Printplus plant in Bhiwandi gains foothold in publishing
Printplus set up a plant in Bhiwandi five years ago, migrating from the galas in Shah and Nahar in Lower Parel because of space constraints. Post this shift, Printplus has clocked a 50% increase in its turnover and is growing steadily.
The Gajria family has slowly and steadily made a name for itself in the publishing sector with the 60000 sq/ft book plant.
Text and photographs: Anand Srinivasan
19 Mar 2015 | By Anand Srinivasan
An array of printed products displayed in the backdrop of the conference room. Printplus' majority print work comes from the publishing sector. They also cater to printing of magazines, coffee table books, brochures etc. Apart from this they cater to exports of educational books
The mammoth reel to sheeter machine, as Dinesh Gajria, managing director, claims is a key component on the shopfloor. This reel to sheeter can simultaneously process six reels into sheets.
Printplus' one way of beating the ever growing price war for paper is by ordering reels, 80-85% of their paper procurement comes in reels, ranging from 45gsm to 300gsm
In a day, Printplus converts more than 50,000 books and bank stationeries. Paper consumption for them ranges around 300 tonnes
The numero uno acquisition of Printplus' first-ever machine, Perfecta cutting machine. According to Gajria, this machine has a sentimental value in his print life and they still use it
The Suprasetter 105 thermal CTP system processes 2000 plates a month. This Suprasetter model is an upgradeable system to chemical/process free plate technology. This comes with debris removal system
This is the newly procured Heidelberg SM 74 which has an online coating unit. Printplus uses this mainly for the printing of the covers of Femina magazines and several coffee table books
Printplus uses this mainly for the printing of the covers of Filmfare, Femina and several other magazines and coffee table books
Heidelberg SM 72-V used for printing four-colour jobs on uncoated paper
Heidelberg SM 102-FP mainly used for printing commercial jobs and educational books
SORSZ used mainly for printing two-colour books and special colour jobs
Heidelberg SM 74 single-colour used mainly for printing commercial jobs for banks and financial institutions
This Polar cutting machine is also a new buy for Printplus, bundled with the new CTP and the SM 74
Operator manually feeding sheets onto a die-punching machine
A lamination and gluing machine
Both side lamination machine
The second machine from Welbound is a six-clamp perfect binder. This machine can bind oblong books and its only one in Maharashtra
When Printplus decided to expand their book binding operations, the obvious choice was Welbound, as Printplus and Welbound had developed good synergy. A Welbound 12 station gatherer
Printplus has now acquired a Nordson pre-melter to bind thick books smoothly along with Velocity inline binding system The deal was finalised at the recently concluded PrintPack 2015
A 12-clamp perfect binding machine from Welbound. The new Nordson melter can be attached to either the PUR machine or this 12-clamp binder or can be used in conjunction with both these machines
Printplus was the first commercial printer to acquire a seven-clamp PUR machine from Welbound. "This helped us in eliminating the difficulties encountered in section sewing books," said Gajria
A three-knife trimmer from Welbound, again. A Welbound-loyalist, Printplus' post-press section has almost all machines, Made in India
The only machine in the post-press section which is not Indian-made, a Muller-Martini seven-station saddle stitcher with 3KT and stacker
An offset machine converted into a UV coating machine with UV dryer from Vasai-based Unique UV
Not only sophisticated machines adorn Printplus' post-press section but also this semi-automatic section sewing machine which Printplus uses for producing catalogues and brochures
Packing and labelling department
Systematic and labelled finished goods area
Customer service centre
Printplus has replaced all the lighting with LED lights to save on power and HVAC (Heating, Ventillating and Air conditioning System)
60000 sq/ft Printplus plant in the industrial hub of Bhiwandi. Out of the three-storeys only two are operational while the third is under construction for the next phase of expansion
Second line of business for Printplus is manufacturing and export of leather goods. The leather manufacturing unit is located in the adjacent block in Bhiwandi under a separate entity, Kay Kay Art. Kay Kay Art also sells its leather products under the brand name of Zebru. It has a retail showroom in Viviana Mall, Thane
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