PrintWeek India Performance Awards 2016 Winners

Parksons Packaging had a thumping 2015-16 which saw investment in technology, an upsurge in production and a brand-new print site. Sales increased by 20.28% and profits soared 27.72%. According to J K Doshi & Co, our official auditor, Parksons deserved the top honour because of its return on capital, the increase in fixed assets as well as net current assets. Sensible financials have ensured the company’s current ratio improve over the previous year.

Parksons Packaging is one of the top print packaging companies in India with production plants in Chakan (Maharashtra), Daman and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), which can convert up to 5,500 tonnes of paperboard per month. Last year, the company received a Rs 200-crore capital boost from Kedaara Capital, which the chairman of Parksons, Ramesh Kejriwal said, has added significant value to the company and further strengthened its position as India’s most preferred and innovative paper packaging solutions provider.

Parksons has been building a plant in Sri City (Andhra Pradesh). The new plant on a 10-acre plot with an initial outlay of Rs 70-crore will facilitate Parksons’ foray into South India.

Last year - and at Drupa 2016 - Parksons had an order book of highly configured press and post-press equipment that has boosted the company’s production standards.

Last year, Forbes India described Parksons as “an out-of-the-box carton designer”, and in some cases even provides ‘keyline’ drawings to the client’s graphics team. Ramesh Kejriwal says, “Our strategy is to continuously expand our geographical reach. The focus is clearly to be closer to the customer and serve them at all their sites with consistent high quality.”

Parksons Packaging (Mumbai)
Tel: +91 2266667200 | saurabh.desai@parksonspackaging.com

Commended
International Print-o-Pac
ITC Limited - Packaging and Printing Division
Manipal Technologies
Mudrika Labels
Quenby Transfers
Replika Press
Thomson Press

PrintWeek India Green Printing Company of the Year 2016: ITC Limited - Packaging and Printing Division

The packaging business of ITC Limited has fortified its position in both cartons and flexibles, winning global acclaim for excellence. But the competition was tough. ITC had a neck-to-neck green tussle with Repro India and Lovely Offset to be conferred the coveted PrintWeek India Green Printing Company of the Year 2016.

The Chennai plant which is capable of 3,000 MT per month conversion is leading the charge for a Swachh Bharat. A look at the production data sheet indicates that the packaging giant has pioneered efforts to be carbon positive, water positive and solid waste recycling positive for the year under review.

ITC’s commitment is remarkable given the spread, scale and energy intensity of operations. Deployment of wind mills to generate electricity and the steps to shift to energy-efficient lighting are few of the examples. Plus there has been an integrated programme for consumption and treatment of water which has resulted in huge savings.

In addition, with the help of ITC’s Paperboards business, it has accrued the benefit of environmental stewardship. Today, the net segment revenue of paperboards, paper and packaging (combined) has grown nearly 10-fold to over Rs 5,000 crore in this period.

The packaging division, which is part of ITC, aspires to be the number one player in the new FMCG businesses and has set a revenue target of Rs 1,00,000 crores by 2030. As the chairman, Y C Deveshwar, stated at the 105th AGM in July 2016, “Apple in the US, Samsung in Korea, Toyota in Japan are some of the exemplary corporations. Can we in India not dream of building our own institutions that stand amongst the finest in the world? I believe we can, and we must.”

ITC Limited - Packaging and Printing Division (Chennai)
Tel: +91 9940098469 | voruganti.rajesh@itc.in

Commended
Lovely Offset Printers
Parksons Graphics
Repro India

SME Printing Company of the Year 2016: Brilliant Printers

An eye for quality, a will to grow and the passion to aim big, are the hallmarks of Brilliant Printers, which have enabled this Bengaluru-based company to win this year’s SME Printer of the Year Award.

A dream project and a relentless two-year pursuit in setting up the 1,53,000 sq/ft facility at Mallarabanavadi, Nelamangala in Bengaluru, have made Brilliant Printers an “all under one roof” book plant. The company deploys modern, sensible technology that delivers consistency in quality and delivery, and exports to more than 70 countries. Plus, Brilliant prints Bibles in more than 50 world languages.

A growing business – Brilliant’s gross sales increased by 36.54% to Rs 42.6 crore and a profit before tax by a whopping 477.05% compared to last year – all is a result of a company that was willing to change. It has put in place a process to make the decision faster so that there is no gap between final delivery and commitment.

PrintWeek India, like many, is stunned to see the transformation two years after Anil Rego, the managing director at Brilliant, had discussed a bare floorplan with the team. It is amazing to see the meticulous attention that has gone towards designing the floor layout and the work done to make “the operations” a reality. “A truly breathtaking sight” to see a sprawling book factory with a linear horizontal workflow without any material lying around. The process, seamless and efficient.”

Brilliant is a master in printing on thin paper. They print on as thin as 28 gsm opaque tissue paper, which is most suitable for printing voluminous texts in Bible printing and dictionaries. It is a complex process to handle and print on such thin papers. “Bible printing operation is an art. Complexities include precise controlling of print margins, ink density and uniform spread across the page and the opacity of printed matter” says Rego.

