In February 2015, Mumbai’s Coats and Pack installed a second narrow web flexo press, a 10-color full servo Combat M3 from Gidue. Together with a Combat M1 8- color press at the company’s 10,000 square foot plant in Andheri, the new press is meant to fulfill Coats and Pack’s growth in paper and film self-adhesive labels. “We were familiar with Gidue and had good experience with the M1. For us it makes sense to have two machines of the same specification and brand – so we opted for the M3,” says Ashish Chitale, a partner in the firm, adding that the unique snowball high-speed matrix stripping system is a key feature where the rewinder moves horizontally while the waste matrix gets bigger on the shaft. Like a snowball the waste rolls grows, without changing the distance from the stripping point.
Gidue’s sales and service representative in India, Reifenhauser, installed both the M1 and M3 at Coats and Pack. The company also has two Zonten flexo presses, six slitterrewinders and one web inspection system. Its clients including HUL, Dabur and Pidilite are mainly from the food, beverage, lubricant and chemical industries.
A 10-color machine
Chitale says that since the installation of the first Gidue label press more than two years ago, the profile and the quality of the jobs have gradually become more complex and demanding, which made a 10-color machine a necessity. “By installing a 10-color machine we are now capable of doing far more complex jobs than what could be done a few years ago. The credit for this improvement in our efficiency goes to our customers who have pushed us to get better in order to efficiently produce these demanding jobs,” says Chitale.
With the new press, the company’s label converting capacity now stands at 750,000 square metres a month while it is currently producing 400,000 to 500,000 square metres a month. With a turnover of approximately `24 crore in 2014- 2015,Coats and Pack expects to maintain its growth rate of 20 to 25% in the coming years.
Shrink sleeves
Chitale says that the company has thought about entering the shrink sleeve segment and a final plan should emerge in the next three to four months.
However, plans are already a foot to add four inspection machines in the same space at Andheri. “We had planned to expand to a place outside the city but we decided not to move
ahead with the plan because of the problem of shortage and unreliability of power. So at present there are no plans to have another plant outside Mumbai atleast for another two years,” Chitale says.
