Kumar Printers has come a long way since we wrote about them last in September 2004. The company had just installed a brand new Heidelberg 6-colour CD 102 at the time. As we wrote more than four years ago, Kumar Printers are the leading board-packaging printers of North India and one of several who have invested in brand new multicolour presses. Suppliers to transnational manufacturers such as Gillette, Moser Baer, and Ranbaxy, the company has a steady and low-key approach.
Sandeep Bhargava managing director of the family run business and son of founder MK Bhargava, says the company still prefers to produce quality products rather than high volumes. This is partly because they have again reached the limits of their production capacity and another 50,000 square feet will be added to their first floor by 2010.
This new floor will be for the lighter machinery and most of the manual operations will be shifted there. Kumar most recent addition to their infrastructure has been a Bobst Novacut die cutter installed in January 2009 and was also showcased at drupa08. Sandeep Bhargava told us the only difference between the new Bobst die cutter and their previous Bobst Speria is that the Novacut has been raised and is thus capable of also converting corrugated cartons.
Kumar’s infrastructure now includes five machines from Bobst – two folder gluers and three automatic die cutters. They also have one Sugano die cutter with a hot foil attachment. There are three coaters from Graphic technologies. The presses apart from the CD102 6-colour and Roland 200 5-colour, installed in 1995 include a Heidelberg SORZ 2-colour with a UV coater and three other smaller offset presses. Another second hand 2-colour Heidelberg offset press was installed in October 2008. Prepress includes structural design using Artios Cad from Esko-Graphics and other software from ArtPro. Output is to a Heidelberg Herkules imagesetter. The company exclusively uses TechNova’s Alympia long run plates.
Kumar Printers is currently implementing the 5-S initiative — a Japanese tool for organizing and managing workspace, production and efficiency by eliminating waste, improving flow and reducing process unevenness. The company has also upgraded their ISO 9001:2001 certification to ISO 9001:2008.
