White Print O Pack, a Baddi-based packaging solutions provider for the pharmaceutical industry, recently installed a new Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 104 6-color with coater that can handle all materials ranging from lightweight paper to carton stock for packaging. The converter, which also has a new plant in Sikkim and an office in Gurugram, supplies packaging material to the pharma industry in North India, which currently forms 99% of its business.
Managed by Vidya Sagar Dewan, Amit Gera, Gaurav Dewan, and Rahul Dewan, White Print O Pack is located in the industrial site of Katha in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. The company is a veteran user of Koenig & Bauer presses and wanted to test and evaluate how the new Heidelberg fares in comparison with its existing machinery. Heidelberg’s reputation for service and spares in addition to a package deal was the reason it installed its first machine from the leading German manufacturer. Moreover, as the CX multicolor is the latest model in the series, the pharma provider opted for it.
The pharma converter said it was a package deal in terms of monetary, technology, availability, and delivery. “We went to Germany to see what Heidelberg offers and what a spectacle it was. We also visited other machine manufacturers but weren’t convinced by their offerings, which could be due to their weaker penetration in the Indian market. The most relevant part where trust matters is post-installation, where Heidelberg provides the best,” said Gaurav Dewan, CEO of the company.
According to White Print O Pack, it’s no longer that easy to find experienced operators for high-technology multicolor presses. Vidya Sagar Dewan, the managing director of the company, told Packaging South Asia that technology wasn’t the sole factor in this context. “We wanted to buy the right machine for our packaging processes, but we also wanted a company that can maintain its claims after sales, provisions such as spare parts, performance, change over time, and service support. In our experience over the past months since installation, Heidelberg has kept to its promises of services well. However, getting good operators is another part of the problem, which we are looking to resolve soon.”
“Every packaging material provider wants to stay updated when it comes to technology,” said Rahul Dewan, CFO of the company. “We considered other big names that can suit our printing and packaging requirements and we were in negotiations with everyone. But the technology we were offered by Heidelberg set a class of its own. Having installed it recently, we are yet to determine the return on investment of this machine. But overall we are very satisfied.”
Asked why Heidelberg and not another Koenig & Bauer press, Amit Gera, a partner of White Print O Pack said, “We wanted to be a fair judge of the technology. How can we assume which would be the best technology for our needs without trying and testing it firsthand. Apart from that, this judgment will give us a better understanding of what press will best suit our needs if we plan to expand in the coming future. Whichever company provides us full support will also be our next provider.”
