Rahul Print O Pack, which installed a Heidelberg CS 92 4-color press last year in February, has detailed a record setting 64 million impressions in just 14 months. Rahul Print O Pack was founded in 1998 by Ajay Soni who worked as a freelancer providing printing and packaging services to various companies.
Its 24,000 square-foot plant in Okhla Industrial Area (Delhi) has now a packaging unit with a laminator and die-cutter, set up in 2005, and a binding unit in 2007 in addition to the press room which has the new Heidelberg CS 92 press. This is the third CS 92 press installed in India by Heidelberg. CS 92 is equipped with the latest technology from Heidelberg and based on the successful Speedmaster CD 102 platform. Rahul Print O Pack also set up a prepress unit in May 2019 in the same plant. The prepress unit is powered by a Heidelberg Suprasetter A106 CtP and an Epson proofer.
“Until 2018, we were outsourcing our print jobs. After a point of time, since we started doing a lot of volume, we considered having consolidated operations in-house. Despite outsourcing, we delivered better turnaround time compared to our competitors. For the last 19 to 20 years, we have been the preferred vendor for our clients,” says Ajay Soni of Rahul Print O Pack.
Installed in February 2018, production on the Heidelberg CS 92 started in May 2018. What is interesting about the 64 million impressions in last 14 months is that all these impressions were achieved on short-run jobs and without an in-house prepress. For Soni, any job with 1100 copies of a book is a short-run job. Although Rahul Print O Pack had the brand new Heidelberg Suprasetter A106 CtP standing at its premises since last year, the installation took place only this year due to some internal reasons. Interestingly, the production on the Suprasetter A106 was flagged off on the same day our correspondent visited the plant to interview Soni.
“We were able to achieve this fantastic feat on the CS 92 press because there was not even a single breakdown in last one year. This coupled with the highly automated features of the press like AutoPlate for fast, automatic plate changes at the touch of a button helped us in saving valuable makeready time,” explains Soni. “There was also excellent support from the sales and service teams of Heidelberg. The training session was equally good.”
Soni says that although the Heidelberg CS 92 is a fully automatic machine, he did not cut cost on the manpower front. “We treat our employees like our best customers.”
Rahul Print O Pack has seen a 10% jump in business after installing the new Heidelberg CS 92. The company is also keen to explore the possibilities digital can offer. “When we invest in digital, it will be inkjet technology for sure as it seems to be the future. Once the technology hits the ground, I believe inkjet will the technology people will look up to,” says Rahul Soni, son of Ajay Soni.
