Perfect Signs & Sales
(Dehradun)
A leader leading forward

Jagmeet Singh and Naveen Kumar

A flashback to the days when there were hardly any signage players owning automated machineries would surely reckon the name Perfect Signs & Sales as one of those pioneer PSPs in Dehradun incepted with the adoption of a Graphtec cutting plotter in 1999. “Our presence in Uttarakhand’s signage market unfolded in a typical way,” said Jagmeet Singh of Perfect Signs & Sales. Riding high on the growing demands for newer items in the industry, the company has broadened its activities by opening a large-format printing unit in 2004 installing an eight feet DGI 983DS printer.

And there is nothing stagnant in the infrastructure updates of Perfect Signs & Sales. In the year 2008, a Roland cut & print machine from APSOM INFOTEX along with another brand new DGI printer, HP Designjet 8000s and Gongzheng solvent with XAAR printheads intensified the company’s portfolio to a new high. “We are still looking forward to add on some new printers to uphold the increasing demand and volume of jobs in the region’s signage market,” asserted Jagmeet. However, he opined that the current market of Uttarakhand is still in a nascent stage where everything is restricted to local ways as corporate clients or MNCs do hardly make their ways into it.

Clientele of Perfect Signs & Sales are predominately public organisations or departments, for them the company has been catering service and signage items through tenders. “Health Department, Department of Post and some corporate companies like Hewlett Packard (HP) have been our regular clients,” said Jagmeet adding that they worked for HP in 21 outlets in Dehradun, 10 in Haldwani, 15 in Udham Singh Nagar and 10 in Garhwal to provide in-shop displays, canopies and standies. Big malls in Dehradun have been picking up inch by inch and still a long way to go. “We are in talk with Big Bazaar and Parle Agro to gush our footprints ahead in the retail/mall sector,” affirmed Jagmeet.

Bagging a turnover of Rs one-crore, Perfect Signs & Sales is aggressively looking forward to increase the figure at the rate of 30-40 percent in the next few years. Commenting on the company’s next plans, Jagmeet admitted that they are planning to cross the border of Uttarakhand to capture other markets of north India. The company’s dedicated team of three designers, six fabricators and installers, four machine operators maintains the perfection in the company’s service and outputs. And it has also been planned that they would upgrade the line of machines equipped in their production facility of around 5,000 sq ft with the adoption of CNC routers and laser engraving machines, probably by next year.



Flex Print
(Dehradun)
A perfectionist in quality

Balraj Suri and Deepak

Standing out for a reason among all PSPs operating around Dehradun, Flex Print boasts of its burly infrastructure in which a Mutoh 750 printer is included as first-of-its-kind machine in the whole region. “Supplied by Negi Sign Systems & Supplies, the Mutoh printer in our facility is the reason how we maintain the finest prints demanded by our clients from different industrial clusters,” said Balraj Suri of Flex Print. Of course, having been around in the region’s signage market just over four years, Flex Print has set itself recognised for their unrivalled prints and service.

Establishment of Flex Print was marked with the installation of a 10 feet WitColor printer. “Ever since our inception, we have been trying to make something that can make the differences whether in production or service in the large-format printing market of Dehradun,” remarked Balraj. Job profile of Flex Print is defined to be a PSP delivering huge range of materials including glow signs, sun boards, banners, dealer boards, business promotion materials and others. Balraj proudly remarked that the commitment of Flex Print in quality makes them clicked in the market to fulfill their customers’ requirements.

Flex Print has been associating with a number of clients including Barbie, Kellogg’s, Usha and others based in different cities/towns of the country. “It’s not that we are here for the clients located in Dehradun only. We have been working for corporate companies based in big cities like Delhi and other satellite towns of Dehradun,” affirmed Balraj adding that jobs they are catering to their local clients are quite minimal. United India Insurance, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and State Bank of India (SBI) are some of the leading clients of the company in the banking sector. “For deliveries to places outside Uttarakhand while carrying out big/pan-India projects, we have tied up with some companies in the regions where we land upon for the jobs,” mentioned Balraj.

The next big thing to be turned up at Flex Print will be an updated machine portfolio. “We are planning to adopt another Mutoh printer of 10 feet or a machine having Spectra printheads in near future,” remarked Balraj adding that they firmly aim to satisfy customers with a provision to provide a corner where everyone can drop in to get an array of quality prints and satisfactory services. Certainly, Flex Print is best known for being one of the notable PSPs delivering a complete bouquet of solutions to its customers.



