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Meerut’s SK Offset, an established book publisher and commercial printer, recently expanded its portfolio with an HP Indigo and a Heidelberg 10-color perfecter press to be installed in July. Alongside commercial printing, the 1975-established company makes labels and recently diversified into the carton industry with a brand new facility called Pixel Print&Pack in 2021, also based in Meerut.
The company’s publishing division has an extensive set of equipment for book finishing and binding. The company has two Heidelberg perfecting presses with 8 colors and an HP Indigo digital press with 7 colors. It has a Kodak Trendsetter CtP thermal in its prepress section.
Priyanshu agarwal, director of Priyanshu Agarwal Ltd. said that the company invests in the latest technologies and updates the software and machines installed. “With the idea of having the best in mind, we are adding an HP Indigo in June and will soon install a Heidelberg 10-color perfecter press in July as our third press for book publishing and printing. In 2012, publishing was the core business of the company. We explored other avenues for expanding our business, and eventually, we began working with the packaging verticals.”
The company produces all kinds of packaging including labels, stickers and monocartons. It also manufactures litho-laminated, corrugated, and litho-laminated cartons. Packaging and labels are supplied to Chandigarh distilleries, the pharma sector in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as well as FMCG and food brands.
Packaging South Asia reported on SK Offset’s expansion to label printing when the company installed its first narrow-web flexo label press alongside a pre-owned Gallus EM 340 S and flexo printing machine for its short-run jobs. In addition to the UV-cured flexo printing units, the press has the ability to foil, laminate, coat, apply cold foil and hot foil inline, as well as perform die-cutting and screen. SK Offset installed a modern and comprehensive pressroom in the first quarter of 2022 for its label operations, with sustainability in mind.
Pixel Print & Pack
The monocarton packaging manufacturing processes of SK Offset were shifted to Pixel Print & Pack in 2021 with a wide array of converting equipment including a Vesta folder-gluer, a Bobst die-cutter, a flute laminator from Tunkers, and a Yawa’s hot foiling machine. In both facilities, a Seigwerk ink-kitchen is available.
The Covid-19 crisis forced the company to diversify its business. “During the pandemic, many commercial printers and publishers shut their businesses because the schools were physically shut down. As a back-up plan, we diversified our business into packaging. The Covid limitations are gone, and now the economy is booming. We are now flooded with book printing orders and doing both book printing and binding as well as packaging print and converting,” said Agarwal.
Looking to the export of packaging materials, SK Offset’s Pixel Print & Pack plans to exhibit its range of packaging at the Gulf-Food exhibition in Dubai, UAE in the coming years.