Kudos to the Brilliant team, and a family of 400 people, for becoming the first among the best print SMEs in India. Truly brilliant!

Brilliant Printers (Bengaluru)
Tel: +91 9845002060 | anil@brilliantprinters.com

Commended
Arihant Printers
Astha Packaging
Gautam Paper Udhyog
Print Plus
Print Vision
Shubhan Prints

Post-Press Company of the Year 2016: Lovely Offset Printers

Lovely Offset, Sivakasi’s biggest print firm, is the PrintWeek India Post-Press Company of the Year 2016.

With eight showrooms for its cards and stationery range, the first-time winner, Lovely, was shortlisted in three categories, picking up this Award by a slender margin, ahead of Kundli-based Replika Press and Bhiwandi-based Print Plus.

As per our auditors, the profit before tax at Lovely has increased by 92.01%. This is the highest in the category for the government-accredited star export house – with almost 75% of books being exported.

The company, which is located on a 23-acre plot, has installed a Horauf round corner case maker and a Line O Matic ruling line, recently. A few years ago, Lovely had installed a 100KW solar plant in its factory. The top management is seeking to set up a 1MW plant in the near future.

K Selvakumar, managing director at Lovely, who has seen the highs and the not so high times, said to PrintWeek India, “The key in this day and age is to produce quality products and quality results. And even though prices are spiralling downward, we are seeing print efficiency increase and improve.”

Lovely Offset was founded in 1961 by C Kadarkarai. A self-made man, he specialised in printing self-designed papers and wedding cards. Even today, besides boasting of a book factory which looked at converting the low-quality book market into high-quality high-volume, Lovely’s wedding cards range is very popular in Chennai, Sivakasi, Madurai, and Coimbatore through its own showrooms and 32 franchisees which sell only the Lovely brand. The gen-next has a special mandate: packaging.

A worthy winner.

Lovely Offset Printers (Sivakasi)
Tel: +91 9994420141 | office@lovelyoffset.com

Commended
A & M Enterprise
Any Graphics
Gautam Paper Udhyog
International Print-o-Pac
Print Plus
Replika Press

Pre-Press Company of the Year 2016: Creative Graphics

Creative Graphics, the Noida-based firm, is the PrintWeek India Pre-Press Company of the Year 2016.

This honour recognises Creative Graphics’ financial performance, its innovations and long-term success. This is the second PrintWeek India Pre-Press Company of the Year Award for Creative.

The company boasts of a net worth during 2015-16 which has increased by 31.94%. That’s not all. The gross sales has increased by 5.15% whereas profit before tax has increased by 55% and the expenditure on staff has also increased by 11.13%.

In addition, the return on capital employed has increased by 3.91%.

Established in 2001, Creative Graphics is a name to be reckoned with in the flexo pre-press sector. This flexo trade house has been in the industry for the 15 years. It is a multi-locational proprietorship firm involved in high-class flexo plate processing with plants in Noida, Vasai and Hyderabad.

The company has an Esko CDI, the DuPont Cyrel Digiflow exposure unit, along with the latest processing equipment from Schwan, Germany, and caters to customers ranging from wide-web to narrow-web, corrugated and other segments of the printing industry from the entire length and breadth of India. Creative works 12 hours a day and caters to more than 250 customers.

Creative Graphics (Noida)
Tel: +91 9810186954 | deepanshu@creativegraphics.net.in

Commended
Comart Lithographers
Gautam Paper Udhyog
Image Gravures
Shilp Gravures

Student of the Year 2016: Dekshitha Sridhar (SIES Graduate School of Technology)

Dekshitha Sridhar is an all-rounder in every sense and has an outstanding academic record. During the course of her studies at the SIES Graduate School of Technology, Mumbai, she has consistently been a class topper and secured the best of scores. Additionally, during her internship stint with Mondelez India, she worked on harmonisation of C-flute corrugated boxes for Malanpur and Baddi plant, which if implemented would result in cost savings.

Plus, she did an in-depth study on “Evaluating alternate printing process (digital and flexography) for low MOQ (minimum order quantity) Packs” with Hindustan Unilever.

Her resume has a long list of extra-curricular activities, such as running marathons for which she has bagged medals, working with NGOs, plus dancing, among many others.

Apart from academics, she holds a green belt in Six Sigma and a university certificate in NSS with category A, which is an additional feather in her cap.

All of this and more makes Dekshitha Sridhar a worthy winner of PrintWeek India Student of the Year Award.

Commended
Bharath K V (PVG’s College of Engineering and Technology)
GSVS Padamaja (PVG’s College of Engineering and Technology)
Sainath Mane (SIES Graduate School of Technology)
Sharmela M (College of Engineering, Anna University)
T Raghavi (College of Engineering, Anna University)
Vishnu Priya V R (College of Engineering, Anna University)