Sagar Digiprints bolsters production with Jetrix

The investment in Jetrix, which was supplied by Arrow Digital and a chemical UV coating machine, has enabled the wide-format print firm to make a foray into ceramic wall tiles printing and glass printing. Amit Gupta, director, Sagar Digiprints, said, “Ceramic is a new market and there are no players in the city catering to it so we decided to take the advantage of the situation and tap the opportunities.”

The Jetrix 2513, which replaced the Gerber Solora at Sagar, has wide range of options, which include flatbed as well as roll-to-roll printing, variable ink system with white, varnish and primer printing for glass and metal combined with higher speed. It is also capable of printing on substrate up to a thickness of four inch.

The in-house printing and fabrication facility at Sagar has made it stand unique among the 300-odd wide-format printers in Ahmedabad.

According to Gupta, the margin-oriented market of wide-format printing has denatured to volume-oriented market. “Eleven years ago we had to print 200 sq/ft to earn a decent margin. Today, we have to print 5,000 sq/ft of flex to earn the same kind of margin. Then the rate was Rs 100 per sq/ft flex which has reduced to mere Rs 9 per sq/ft,” said Gupta.  

“Earlier an advertising campaign continued for six to seven months and so good print life which could last for several months was the need. The campaigns today lasts for a month or two so low life and low cost print is preferred. Also this in a way has resulted in increased volumes,” Gupta added 

The company has planned to install an automatic coating machine to increase the output speed. “With the combination of Jetrix and automatic coating machine we expect 30% rise in our turnover from 5.5crore to seven crore,” claims Gupta.   

Established in 1986 as City Neon Signs by Sachendra Gupta (father of Amit), the company initially produced acrylic glow signboards, which were used as signage. Later in 1999, the company started flex printing service by the name Sagar Plastics. In 2009, it was renamed as Sagar Digiprints.

Besides Jetrix, the printing facility at Sagar, which prints three lac sq/ft flex per month, is equipped with a four-colour Vutek 3360, two Caldron printers with Seiko heads, a Mimaki S3 eco-solvent printer, and a Mimaki vinyl-cutting machine.

The company caters to clients from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. The clientele includes Havmore ice cream and telecom companies like Tata, Aircel, Videocon, BSNL, Reliance etc. Gupta claims to be the only vendor for Reliance Gujarat. The printing facility of Sagar is located at two sites in the city of Ahmedabad covering 35,000 sq/ft area and employing 45 people.