Premier Printers (also known as Mahalaxmi Calendars) invests in a KBA Rapida 104 offset press

With the new installation, Premier plans to venture into the packaging segment. Speaking to PrintWeek India, Rohan Shirke, director, Premier Printers, said, "We opted for a KBA press since it suited our requirement of printing on substrates from 70gsm chromo papers to higher grammage duplex boards which we plan to focus in the packaging segment."
 

KBA Rapida 104, six-colour plus coater offset press was installed in November 2013 at Premier's 40,000 sq/ft Kolhapur facility. The company has a 10,000 sq/ft unit dedicated for binding works in Kolhapur with offices in Mumbai and Pune. 

 

"Since the installation, we haven't utilised the machine for production. We plan to start core production on the machine from November 2014 post the installation of Bobst folder-gluer 1992 Domino 72 machine which is expected to be installed at that time," added Shirke. A part of Premier's packaging installs include a die-cutter from Heidelberg.
 

Currently Premier uses KBA Rapida for trial runs and cover printing of their books as a part of the training process on the machine.
 

Apart from this, Premier has two Manugraph Starline web offset presses which prints Shri Mahalaxmi calendars, its oldest and largest selling publication and several translations of English books in regional languages.
 

On an average, Premier converts approximately 1,500 metric tonnes of paper in a year.