“We are in the process of installing a five-colour 37 inch HUV press at J B Khanna in Chennai right now. Thus, this quarter, we have four high-end UV configurations being shipped,” he added.

Offering a comprehensive picture of Komori shipments since 1 April, 2014, Aggarwal said the demand was from all parts of the country. “Total four presses went to Gujarat and two were shipped to East India. Total nine presses were purchased by customers from South India and five presses were shipped to North India,” he said.

Aggarwal was quick to add that all the shipments were brand-new machines. “We do not sell any refurbished presses,” he added.

The highlight has been the 10 Enthrone/ Lithrone size 29 presses, which are now successfully running in places like Ranchi, Meerut, Rajkot, Vishkapatnam, Surat, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Cochin and Hyderabad.

“More and more commercial printers are recognising the benefits of switching over to a brand-new fast makeready presses that can do a small print job in just about 10 minutes and save the printer a lot of money not only in makeready time, but also in material, labour, power, paper waste, chemicals, etc,” said Aggarwal. A brand-new press can replace two to three old presses, freeing up space, power, maintenance and labour.”

The size 37 press, Lithrone A37, also continues to be very popular. Since April, there have been seven installations of the 37-inch presses in India. “Again, the main reason for the success of 37 is its ability to save costs on plates, power, chemicals, space, etc, compared to a 40-inch press. It is ideally suited for the competitive publishing segment,” Aggarwal said.

In the first half of the financial year, the company also shipped three high-end presses. A six-colour plus coater 105 size press was delivered to York Prints, Gawhati, and a six-colour plus coater 32-inch press was delivered to Pratiroop in Pune. Both the customers are in packaging business. A high-end configuration of six-colour 29-inch UV press was delivered to KL Hitech for printing credit card applications.

“Komori’s success story continues this financial year, following a very successful 2013-2014, which saw several Enthrones and Lithrone A37 find place in the Indian market,” said Aggarwal. “The company also supplied two 7-colour plus coater presses to Pragati Offset and UV presses to Le Griffe and Colorplast last year.”