Magnus Graphics has been in the label printing and converting business since 2012. At present, it operates plants at three locations: Muzaffarnagar, Dehradun, and Baddi. The company recently added a digital label printing press, Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230, to run along with three conventional presses it already had: two Nilpeters and one Mark Andy.
Konica Minolta’s after-sales service being excellent for Magnus
“In the last few years, we have seen demand for short-run labels increase significantly; the sort of jobs where you have to print 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 labels. There is also a big demand for variable data printing. Keeping all this in mind, we decided to buy a digital label press. We decided on the Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230. This press checked in a lot of boxes for us,” said Gagan Goel, managing director of Magnus Graphics.
Goel added that Konica Minolta did a lot of hand-holding in the initial phase of the operations after the installation.
“Konica Minolta’s after-sales service has been excellent since we installed the press earlier this year. We faced some issues initially, which was natural with new technology, and the engineers helped us understand the operations of the digital press. Also, the company has helped us in getting in touch with potential customers. They have been a facilitator,” Goel said.
The AccurioLabel 230 is the third re-design of Konica Minolta’s popular label series of toner-based printers. The design offers speed improvement on tack papers and tack films with a maximum print speed of 76 feet/min, shorter warm-up times, and an optional over-print kit enabling additional capabilities of running pre-printed media. The AccurioLabel 230 also incorporates improvements to its Brotech winder and unwinder that include: air chuck control for trouble-free handling of roll material, pre and post area access lights for improved viewing of web paths, and updated tension control for automatic tension settings during label runs.
In addition to the AccurioLabel AL230, two Nilpeters, and one Mark Andy presses, Magnus Graphics has state of label inspection systems, slitters with inspection systems, embossing, die-cutting, and lamination machines, among other finishing equipment.
Mangum Graphics manufactures chrome paper labels, metalized paper labels, high gloss paper labels, polypropylene labels, metalized film, cut labels, and multiple layer labels. The company services customers in industries such as agrochemicals, FMCG, liquor, personal care, pharmaceuticals, logistics, automobiles, footwear, e-commerce, and aviation.
Start-up boom boosts short-run jobs
According to Goel, the main reason for the surge in demand for short-run label printing jobs is the boom being witnessed in India’s start-up sector. He says that small companies in the food and beverages and cosmetics industry make products for niche markets and require small quantities of high-quality labels.
“We have seen a lot of start-ups emerge in the cosmetics, personal care, and food and beverages industry in the last couple of years. Since a lot of them cater to a niche audience, their volumes are low. But at the same time, they want the quality of the label to be very high. These types of jobs are not feasible in terms of costs on conventional label printing technologies such as flexo and offset,” Goel said.
Goel expects this trend to continue but at the same time says that both digital and conventional technologies will continue to exist and complement each other.
“Because of the emergence of new market segments, digital technology in label printing will continue to expand. However, I believe both digital and conventional technologies will exist side by side, and a convertor will need to have both,” Goel concluded.
