“It is a remarkable achievement, thanks to our sales and service team, whom we fondly call ‘Covid Daredevils’, who have supported us to achieve these numbers. Even now, our service team is on the field, installing a machine, attending customer calls or helping a printer via remote support,” Samir Patkar, president at Heidelberg India, said.

The press installations include from Speedmaster XL 75 Anicolor at Art -O-Print, Ahmedabad; Speedmaster CX 102 7+LUV presses at Miraj Multicolour, Udaipur, Noble Printing Press, Mumbai and Global Printing and Packaging in Bangalore; a Speedmaster XL 75 Anicolor at Rohan Cards, Pune; apart from CX 75 at Print Point, Bangalore; multiple SX 74 2P and SX 102 2P installtions across many customers in India; and multiple Speedmaster CS 92 installations in northern and western region i n c luding Ru k s on Packaging, and some repeat orders from Rahul PrintOPack and Replika Press.

In the label segment, the company completed three Gallus ECS 340 and two Labelmaster flexo presses installations during the pandemic. The company also completed several Suprasetter CTP equipment with Pr inect Product ion Manager workflow installations with its clients, such as Galaxy Offset, Delhi; National Printers, Ranchi; Rajhams, Chennai; Subham Printers, Chennai; Assam Jaitya Bidyalaya, Guwahati; Ratna Paper, Chennai; MS Graphics, Tirupur; and many more. “Inline with the packaging and pharma market demand, many customers have invested in our MK Easymatrix die-cutting solutions, including Nice P r i n t s , R a m y a Reprographics, and Noble Printing,” Patkar said.

Patkar: 2022 will be better

Heidelberg also sold Polar cutters to companies like Webtech, Award Offset Orient Printpack, Print Point, Porsche and more. “There were big challenges due to the shortage of containers and vessels, and spiralling freight costs, but we overcame all these hurdles and were successful in keeping our commitments,” Patkar said. “Overall, we have worked hard to get these installations done on time to help the printing fraternity stay ahead with their client requirements.” Patkar said while it was a challenging year, the company had signed some of the deals in FY20, which were completed on time. “Apart from the completed deals, we saw a good market bounce-back for pharma inserts and outserts. We were fortunate to be part of the essential service chain for outserts as pharma packaging fared well. We anticipate FY22 to be much better than FY21,” he said.

He explained that Heidelberg has always taken a holistic approach to offer complete solutions to our customer which should help them increase productivity, higher OEE , reduced downtimes and leverage higher benefits of right workflow with our Print Product Manager as key deliverables. “Today, it’s no longer buying and selling of presses and equipment; we are a partner and a total solution provider to all the customer needs right from consultations to equipment to financial support to consumables requirements.This approach has always worked for us and we take forward the same approach and agenda in the future as well,” he said.

He added that there has been a rapid change in the print and packaging market since the pandemic hit. The print and packaging world is changing in complexity as the demand for safe and economical packaging is growing. “Also, the packaged foods segment is gaining a lot of consumer traction. The consumption has increased, and it is expected to ascend the utilisation of innovative and sustainable packaging across the food industry,” he explained.