This is Brahma’s first Bobst investment. It was at Bobst’s Vadodara open house that Rajesh Patel and Harshvadan Patel of Brahma Printpack first thought of investing in a Bobst kit. “Our perception was that Bobst machines, new or pre-owned, are expensive and affordable only for big players. But at the open house, we realised that the entry-level Ambition model fitted our budget,” said Rajesh Patel, managing director, Brahma Printpack.

The 50,000 sq/ft Brahma facility houses a five-colour plus coater Heidelberg press and a two colour Heidelberg press, two Maxima die-cutting machines, and two BoxTech folder-gluers.

Patel said, “While we had folding-gluing capacities in place, the bottleneck was while converting complex cartons like the bottom-lock ones and the large-sized corrugated cartons, in which case we had to deploy manual labour. The major advantage of Ambition is that it handles these complex jobs and also the large corrugated cartons. As a result, our post-press productivity has bolstered by 60%.”

Brahma Printpack’s clientele consists of some big names in FMCG sector, which, as Patel said, demand strict control on quality parameters. “Even if few cartons from the ordered quantity are found to be not adhering to the quality norms, the entire job is rejected. Thanks to Bobst Ambition’s precision and accuracy, the rejection rate has been minimised.”

Patel added, “Also, with a brand like Bobst in our arsenal makes a lot of difference in how your customers look at us.”

Majority of Brahma’s print jobs are long runs. On an average, the firm produces seven mono carton jobs and five corrugated carton jobs in a day converting 200 tonnes of paperboard in a month. While all the operations are accomplished under one roof, it is only the platemaking process that is out-sourced, said Patel.

“As the job quantities run into lakhs, we have sufficient time available to prepare for the next job and hence we can afford to outsource platemaking,” explained Patel.

In its initial days, Brahma Printpack clocked a monthly turnover of Rs 20-lakh. With steady investments in adding capacities and automation, the company, today, turns over Rs 70-lakh per month. With expansion on the cards, Patel aims to top Rs two-crore monthly turnover in the next five years.