FIG recently installed a Mark Andy Performance Series 5 full servo 7-color 10 inch-wide short web flexo label press along with a Rotoflex 330 online inspection machine at Encana International, in Mohali. Encana was a watch parts manufacturer purchased by Sukhmilap and Mohit Malhotra to set up a high-quality label printing company. “We bought an existing firm to reduce the time of project execution,” says Sukhmilap, managing partner of Encana. “We still produce watch spare parts, although at a small scale, but our main focus is label printing.”
Encana, which made a heavy-duty investment to set up a new plant, also bought a Chinese flat bed servo-driven die punching machine along with associated equipment for the high speed, high quality label printing set-up. The Mark Andy label press has UV and hot air drying on all the stations and is equipped with online cold foiling. “Our aim is to produce high-quality labels for our customers and we provide hot foiling, cold foiling, metallic labels, gold foils, embossing features and special diecut labels up to 14 colors by two pass printing of labels,” says Sukhmilap.
Apart from metallic finishes, Encana provides double varnishes, batch coding and numbering, and back side printing with variable data printing. “One shift of our operation is dedicated to the basic high-speed paperlabels needed forthe pharma industry – our biggest customers. The other shift produces high value-added special purpose labels on a variety of substrates including those that need 2-pass printing for more than the 7 colors that can be printed by the P5 in a single pass,” says Sukhmilap.
Mohit Malhotra and Sukhmilap are childhood friends. While Sukhmilap was a prosthodontist before starting Encana, Malhotra used to be a papertrader – a trade which he still follows. “Being two professionals from two entirely different backgrounds,we gottogetherto leverage our key strengths,” saysSukhmilap. “I bring to the organization a process management background from the medical profession that is needed in any high quality mass production conforming to international standards,” Malhotra’s 60 offset printer consumable product clients provide flexo label business for Encana.
Encana produces paper labels for syrup bottles, ampules, dry injections, multi-vitamins including labels with security features. This is the high volume part of the business where Encana is able to print from 50 lakh to 1 crore labels a day. Apart from this, Encana meets the demands of the personal hygiene and cosmetic companies, and high-end liquor bottles that include embossing and a variety of metallic printing features. “We are looking forward to leveraging the capabilities of the P5 and the other top of the line equipment we have for
providing value added solutions,” concludes Sukhmilap.
