“We were looking for a press that would give us a competitive edge in Punjab market. This is Heidelberg’s first SX 74 series press in the whole of North India, and it’s a brand that is recognised by the brands here,” said Hitesh Mittal, the director at Florid, who along with brother Girish, spearhead the firm.

The Mittal brothers operate the in Punjab and Chandigarh, specialising in trade and reference books, magazines and periodicals, commercial and publicity material, labels, folding-carton packaging for food, healthcare, detergents and household cleaning, beverages and liquids, FMCG, wedding cards, and trousseau packing among others.

Prior to the Heidelberg investment, the company owned a single-colour press, outsourcing all four-colour and post-press works. Mittal says, we saw a strong demand, particularly in the packaging area from the local hospital and food segments, even as the education sector in the commercial continued to sustain demand. “We decided to leverage the market potential by investing in the new Heidelberg machines for our foray into the packaging.”

The company has invested in local made punching machines for its post-printing needs in packaging.

The hybrid Speedmaster XL class is based on the tried-and-tested platform of the SM series, capable of running at a speed of up to 15,000sph. "The SX-74 is a dream,” said Mittal. “The price/performance ratio is impressive. Currently, we are starting out with single-shift operations. We find the press extremely cost-efficient for short-run jobs and frequent job changes, even for a one-shift model like ours.”

Sunil Kumar, Heidelberg’s senior territory sales manager, who finalised the Florid deal, said, “We are happy to be associated with Florid Print with our first SX 74 installation in Northern India, the press SX 74 is highly automated press designed for economic production of varied run lengths with substrates ranging from 0.03 mm – 0.60 mm. SX 74 is an impressive and much-apt configuration for Florid.”

The Polar 115PF cutter, Mittal said, suits its offset format of 63x88cm, and has features like OptiKnife knife changing system, and a mechanical positioning accuracy of 1/1000mm.

Installed in June 2017, Florid has seen a quantum leap in its productivity, and is hoping to grow its business four times from its current Rs 4-crore turnover. The firm prints 10-15 jobs per day with runs ranging from 500 to 15,000 impressions. “What we used to outsource is now printed in-house, so it’s only natural for our bottomline to get a boost,” said Mittal.

Mittal is looking forward to up Florid’s packaging game with more investments. “We are looking to equip our plant with another Heidelberg, which will be a CD 102, a Suprasetter CTP, a better die-punching machine as well as adding a folder-gluers, said Mittal before concluding, “Our next focus will be tapping the pharma market."