TK Enterprises
(Dehradun)
A corner full of varieties and qualities

Tarun Karanwal

Having been around Dehradun as an exclusive distributor of FUJIFILM papers and chemicals to colour photo labs, TK Enterprises had eventually spread its wings to reach the surging segment like digital large-format printing. In the year 2004, this distributor switched to the dealership of flex printing consumables. “Well, I was quite impressed with the assertive growth happening in the digital large-format printing segment in the region,” said Tarun Karanwal of TK Enterprises. He added that this segment in Uttarakhand is still bulged with unexplored opportunities that can be tapped fruitfully in near future. The range of consumables that TK Enterprises is now catering to its clients across the state includes flex printing medias, inks for digital large-format printers along with its traditional photo papers and chemicals.

“If not mistaken, we are the first distributor of flex printing materials in the region,” mentioned Tarun. Customers from far and near corners of Uttarakhand, such as Haridwar, Rishikesh, Roorkee and Musoorie, do rush to TK Enterprises where a good range of medias are available. “We started stocking quality materials since 2006 as demands for high-end materials from the signage companies working for corporate clients in Uttarakhand gradually increasing over the last few years,” said Tarun. Starting from 220 gsm upto 280 gsm, TK Enterprises has heap of media rolls to meet all market demands.

Commenting on their future plans to upgrade the existing product line, Tarun mentioned that over the last one and a half years many PSPs in the region began to enquire about 260-300 gsm materials. However, he agreed to the point that the current market scenario is more about opting low-cost Chinese medias, which currently occupy almost 90 percent of their stock. Neo Flex, Go Sign and Hi Sign are some of the leading brands designed for stunning frontlit, backlit and one-way vision displays the company has been dealing. Also in the product shelves of TK Enterprises include sun boards and inks as the company is an authorised distributor of Negi inks in the region.

“Neo Flex is the one and only one brand we have been dealing with since we logged into flex materials,” remarked Tarun. He added that the volume of Neo Flex they keep in stock has been multiplied by more than 50 percent. Demands for such quality media in the region have gradually increased over the last few years, particularly for tender jobs and corporate works. “We are now delivering around 400-500 rolls per month for both high-end and affordable materials,” said Tarun adding that the company’s current turnover of Rs one crore would be shot up to a new figure as TK Enterprises is adding new materials, such as reflective flex and wall papers in its product line. He firmly admitted that the future vision of the company is to become a sole distributor of a particular brand and not merely a supplier of any material.



The Hindustan Offset Printers
(Haridwar)
A complete print house

Gulshan Bhatia and Neeraj Matta

Widely known across Uttarakhand for being a printing press where any sort of jobs including both offset and digital large-format prints could be churned under its roof, The Hindustan Offset Printers came into existence in the year 1997 under the partnership of Gulshan Bhatia, Neeraj Matta, Anil and Pradeep. Stronghold in the company’s overall activities is predominantly of offset printing, but its digital large-format printing jobs get recognised for unmatched quality and works in the region. Capable to serve clients with best of quality prints, facility for large-format printing jobs at The Hindustan Offset Printers is equipped with a couple of VersaCAMM 540i print and cut printers from APSOM INFOTEX along with a 10 feet Flora solvent printer.

Gaitri Offset Printers is a separate production unit of The Hindustan Offset Printers, which is amalgamated for extra workloads in their state-of-the-art main facility equipped with an array of three KOMORI offset presses of single, double and four colours; Xerox DocuColor 250 and Xerox DocuColor 3535 digital presses and ADAST Dominant single colour press. “We have been associated with a number of MNCs for offset jobs,” said Gulshan Bhatia of The Hindustan Offset Printers. He added that the large-format printing division of the company is designed to print sign and display items as well as other jobs related to labels, cartons, stickers, etc..

Referring the company’s exclusive jobs of large-format printing, Gulshan mentioned that they don’t work outdoors indulging into installations and fabrications of signages at pan India or large-scales. “Our main focus in this large-format printing unit is just prints, which we always produce with outstanding quality,” said Gulshan adding, “Most of our clients are those ad agencies or who just turn up at our doorsteps for their jobs and walk away with the finished works at the end of the day.” Clients rushing to The Hindustan Offset Printers are from many parts of Uttarakhand and some neighbouring towns of Bijnor, Saharanpur etc from western Uttar Pradesh.

