Suresh.
With their new Xerox 1000i, Suresh is sure to add more customers with specific requirements in the High-gloss segment and the Clear-ink applications. The
specific features that they focused in their Xerox 1000i configuration are the Clear Ink Applications and Specialty Printing segment including the SME & Cottage Industry packing needs which Suresh sees as a major growth driver for them.
“A brand is an amalgamation of both – the quality we deliver and the quality produced by the equipment. It is built on the quality and the trust which the customers put on it. If you strive for the quality which you deliver, then the equipment’s capabilities will help you in producing that quality,” says Suresh, appreciating the Xerox quality.
Xerox CP 1000i – a step in the right direction
“Investing in Xerox CP 1000i has been a step in the right direction – enabling us to cater the right market segment,” says Suresh. “The results have surpassed our expectations!”
With the help of the productivity tools and the increased market opportunities, they have seen a 40% increase in their print volumes and their top line too has improved by 55%. Though, still in the process of introducing new additions to their portfolio, they see potential for tremendous growth in the times to come. “Overall, the journey has been a dream ride and we can certainly say that we’re heading in the right direction at the right time,” sums up Suresh.
Moving with a conservative estimate on the growth in volumes, they expect to reach Break Even in 3 years for their current investment.
Suresh sees many key growth areas in Indian Digital Printing industry which include print-on-demand; self-publication; specialty printing on packing materials; personalized communications; personalized packing materials for niche high value products; and variable data printing and applications. And he considers his Xerox 1000i is “a perfect fit to take care of all these and much beyond.”
With most modern set-up and facilities, Bhanu Media Centre is at the forefront of technology adoption to answer the ever changing Digital Printing industry. Some of the initiatives that they have undertaken to take care of the present and future, according to Suresh, include, “Upgrade of the facility as the market demand increased; investing in a heavy duty Digital Press (Xerox 1000i); and choosing an equipment which is an upgradable platform (and even allows them to add metallic Inks etc).”
Bhanu Media Centre has installed their own internal software that forms the backbone of the organization. It primarily includes CRM, Inventory control and other aspects of the business. Besides, they have also deployed workflow assistant software to plan and control the production on the shop floor. Other key equipment at Bhanu’s set-up include: besides their Xerox 1000i and Xerox Versant 80 Press, a Lamination Machines, an Automatic Paper Cutting Machine and a Dominant 4 colour Offset Machine.