Ajanta Packaging, a leading packaging provider, has made a AED 5m ($1.4m ) investment into infrastructure and machinery as its operation in the UAE to help it win business beyond the Gulf.
Chandana Gunaratne, general manager of the Sharjah plant, told Packaging MEA that the firm has invested to offer “top-of-the-line quality” to its customers and seek markets in Africa and the West.
“We have just finished the installation of a 10-colour Nilpeter FB-3300S combination press that is highly customised with multiple units featuring hot foil, cold foil, screen printing, die-cutting and a gravure unit to be added shortly,” he said.
“The press has a web width of 330mm whilst its repeat width is 600mm.”
In its converting operations, the plant has reinforced its line-up of slitters and rewinders from ABG International and Prati with an additional Omega HSR 330 Horizontal slitter inspection rewinder from ABG International.
“We are also considering to go for a CTP and allied workflow for our offset-based prepress whilst we would continue to oursource our flexo plates from our regular service providers in Dubai,” he added.
“The main reason we invested in this equipment is to offer top-of-the-line quality and special applications to existing customers whilst we are also looking at growing into the international markets especially Africa and the Western markets as well.”
Ajanta also invested in two Nilpeter presses at the recent Labelexpo 2013 tradeshow, said managing director Chandan Khanna.
“It was time we added machines in our plants,” he said.
“We got one machine before the show and decided on the next two here. If the pricing, support and servicing is good then we will continue our partnership with the same partner. And Nilpeter has been fantastic. What we are to our customers, Nilpeter is to us.”
Ajanta has two Indian plants – in Daman and Baddi – one in Sharjah and one in Bangkok.
A Nilpeter press is already installed at each of the Daman, Baddi and Dubai plants and a fourth will soon be set up at its Baddi facility. The two presses bought at the show are for the Daman and Bangkok plants.
The new presses, from Nilpeter’s plant in Chennai, will be installed by mid-2014 as highly customised presses with at least 10 colours and features such as gravure, hot foil, cold foil and screen printing.
With these two presses, Ajanta will go from 9 to 11 units across its four plants.
Ajanta Packaging’s sales revenues are up 20% but costs are also rising, said Khanna.
“One has to be more efficient and buy more presses if the bottom line is shrinking,” he said.
“This press that I have bought has a short web path so we save on the wastage and contribute to the environment while helping the bottom line.”
Ajanta Packaging, which has its head office in Mumbai, started its Daman unit in 2000 with waterless offset and claims to still be the only printer in India to print labels using the technology.
In 2008, Ajanta opened its Sharjah factory, where it has targeted short-run label jobs with waterless offset printing on an Iwasaki press with a web width of 330mm and repeat length of 250mm.
“However, as we have been successful in this niche [rotary waterless offset], we have decided to move ahead with more investments into the narrow-web flexo and allied converting to address other specialised applications within labelling,” said Gunarantne.