Image Gravures, the dozen-year-old entrant to the gravure cylinder engraving industry has just acquired the 25-year old engraving company Lippi Systems, and thereby practically doubled its capacity. Based in Ahmedabad, Image Gravures was promoted by Anant Patel and his son Prit Patel in 2010 while Lippi was started in 1996 in Ahmedabad by promoters Nandubhai Agarwal and Minesh Shah.
While the sale amount has not been disclosed, Image Gravures which is the first Indian engraving company to have installed a Hell Direct Laser Engraver in the country, and has six other Hell engravers, will now acquire all the assets and customers of Lippi Systems. The expanded Image Gravures entity will create a modern cylinder-making powerhouse for a country in which gravure flexible packaging continues to grow above its GDP growth.
With the purchase of Lippi Systems which is a public limited company listed on the stock exchange, Image Gravures’ installed infrastructure will now have twelve electro-mechanical engravers all from Hell Gravures, and two direct laser engravers – from Hell Gravures in Germany and from DV Optics in Italy, respectively. The considerable hardware includes K Walter plating tanks, two CFM polishing machines also from K Walter, two Polishmaster machines from Daetwyler in Switzerland, and another pair of Superperfast from Acigraph in Italy. The considerable hardware and software of the combined business will also include four J M Heaford proofing presses from the UK.
Managing director Anant Patel says, “Image Gravures has been producing more than 2,500 engraved and finished cylinders each month and after the take over of Lippi Systems, we have almost doubled our capacity. We were the first in India to have a direct engraving laser and are able to produce embossing rollers too – with both laser and chemical etching facilities. The whole team of Lippi including Minesh Shah has joined Image Gravures which means that customers will continue to get the same quality and responsive service support that they are used to.”
The enlarged Image Gravures entity will now have offices and marketing teams at Chennai, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and the plant located in Ahmedabad. The acquisition is another milestone of the rapid rise of Image Gravures as one of the leading cylinder engraving trade houses in the South Asia subcontinent.
