Ashwani Thapar was employed in the printing industry from 1981 to 1998, learning the business over 17 years, before starting Pearl Printers. in 1998 he began in a 2,000-square-foot space in New Delhi’s Okhla Industrial Area with a Dominant single-color offset press.
Thapar faced the many initial hiccups of any new print business but he is now established with extensive infrastructure comprising several multicolor presses, postpress and converting machines. In the days when he began the business, offset printers had good margins that have gradually dwindled as competition increased. Nevertheless, he has retained his regular customers, “We focus on our printing quality, which helped us carve a niche and managed to add many regular customers,” he said, adding that nevertheless, customers are not willing to pay more for work printed on a brand-new press.
Pearl Printers primarily focuses on coffee table books, mostly for real estate developers as they get good margins. The commercial printer also prints catalogs, brochures, calendars, diaries, and almanacs for schools. It produces nearly 25 magazines, including Spiritz, a few Japanese magazines, and Ayurvedic and medicinal magazines. For coffee table books and school-related printing orders, it works with ad agencies.
The company prints diaries, yearbooks, report cards, and certificates for Delhi Public School, St George, KR Mangalam, the Heritage School, Raindrops School, JPS Academy, Nehru International Public School, and Satyakaam International School along with some orders for schools in Dehradun and Mussoorie. Orders come from nearby cities such as Karnal and Meerut and from as far away as Patna. There are some exports as well.
The printer’s penchant for cleanliness is noticeable in the neat office and production areas. Thapar says he makes it a point to promote his permanent employees rather than hiring from outside, a policy that has helped him retain his best employees for 27 years.
Multicolor press fleet
The new RMGT 920ST 5-color plus coater was installed a week back in the first half of March. It has another Ryobi 4-color offset press with a coater acquired in 2018, along with four Heidelberg rebuilt presses, a 5-color plus coater, a 5-color, a double color, and a single-color press. The plant generally replaces older machines every 4 to 5 years. “We work on our six machines 24 hours every day in shifts with a mix of commercial and packaging jobs, to survive in the competitive market,” he says.
“The RMGT machines are fast and sometimes we have had to add prepress and postpress equipment to match their speed. The machines are known for their high-quality production,” Thapar said. To keep up in its postpress and book binding sections, Pearl Printers recently installed a Chinese section-sewing machine and an HPM cutting machine.
Diversifying into packaging
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Thapar noticed the shift in commercial printing from offset to digital, and in 2021 decided to enter packaging. “We added autoplaten diecutters and folder gluers, and learned the nuances of packaging in the past three years.” The company’s current packaging production is evenly divided between its clients and what is outsourced to it by other agencies and converters.
A second company, Varun Printline launched in 2015, supplies pharma and cosmetic monocartons, and undertakes some commercial printing. The companies currently operate in two plants with a combined 50,000 square feet with a third plant nearby under development. There are 90 permanent employees while contract labor is engaged when required.
Payments in the packaging business can take four to five months, says Thapar, noting there is constant price competition, as well. He banks on the company’s quality output and reliability, saying, “With high-quality inks, chemicals, and offset plates, we never compromise on the quality of the printed products. However, when a commercial printer diversifies into packaging, there is an initial struggle since both segments have different processes and working styles.”
Next-gen joins the print business
Trained in the workplace after school since he was 15, Thapar’s 22-year-old son Varun joined the business two months ago. “I wanted to make Varun understand the family business at a young age and encouraged him to spend 6-8 hours every week after school to learn the basics of printing. Being a management graduate well-versed in print technicalities adds to his business acumen. He is good at adding new clients,” he says.
The junior Thapar works with a company named Smarth International – an exporter of cosmetics and personal care products such as toothpastes – and a major chunk of its packaging is done by Varun Printline. “I started learning about the printing business while in school. The best way to understand is by getting your own clients and I try to focus on their requirements from start to finish. Right now, I am trying to maximize my productivity and implement a few changes. In the next 2-3 years, I want to take the pressure off my father – first learning to manage the existing business and then focus on expansion,” Varun said.
On government’s interest and intervention in print
In an overall comment on the industry, the senior Thapar notes, “In many countries, there is an elected representative in the government to address issues faced by a particular industry segment. However, there is no such person in India’s large printing industry. While printing in most countries has moved to the green category, in India, it is still part of the orange category. Indian paper manufacturers need to improve the quality of their products so that we don’t have to rely on paper imported from China.”
