Carton capacity augmented by Robus JC-1100PC folder gluer

Krishay Paper & Packaging was formed as a limited liability partnership on 6 June 2020. It is situated in the Industrial Model Township, in Manesar, in the Delhi National Capital Region. Spanning 88,000 square feet, its printing and converting plant is equipped with high-end technology with a view to reaching a production capacity of 20,000 tonnes a year by the end of the next fiscal year.

Currently, the company is printing and converting almost 850 metric tons per month of paper and approximately 10,000 metric tons of paperboard packaging annually. Its immediate target is to convert 1,000 metric tons per month.

The company’s director Madhur Bathla, says, “We offer our clients our well-established credentials as a highly specialized printer, with a value proposition of worldwide capabilities and innovative technology to streamline operations, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.” The consequences of the Covid-19 crisis are still being worked out.

From the standpoint of the printing industry, the lower demand in 2020 has been challenging for many printers, particularly the newer ones. Bathla said, “Raw material costs have lately increased by 30% to 50%. In 2021, the lockout resulted in an average 11% drop in business volume for Indian MSMEs, compared to a 46% drop during the countrywide lockdown in 2020. Moreover, government assistance continues to be critical to the success of many of these businesses, particularly SMEs, which account for up to 29% of our GDP. Such difficulties will persist until the effects of Covid-19 subside, and the economy reopens.”

In terms of printing, the company’s sheetfed multicolor offset presses include a 7-color Komori 28 x 40-inch, a 6-color + UV LED, a Komori 28 x 40-inch, and a 5-color Komori 20 x 28-inch press. Three automatic die-punching machines from Bobst and Wen-Hong and three automatic folder gluer machines are used for post-press.

More recently, a Robus JC-1100PC high-speed Rapid fully automatic folder gluer machine with a maximum speed of 60,000 cartons an hour was chosen by KPPL. With an inline braille attachment, the company has opted to improve its existing technology. In light of the increasing demand for packaging, apart from design, prepress, and the pressroom, a key area in packaging is the post-press and converting infrastructure. On the recent converting equipment expansion, Bathla remarks, “We have also just installed a fully automatic laminator machine, and by the end of the year, we will have a fully automatic corrugation plant with a total yearly output capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes.”

KPPL works with leading brands in a variety of industrial and consumer segments, including mobile phones, gift boxes, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharmaceuticals, electronics, and white goods. It produces printed folding cartons, corrugated boxes, and rigid boxes with print finishing options in-house, including laminating, UV, foil stamping, embossing, varnishing, and enhanced security features.

“The IMT Manesar (Industrial Model Township) is a huge industrial region part of the DMIC. There are numerous significant international enterprises in the area, including Maruti Suzuki, Jaquar, Toshiba Eco City, and the 170-acre Manesar Software Technology Park. Aside from that, the nearby access to the head offices of major brands such as Nestle, GSK, Reckitt Benckiser, PepsiCo, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, The Home Depot, Walmart, and other large purchasing houses provide packaging firms like us an equal opportunity,” says Bathla.

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.

The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.

Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.

As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.

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