With this acquisition, Shilp has become second roller manufacturing facility in India apart from having pre-press and sales offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

With the Etone India acquisition, it is a strategic move by Shilp. Ambar Patel, managing director, Shilp Gravures said, “Shilp had very little presence in Eastern India. This was due to the long distance to service from our roller manufacturing facility at Rakanpur near Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Now we have remedied the situation.”

He added, "Shilp and Etone had a very long standing relationship as it used to supply specialty rollers – and we have enjoyed a very healthy relationship."

He added, "There were many things common as far as dealing with its customers, commitment to quality and services and the vision to grow the business was concerned." Since Etone needed "strong and experienced hands to develop a challenging market, it was decided by their promoters to hand over the responsibility to Shilp."

Patel concluded, "Shilp with its long standing goodwill and commitment to gravure and flexo industry along with Etone’s dedicated team will put the Eastern gravure and flexo market on to fast track."

Ahmedabad-based Shilp Gravures, established in 1989 is India’s pioneering and undisputed leader in electro-mechanical engraving, with a substantial marketshare in the flexible packaging industry. In 2009, Shilp acquired a flexo trade shop to venture into the flexography segment.

While gravure as a segment is growing at 15% to 20%, the number of CI and label presses that have come in to India in the last four- five years has been at a healthy rate. "Flexography offers flexible packaging converters the freedom to work on multiple SKUs with shorter runs. Even the corrugation market is booming. Converters are investing in large-sized multi-colour post-print flexo presses," stated a Shilp official.