Award’s new plant at Silvassa, Komori and Bobst kit
Mumbai-based Award Offset Printers & Packaging’s new plant in Silvassa, its third, after one in Mumbai and the second in Navi Mumbai, is on course for a mid-April 2015 commencement. The company has ordered a six-colour plus coater Komori GL-640 press, a Bobst folder-gluer and a Bobst die-cutting machine.
28 Jan 2015 | 7618 Views | By PrintWeek India
A Heidelberg loyalist, Award opted for the Japanese-make Komori press because it wanted to explore new technologies. Without specifying what these were, Nitin Shah, one of the directors at Award, said, we saw a scope for change. “The times and technologies demand changes. We, as print equipment buyers, can choose a new press technology, or go with what we already have. Let’s face it, the latter will be termed as loyalty, but sometimes a shift can become a game-changer.”
The four-decade old company specialises in folding carton, labels leaflet and catch cover, among other packaging jobs. Besides Shah, the company is managed by his brother, Rajesh and nephew, Kunal.
Award’s plants in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, has a fleet of seven Heidelberg presses. While, the company had been in negotiation with Insight and Komori for some time, the order was finalised in December last year. Krunal Shah, the executive director at Award, said, “We had seen the machine during one of our trip to Komori’s Tsukuba plant in Japan and decided that this was the right one for our needs. Hence, we finalised it.”
Speaking to PrintWeek India, about the need to set up a new plant, Shah, said, the new 1.25 sq/ft plant on a three-acre site in Silvassa, will cater to the carton requirements of the pharma industry. “Our two plants are running at capacity while the pharma industry growth at 18% and the formulation at 12-15% per annum are fuelling demand for cartons.”
Award was established by late Navnitlal Shah in the early 1970s. Later, he was joined by his eldest son, Rajesh Shah and subsequently by Nitin Shah. Krunal joined in the mid-2000s. Rajesh heads the organisation and takes care of the overall management while Nitin and Krunal take care of the technical management.
Today Awards is a key packaging solution provider to the pharma industry in India. Nearly 70% of its work is directly or indirectly export-oriented.