According to A Aadithya Sharan of Rathna Offset, the company opted for the machine because it is competitively priced in its market segment. “On the trainings front, after-sales training and support has also been good,” he added.

Rathna, which is primarily focused on book printing, is a family-owned venture where the responsibilities are shared between the six partners. “Our main client base is the digital divisions of the publishing sector houses and print on demand,” Sharan said.

He said while the company has two digital presses from other manufacturers, within the price range, it felt that the Xerox Versant 180 was the best option.

“The machine can handle low gsm coated paper very well and we are happy with the colour output,” he said, adding, “Before investing in the Xerox Versant 180, we faced challenges with colour management, and profiling took time. However, by fixing the proper fusing temperature in this new device, things are a lot easier and faster.”

The machine’s performance package option delivers full rated 80ppm on all stocks up to 350gsm, adds automated colour calibration with X-Rite Inline Spectrophotometer and offers ultra HD resolution with four times more pixels than standard. The machine also comes with external fiery with one additional feeding tray. “We are mainly printing colour books and book covers on this machine,” Sharan said.

Founded in 1968, and located in Royapettah, Rathna Offset Printers has made a name for itself in the fiercely competitive Chennai print space on the foundation of tireless customer-centric service and superior quality at affordable prices.

“In the last four decades, we have grown steadily to a 150-strong workforce with sound pre-press, press and post-press infrastructure. An experienced team of employees working on regularly updated equipment, motivated by a closely involved, family-run management has allowed us to become the outsourcing partner of choice for several leading publishers in South India,” Sharan said.

As the name suggests, Rathna Offset started as an offset printing press. “However, since the volume of books has gone down, we augmented our print capacity with digital print machines to cater to short-run jobs,” he added.

Operating from a 1,500-sq/ft shopfloor, the company has a staff strength of 150 people.

Sharan said when a new machine is installed, the company initiates multiple training sessions for its employees until they are familiar with the equipment.

This is because, as Sharan said, the major challenges in the printing business in present times include finding skilled labour and retaining them over a longer period of time.

The new Versant is the company’s forth digital kit, which includes two monochrome machines and colour production printers. Sharan said the company expects the segment to grow as there are many segments which the company have not explored yet.

Up next, Rathna Offset is in the process of building a web-to-print portal for customers to order print material online. It has a custom-built print MIS to help monitor its jobs.