In a bid to meet the demands of the fast growing flexible packaging market in Western India more speedily and to be physically closer to its customers in the region, the Noida-based flexographic platemaking trade shop, Creative Graphics has set up a plant in the Mumbai suburb of Vasai. Although this plant began operations in March 2015, Creative which was established in 2001 has been supplying flexo plates to customers across the country, including the western region from its Noida plant. The Noida plant is equipped with an Esko CDI with a HD solution, the DuPont Cyrel DigiFlow exposure unit, along with other
processing equipment. Creative’s customers are printers in the flexible packaging, label and corrugated segments.
“There is a growing demand in flexo printing in the western Indian market. Also we have been serving the western market from our Noida factory. So we wanted to be near to the market,” says Deepanshu Goel, owner of Creative Graphics. Goel opted for DigiFlow technology when it was very new in the market for his Noida plant, owing to his trust in DuPont and his understanding of how the technology improved the quality and runnability of digitally imaged flexo plates. The newly established Vasai plant too boasts of being driven by a DuPont processing line and its DigiFlow technology along with an Esko 42 x 60 HD digital imager and Esko’s prepress packaging and flexo platemaking software.
“DigiFlow in the Noida factory has given unprecedented results and so we replicated that infrastructure to give the best quality to our customers. Our experience with this technology has been extremely positive with customers’ plates running for almost 60% longer. There is better ink transfer and high productivity because of less stoppages on press while achieving higher ink densities with less consumption of ink,” Goel states while commenting about the system that is driving the new facility.
Mahesh Kode, business manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics, South Asia says about working with Creative on the new plant, “The combination of Goel’s drive, his diligent team, and the DigiFlow technology for creating flat-top dots in the simplest manner possible, has spurred Creative Graphic’s growth into the top-slot position. It had to further its reach in western India where flexo originally thrived and continues to grow; hence the strategic location for this new project.” Kode points out that with Creative going multi-locational, the turnaround time for customers in the western region will be reduced and they will have the comfort of knowing that their plate supplier is geographically close by.
“This project will boost access and service to customers in western India, which continues to be the hub for flexo expansions in both wide-web and narrow-web segments, with more CI flexo and label presses slated to be added this year,” Kode says. Goel also sounds optimistic about the growth of flexography in India, especially in the western part of the country.
“Within the last few years, flexo has seen a great acceptance in the market. I hope the market will continue to grow at the present rate of 20% although India is still far behind in comparison with developed markets. There is huge potential in the printing packaging segment in India and in the next five years, there should be good growth from flexible packaging,” Goel adds.
