At the Packvision Expo in Pune in June, Creative Graphics, a specialist in flexo plate processing technology, made a significant impression with its innovative offerings. The company prominently featured its advanced mounted plates for corrugation, underscoring the company’s commitment to enhancing quality and efficiency in the category.
Mahesh Kode, vice-president of sales and operations at Creative Graphics, emphasized the benefits of their approach. “Instead of using a full plate, the customer has the option of getting smaller pieces of design fixed on a Mylar sheet, thereby saving on the plate cost.”
The plates showcased at the expo catered to various segments in flexographic printing such as flexible packaging, labels, and corrugated. One highlight was the quality of the boxes printed on Creative Graphics’ flexo plates, which seemed to have matched the quality traditionally achieved by offset printing.
Pointing to one of the showcased boxes, Kode said, “This box testifies to the quality flexo can produce. People need to understand that if you have the right ingredients, you can achieve quality printing in corrugated in India itself.”
According to Kode, the Creative Graphics team interacted with quality visitors relevant to their field. Acknowledging the footfall, he underscored the growing recognition and interest in the company’s flexo printing solutions.
Flexo printing in India
According to Kode, the flexo printing segment in India has experienced significant growth over the years. He highlighted the expansion within the flexible packaging segment, noting, “In the flexible packaging segment, it has grown to an extent where most of the companies have added a CI flexo line in their printing segment.” Additionally, he acknowledged the increasing popularity of UV flexo in the pressure-sensitive label segment, further illustrating the broadening applications of flexographic printing.
However, Kode emphasized that the corrugation industry has also seen unprecedented growth, outpacing both the flexible packaging and label segments. He attributed this growth to the widespread adoption of both Chinese and Indian machines for corrugated boards, which now require high-quality flexo printing. “The corrugation industry is out-performing the flexible packaging and labels segment in terms of growth,” Kode said.
Future Innovations
Looking ahead, Creative Graphics is poised to introduce a significant innovation in the form of sleeves that will be placed between the flexo plates, facilitating seamless printing similar to gravure printing. Kode explained, “Generally, there is a gap between the two ends of flexo plates when mounted from a cylinder, which impacts the printed image. With the addition of sleeves, now through flexo, the customer can have seamless printing, which was a major bottleneck in flexo technology.” This development promises to eliminate one of the major limitations of flexo printing, allowing it to compete more directly with gravure printing. Kode seemed confident to compete directly with gravure with this bottleneck getting resolved in a couple of months.
IPO Launch
On 22 March 2024, Creative Graphics Solutions announced its initial public offering (IPO). As reported earlier by Packaging South Asia, the retail portion of the Creative Graphics Solutions IPO opened for subscription from 28 March to 4 April 2024.
Talking to our reporter Priyanka Tanwar, Pulkit Agrawal, chief financial officer, Creative Graphics said, “The IPO was basically for two reasons – firstly, to get more visibility and secondly, to give us capital infusion to continue to invest in new technology and upgrade our operations.”
Agrawal believes that adding the IPO has brought the printing and packaging industry into the public eye, as a lot of people not directly associated with the industry now know about the value addition that the industry brings. He said foreign and reputed Indian players’ investments would be used to fuel future growth and as it is a technology-oriented industry, it is very important to continue investing in and exploring new technologies to stay ahead.
