Winners of PrintWeek India Performance Awards 2011

PrintWeek India Printing Company of the Year 2011

Parksons Packaging

Congratulations to Parksons Packaging for winning India's top print prize following a truly remarkable year, which according to J K Doshi & Co, our official auditor, saw gross sales rise by 34.21%, the highest in the category. It was also the firm which invested the most in fixed assets.

Parksons Packaging was a commercial print shop, specialising in playing cards. In 1996, the company diversified into high-end packaging with a plant in Daman. "Being a new entrant in the packaging arena, we had set certain goals and targets for the pace at which we wanted to grow," declared Ramesh Kejriwal, chairman of Parksons Packaging. "Our strategy has been to continuously expand our geographical reach." The company did. The last six years has seen the organisation taking a quantum lead, setting up plants in Chakan near Pune and at Rudrapur in North India.

Winner
Parksons Packaging
Tel +91 22 66667200 / parksons@parksonspackaging.com

Commended
International Print-o-Pac
Repro India
Pragati Offset
Replika Press
Spenta Multimedia
Unik Printers
Gautam Paper Udyog

Pre-Press Company of the Year 2011

Janus Packaging

It's a real turnaround story for this Baddi-based packaging company, which was established in 2005. It converted itself from a loss-making to a profit making company, achieving a 172.41% increase in profit in the last 12 months.

The net worth of the company was also the highest in the category. The turnaround came after it became India’s first to obtain the UGRA Certificate Process Standard Offset (PSO) in 2010. UGRA is a global body for standardisation in pre-press and printing. Team Janus believes pre-press is the first step towards product quality. Driving the pre-press is EskoArtwork’s Suite, an integrated pre-production packaging software, which ensures enhanced colour management and output control. "The UGRA implementation has been a team effort. It has been hard work, which looks like it has paid off," said a company spokesperson.

Winner
Janus Packaging
Tel +91 1792 304320-328 / munish_aggarwal@januspackaging.com

Commended
Trigon Digital Solutions
Comart Lithographers
ABPS
Shree Maruthi Printers

Post-Press Company of the Year 2011

Replika Press

While top-notch quality was the hallmark of all the shortlisted companies, Replika Press' high-tech efforts in finishing to produce better printed products made it a leader of the pack. And if that was not enough, Replika was able to record the highest turnover and profit before tax in this category.

Replika Press book printing infrastructure is complete with pre-press, multi-colour press and a state-of-the-art post-press facility which has seen an investment of over Rs 15-crore. Replika was launched as a 100% export oriented unit a decade ago with an area of 33,000 sq/ft. Today it is an ISO 9001:2008 company operating from a 1,32,000 sq/ft sprawling print production facility in Kundli, Haryana. It prints and delivers close to 12.8 million books per annum to publishers in Europe, USA, New Zealand, Russia and Cameroon in Africa.

Winner
Replika Press
Tel +91 98102 54636 / sanandan@replikapress.com

Commended
International Print-o-Pac
Parksons Graphics
Spenta Multimedia
SAP Print Solutions

Small Printer of the Year 2011

PrintExpressions

Gurgaon-based PrintExpressions is one of the double first-timers at this year's Awards event, a first time entrant in the event and a winner too. Sukhvinder Singh, the owner of PrintExpressions, has been an integral part of the print industry for more than 15 years, offering offset, digital and laser printing services.

PrintExpressions has focused on investment in equipment because its management team knew it could add new services and clients like Audi, Hyundai, BILT, Pepsi and Nestle, among others. As a result, it recorded a robust gross sales increase of 402.23%. This being the highest in the category. So was its profit ratio, by about 432.64%. The company has shown overall growth to make 2010-11 the best year, both in terms of finance and accolades – the PrintWeek India Small Printer of the Year 2011.

Winner
PrintExpressions
Tel +91 124 4116969 / maeen@printexpressions.net

Commended
Vyoma Graphics
Jaipur Printers
Bhambari Printers
Anitha Art Printers
Tara Art Printers
Shree Maruthi Printers
Sujilee Colour Printers
CMYK Press
Expert Print
Printwell International
Swastika Printwell

Screen Printer of the Year 2011

Eswara Screens

The winner of this Award, Eswara Screens makes a strong case in the debate about replacement of screen printing using digital printing. Eswara sent in three miniature books of Mahatma Gandhi's biography.

The three were sized 5x5mm consisting 144 pages; 11x13mm with 124 pages; 10x12mm with 168 pages; and a 19-page palm leaf book in 24x8.5mm size, which amazed the judges. Eswara’s manual work on the books, remarked a judge, only confirms that screen process is the only one which can do jobs that are not achievable with any other type of printing techniques. The cutting, book wrapper and binding was done manually. The four books along with a magnifying glass were neatly showcased in an intricately carved box.

Winner
Eswara Screens
Tel +91 94441 54663 / eswarascreens@gmail.com

Commended
Classic Stripes
Print Emporio
Screen Art Enterprises
Krishna Creation
NBA Studios
Minda Stoneridge Instruments
Mirror Image
Ace Printers
J J Printech

Sponsored by
Grafica Flextronica

Student of the Year 2011

Sonal Vishwasrao

Among the applicants, Sonal Vishwasrao's consistent academic records and research presentations during the course of her studies at PVG's COET, was outstanding. She was among the ten students who were selected from the printing technology institutes across the country to attend a ten-day sponsored programme at Heidelberg's Print Media Academy in Germany.

For her consistent academic record, she was awarded a scholarship by Omnova Solutions, USA. Sonal Vishwasrao showed a special zeal for package designing, a subject in which she was a topper throughout the semesters. It was reflected by the project she took up on package designing. The achievements of Sonal Vishwasrao has made her a worthy winner of the PrintWeek India Student of the Year Award.


Winner
Sonal Vishwasrao
PVG's COET

Commended
Amol A Dhole, GIPT, Mumbai
Shrirang Patvardhan, GIPT, Mumbai
Prashant Sagvekar, GIPT, Mumbai

Special Award: Emerging Screen Printer of the Year 2011

Mirror Image

Mirror Image's Spot 3D poster, printed on an acrylic sheet caught the attention of Bhargav Mistry, the sponsor of this special award for emerging screen printer.

This is where a creative entrepreneur thinks differently. The two entrepreneurs in this case, the Desai brothers – Ashish and Anuj, who lead the creative team at Mirror Image created their own 3D lens for the desired image, employed Graphica’s screen printing machine for micro embossing, raised printing and two tone effect.

They say spot 3D experiment in screen printing was a tough task. It calls for precise work, both in terms of artwork creating and screen printing technique. "You need right substrate as well as world class screen printing machine to achieve lens effects," said one of the brothers.

Mirror Image is a part of Ahmedabad-based Image Care, the parent company which started its operation with routine screen printing jobs before going on to deliver innovative products.

Winner
Mirror Image
Tel +91 079 26308564 / ideas@imagecareonline.com