Continuing investment in equipment by Print Bound, Melbourne is being promoted as providing infrastructure for hire to printers who want to develop new types of business and escape from pricing wars.
The unique vision of Naresh Gulati to reduce price competition in the industry and promote collaboration among printers may be unusual, but the Indian entrepreneur shows no sign of giving up his campaign. Announcing the latest round of equipment investment in Print Bound he claims they illustrate how other printers should operate.
In the six months since he bought the busines he surveyed the amount of printing plates being used. Up to now the company has outsourced its platemaking but he calculated that there was now a critical mass to warrant taking the process in-house.
As a result he invested in a fully automated Heidelberg Prinect Pre-Press Manager workflow driving a Suprasetter 106 with multi-cassette loader. The high productivity CTP uses a Fujifilm ZAC low chemistry Processor imaging Brillia LH-PLE thermal plates for long run UV printing. This backs up the Heidelberg XL 106 six-colour press going in to the old GEON/new Print Bound premises now.
Gulati reckons the investment cost will be recouped within two years of operation. “This is what I mean, printers should only in-source what is sustainable, not invest in capacity before building up the work,” he said.
The offset printing investment is taking place hand-in-hand with a doubling of digital capacity at Print Bound with the installation of a second Fuji Xerox iGen 150 and a 1000. He has also put in a Vutek GS3250LX Pro, LED wide format engine. According to his own estimation he has the work to fill the new presses.
Gulati claims price warfare is ingrained in the printing industry and is driving printers to the wall with suicide pricing. To his way of thinking they would be better off using his equipment infrastructure as they build up business to sustainable levels.
“I am doing the investing so they don’t have to. They can use our services rather than incur finance costs. It’s time to move towards a more collaborative industry,” he said.
It remains to be seen if the fiercely competitive Melbourne printing industry is prepared to take such a leap, but you can’t blame him for trying to start the collaboration conversation. John Lennon would approve.