Rossini, one of the global leaders in rubber rollers, mandrels and sleeve technology for gravure and flexo for narrow and wide web is already an established entity in India. And it is amongst the few international companies which has taken the bold step of setting up a manufacturing plant in India.
Rossini India has been doing quite well says Marco Caccia, managing director of Rossini India. Rossini’s Indian factory was inaugurated in September 2014. This is the first Rossini plant in Asia and it was driven by customer demands from this region says Ashvin Hebbar of Rossini India. Good quality rubber rollers in India were quite expensive and there was acute requirement in the market. After the plant was set up, the operations started around April 2015.
Caccia says, “Our Indian plant was a greenfield project. It was very exciting for us as we had to design the entire project and the plant. We are quite happy with what we are doing here in India. Obviously we always want our business to grow and that too at a fast pace. But, to be frank, we are happy with where we are now since every month we are noticing an improvement in our turnover. Also because, the quality of our materials that we are churning out of the factory is second to none. This has been certified by one of our main production engineers based in Italy who had come for a quality inspection about two weeks ago. He has certified that the quality of our production is at par with our best.”
The Pune factory has equipments imported from Italy, similar to other Rossini plants in the world. The rubber compound, which is the most important factor in delivering high quality rollers also comes from Italy. The staff who are directly responsible for production at the plant have been provided with three months of training in Italy. “Customers can rest assured, we will not compromise on quality and we have gone to great lengths to ensure this,” Caccia says.
The packaging market in India, especially the flexible packaging market is doing well so far and there is a lot of demand in the market at the moment, Caccia feels. The market is shaping up well. However, Caccia has a word of advise for packaging printers and converters. He says, “Many may not feel the urge of using good quality rubber rollers. But let me say with conviction that this really affects the print output. It’s like buying a Mercedes car and then using cheap tyres. Our rubber roller usually lasts twice or even thrice the time period of any normal roller. So that is a lot of saving and you can always count on the quality.”
The current capacity of the plant is around 1,000 rollers or sleeves a month. But, it is still far from achieving full capacity. As there is a lot of free space in the plant area, Caccia tells us that in the not too distant future, Rossini India may even start manufacturing flexo sleeves. This is because the flexo segment is showing great strength in India. Also, by the end of January 2017, Rossini India will start manufacturing the mandrels which are as of now imported.
Packaging South Asia is a cooperating media partner for drupa 2016 which was held from 31 May to 10 June at Dusseldorf, Germany
