Print in Madurai, Trichy and Mannargudi increase in stature

For long, the Tamil Nadu print industry has been defined by Chennai, Sivakasi and Coimbatore. In the past two years, the sheetfed numbers have been picking up in Madurai, Karur, Trichy and Mannargudi.

29 May 2013 | By Samir Lukka

Mohamed Rafeek Raja of Olympic Prints is changing the game; and looking "to convert digital to offset by focussing on tag printing"

Trichy which has the fourth largest municipal corporation and the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the state has seen the installations of five four-colour presses. Meanwhile Mannargudi which is a town in the Tiruvarur district has seen the installation of two four-colour presses. Likewise Karur which boasts of print firms like Monika and Design Plus Plus.

Madurai, the third largest city and the second largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu has five four-colour second-hand presses. This includes, a Mitsubishi Diamond (20x30in) at Vinayaka and a Heidelberg SM 52 which has been procured by Olympic Prints who are setting up a new three-storey unit. Its owner Mohamed Rafeek Raja, a marine engineer, is changing the game; and looking "to convert digital to offset by focussing on tag printing."

Also there are two emerging players in the notebook segment: Vimala Paper Company and Pixel BookPrint who fulfil the book requirement in the state. Most of this is job work; but the demand is expected to grow. Today, Tamil Nadu has become the first state in the country to achieve the target fixed for the Sakshar Bharat programme by producing 17.26 lakh neo-literates. This translates into a literacy rate of 80.3 per cent. Sakshar Bharat is focussed on women's literacy which has got a major boost after the programme was launched in 2009.

N Ananth of Grafik Enterprises who confirmed the bullishness in the heartland of Tamil Nadu stated, "Today Tamil Nadu has two central universities 19 state universities and close to 30 deemed universities."

He added, "The influx of more than 15 presses has meant installations of nine new CTP systems. This include a mix of Alinte (violet), Amsky (CTCP), and Basyprint (CTCP), Viostar (violet) and Suprasetter (thermal).

Ananth said, "Most of the print firms prefer in-house but there are service bureaus like Suve Graphics in Trichy and Olympic Prints in Madurai who are flourishing." Ananth who is a reputed dealer for TechNova in the region added, "CTCP plate consumption is growing; even as violet and thermal are holding a steady position."

Mohamed Rafeek Raja oversees a busy service bureau in a bustling bylane of Madurai. The other important bureaus in Madurai are Dolphin and Beejay. The Olympic numbers look healthy. 250-300 plates per day. Most of them catering to the Madurai, Karur, Trichy, Nagercoil and Virudhunagar markets. One intriguing factoid is: "60% of the plates that he outputs are for three-colour jobs". Raja stated: most printers prefer not to print black. He said, "This is the norm in these parts as a cost-cutting exercise." The other trivia about Olympic's nifty operations is: the plate operation is handled by women.

Ananth concluded, "A majority of the commercial market is dominated by wedding cards and invitation cards. With the advent of Small Scale Industries (SSI) after 1991, the industrialisation has increased. This has boosted print consumption."

With print cluster programmes coming into being in Madurai, Salem and Krishnagiri in addition to the one at Sivakasi, the power of print could be further enhanced.