Meerut’s SK Offset, an established book publisher and commercial printer, recently diversified into the carton industry with a brand new facility called Pixel Print&Pack in 2021, also based in Meerut. The company recently expanded its portfolio with an HP Indigo and a Heidelberg 10-color perfecter press to be installed in July.
The monocarton packaging manufacturing processes of SK Offset were shifted to Pixel Print & Pack in 2021 with a wide array of converting equipment including a Vesta folder-gluer, a Bobst die-cutter, a flute laminator from Tunkers, and a Yawa’s hot foiling machine. A Seigwerk ink kitchen is available at both facilities.
Packaging South Asia reported on SK Offset’s expansion to label printing when the company installed its first narrow-web flexo label press alongside a pre-owned Gallus EM 340 S and flexo printing machine for its short-run jobs. Apart from the flexo print units with UV curing, the press contains inline foiling, coating, laminating, cold foil, hot foil, die-cutting, and screen capabilities. Installed in the first half of June 2022, SK Offset has built a comprehensive plant and a modern pressroom for its label operations with sustainability in mind.
The company diversified its business because of the Covid-19 crisis.The director of the company Priyanshu Agarwal said “During the pandemic, many commercial printers and publishers shut their businesses because the schools were physically shut down. We diversified our business in packaging as a backup plan. The Covid restrictions are gone and the economy is opening up, and the industry is booming again. We are now flooded with book printing orders and doing both book printing and binding as well as packaging print and converting,” said Agarwal.
Looking to the export of packaging materials, SK Offset’s Pixel Print & Pack plans to exhibit its range of packaging at the Gulf-Food exhibition in Dubai, UAE in the coming years.
New presses for commercial printing
The publishing side of the company has a complete set of equipment that goes along with book printing, finishing, and binding. It has two Heidelberg 8-color perfecting presses and an HP Indigo 7-color digital press. There is a Kodak Trendsetter thermal CtP in its prepress department.
Agarwal said his company makes it a practice to keep investing in the latest technology and to keep updating the installed machines and software. “With the idea of having the best in mind, we are adding an HP Indigo in June and will soon install a Heidelberg 10-color perfecter press in July as our third press for book publishing and printing. I joined the company in 2012 when publishing was our core business. We explored other avenues for expanding our business, and eventually, we began working with the packaging verticals.”
The company manufactures all types of paper-related packaging, including labels, stickers, monocartons, litho laminated, and corrugated cartons. It supplies packaging and labels to distilleries in Chandigarh and to the pharma industry in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi-NCR as well as food and FMCG brands.
