Hyderabad’s photo lab studio upgrades technology with installation of NexPress SX 3300

With the first NexPress in Hyderabad, Cutting Edge hopes to take advantage of market opportunities more quickly and efficiently.

Narendra Singh, managing director of the company, said: “In the highly competitive digital space it is essential to adopt new technology. We see an opportunitiy to reap gains and enjoy the first-mover advantage at a time when digital print segment has become more developed.”

City Colour Lab has been in the business of photo processing for the last 18 years, providing services through seven centres in and around Hyderabad and in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka states. The firm has 600 photographers on its roster and a daily print run of 3,000 prints of 12x36inch size. The company also has a complete photo-album finishing equipment for binding, cutting and laminating among others.

“One of the reasons we decided to upgrade the technology is the growing demand for slicker photo albums. This can be produced only with newer technology. The NexPress SX 3300 enables print on both the side of the sheets in one pass, which eliminates the need of pasting photo printed sheets when produced using conventional photo printing machines,” said Singh.

He added: “There are other advantages too. Besides speed, I will be armed with the ability to independently extend the paper catalogue and adjust the press to other substrates’ unique characteristics, which will enable us to readily accept client-specific stocks, which hitherto we were unable to do with conventional photo printers, which print only on matt, gloss and metallic stocks.”

Singh is aware that the wedding photo album is a seasonal business and plans to explore opportunities in commercial segments of the digital business like printing collaterals, brochures and personalised social stationery.

According to Ramani Viswanathan, vice president for sales, digital print, electrophotographic printing solution business at Kodak India, Singh is better placed to increase their engagement with existing and new customers.

“With Kodak NexPress SX digital production colour press and its dimensional printing capabilities, Cutting Edge Photo Print will be ready to deliver exactly what its clients are demanding. And with the infrastructure available, it could possibly benefit as a key player with the right expertise in an untapped market that is further backed by growing industrial activities in the three states it operates in," he stated.