Situated in the DSIIDC Industrial Area in north Delhi’s Bawana, Skylam Labels has installed a 6-color Nova A7 multi-substrate flexo press from Faridabad-based Alliance Printech to expand its capabilities. The company traded in advertisement material before 2014 and ventured into printing with a refurbished gravure press. It eventually added a 6-color Multitec flexo press and recently expanded its flexo production with the Nova A7 press.
The Nova A7 flexo press from Alliance has a customized width of 550 mm. It is a twin-servo, multi-substrate press featuring all LED stations and supporting in-line processes such as cold foiling and die-cutting. The company utilizes the technology to provide marketing material, flexible packaging, and label solutions to pan-India clients, with 5% deemed for exports.
According to Nitin Sharma, proprietor of Skylam Labels, they decided to buy an Indian press to avoid any downtime or service delay. “I visited several OEM production units and worked through several features, customizations, and case studies. The features of the Nova A7 press and the positive support from the manufacturer cemented this decision,” he said.
Sharma recalled that while trading advertisement material, one of the providers was looking to shut down and sell his rotogravure unit, which he bought. Something similar happened with the owner of the Multitec press, which enabled Sharma’s venture into flexo. Satisfied with the price and production convenience of the press, adding a new unit felt logical to him.
However, while work has increased with growing SKUs and customized demands, the profit margins have squeezed, he said. Moreover, there’s an increase in credit-based jobs compared to advanced payment jobs.
“The orders are growing. However, the price points are shaky. A silver lining is the mutual trust we have with our clients, which helps us keep pushing boundaries in quality and volume,” he adds.
Speaking about his plans, Sharma said he could go for another flexo expansion next year. “I have a lot of respect for Julka ji (Jatindar Julka, MD of Alliance Printech) as he understands the requirements of converters. The new machine we plan to get is a much wider 8-color flexo press.”
