Moser Baer DVDs at the HP stand, India Label Show 08
Moser Baer, one of the giants in digital media manufacturing and packaging has two plants – one dedicated to CD manufacturing since 1996 in Sector 80 in Noida. And the second in Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida where all research, development and manufacturing of innovative formats takes place.
Ainan Shahidi told us that the two transparent plastic formats used by the company for packaging compact disks are the cake box and the jewel case. One disk is stored in either a thick or thin format jewel case. In the cylindrical cake box format the diameter of the base remains the same but the height is varied to contain 10, 20, 35 and 100 disks. Printed paper inlays are placed within the jewel cases that are sealed with VOPP film overwrapping. The same film is used in different sizes to bundle-wrap more than one jewel case as per customer requirements. Both types of cases are further packed in duplex board and corrugated cartons.
For cake boxes, band rolls are used on the outer side of the pack and a film is applied on top to protect it from scratches and to make the pack moisture proof. Or instead, a printed film shrink sleeved. The material of base film used in cake box packaging is made of oriented polystyrene (OPS).
Digital printing of CD labels
With a stride in digital printing and print on demand becoming a norm, Moser Baer came up with an economically viable and innovative solution for individual customers who need high quality labeling of their customized content CD disks. They manufacture CDs with printable surfaces that compatible inkjet printers label with text and images. The readable side of the CD is a polycarbonate. On the non-readable side a donut shaped pressure sensitive label can be applied. The self-adhesive labels on Moser Baer’s CDs are plastic with a 35 micron special chemical coating which is ink receptive and water resistant. The chemical coating material is sourced from Korea for the donut shaped labels converted by Moser Baer.
Since Moser Baer is known as a digital content distributor we asked about the cost effectiveness of movie CDs and DVDs in market, Shahidi said that the company buys licenses of original movie-prints in bulk, manufactures CDs and DVDs in the plant and then films are encoded in disk with a well researched process for IPR protection. Thus, the cost of entire production is low and this benefit is in-turn transferred to the customers and serves as a deterrent to piracy.
A major supplier to the international market
Competition with China both mainland and Taiwan
CDs of companies like Sony and HP are manufactured by Moser Baer under their brand name. Moser Baer manufactures and other companies market their brand. The company sells approximately 25 million disks in India under brand Moser Baer and export 200 to 250 million disks every month. They recently launched the Moser Baer India (MBI) brand in Brazil – the first international marketing tie-up with distributors in Brazil for promoting MBI. Further expansion in different parts of world will be in phases.
Ainan Shahidi describes Moser Baer as contract manufacturers of media products in international markets. The company has ten Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers and other non OEM customers. Major customers include Verbatim, Fuji, Kodak, Samsung, Sony, Hewlett Packard and Phillips. Shahidi says that Taiwan and China give stiff competition in international media markets primarily with their lower packaging costs. China is advanced with respect to design and graphics while companies such as CMC and Ritek of Taiwan offer tough competition internationally because of their proximity to USA. Also, he says that these countries respond to customer requirements very fast and are more technically advanced with respect to product, packaging and innovation. Their systems and processes are relatively more accurate and they have a qualified and mature workforce. Taiwan and China, Shahidi says, use better quality base material for manufacturing corrugated boxes. The good quality paper available in India is 28 to 32 bf but in other countries 30 to 35 bf is the norm which results in better surface finish. The colour shades also remain consistent in Chinese packaging.
International customers are trying to be innovative with respect to design and graphics. The latest innovation in digital packaging, Shahidi says, is the use of 400 micron pet and 800 micron VOPP sheets for carton. Previously only duplex board was used. The trend is also towards displaying the product better. For better display characteristics, Moser Baer suggests packaging with more printing area to its customers. Another technique is to use packaging with clip hangers in a series allowing a variety of packs to be displayed in less space.