Currently bagging a turnover of Rs 1.3 crore, The Hindustan Offset Printers keeps a list of strategic future plans in pipeline. In addition to the company’s existing facility of 25,000 sq ft, they are looking forwards to magnify the infrastructure with the introduction of a new production facility for label printing, which would focus on roping in the surging segments of pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors. So is the same plan cooking up for large-format printing facility as they would be sky rocketed soon with broader prospects in catering high-quality print outputs.



Banner Wala
(Dehradun)
An old bastion standing new

RK Arora

Tracing back to the days when RK Arora learned the art of sign making for the first time would bring back a flashback of what his father did in the signage market of Dehradun around 25 years ago. “My father was a great sign writer/artist who single-handedly managed sign and display items when there were no machineries available for printing or cutting in the market,” recollected RK Arora of Banner Wala. “I was a student pursuing BCom when I joined my father’s business,” he added mentioning that they still uphold the lineage of his father’s signage firm named Arora Arts in the market, but in different tune, because the onset of digital large-format printing or computerised printing has almost obscured the tradition of manually crafted signs and display jobs.

Establishment of Banner Wala in the city around ten years ago brought in a new swing in the signage market of Dehradun. RK Arora believed in the new era of signage where things got revolved only around large-format digital printing. “I did extensive R&D, in which frequent visits to trade fairs at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi helped me find my choice of printers,” said RK Arora adding that he switched to WitColor printer from Siare Technologies, Bengaluru. In rhythm to the new demands for newer applications popping up in the market, Banner Wala keeps updating its infrastructure as the latest installation being a brand new Caldron 3000 Series built with Seiko printheads and a Graphtec cutting plotter from Keith Electronics.

RK Arora asserted that Banner Wala always aims at providing complete solutions to their clients of mixed statures. “Apart from flex prints, we also deal with high-end LED signs or glow signs, which we procure from Delhi,” mentioned RK Arora. And a team of professionals is always at call for any sort of assembling, fabrication and installation at any given time and space. Another expertise for which Banner Wala is known widely in the region includes the company’s stage craft job. “We provide complete stage backdrops for music and fashion shows in the city,” said RK Arora adding that the company’s such groundbreaking jobs have included stage crafts for some historic concerts of the late gazal maestro Jagjit Singh held in the city.

Regions where Banner Wala has been hovering around to cater its service and products include all leading towns of Uttarakhand, namely, Mussoorie, Haridwar, Rishikesh and others. “As we manage our out-of-town jobs by associating with some professionals based in different corners of the state, we could reach to those clients dwelling in the remotest areas,” asserted RK Arora. Now, this Rs 30 lakh firm is looking ahead to double its turnover in the next few years as the company is accelerating towards infrastructure expansion. RK Arora affirms that Banner Wala will soon be a one-stop destination for all instant quality print jobs.



New Arora Arts
(Dehradun)
A lineage in continuation

Prakash Arora

Prakash Arora defines his New Arora Arts as an amalgamation of traditional and modern ways of sign making. He follows manually developed designs and colour schemes mixed with digitally printed graphics and plotter cut materials to produce stunning signage, display items and others that always standout unique among many. New Arora Arts and Banner Wala are two lineages bifurcated from an age-old tradition of sign making business left by their father around two decades back. “My brother RK Arora now runs Banner Wala and I carry on my own unit under the name New Arora Arts, which are thus twin brainchilds of Arora Arts that my father initiated,” said Prakash.

“There was a time when we used to take 3-4 days to deliver a signage as designing wooden frame, coating paints that dried up in the sun and pasting jobs were quite time consuming. But things have changed drastically as the same could be delivered in 3-4 hours today,” explained Prakash. However, he still believes in old mantra of handmade designs and paintings that machines even couldn’t match with. Jobs that New Arora Arts currently deliver include flex printing, fabrications, welding, name/number plates where (flex) printing part is outsourced to other PSPs as the company has not yet installed any printer in its workshop.

Revealing the company’s secret ingredients for quality outputs, Prakash stated that New Arora Arts is quite innovative about colour scheme and durability of banners or billboards. “We use only quality consumables which we order from Delhi, if not available in Dehradun,” asserted Prakash. MACtac is the only brand that they use as key material behind all their creations of unique vinyl signs. New Arora Arts has set a trend of signboards having black background, which is generally a kind of bad omen among many in general public. But the reality and idea is that anything could be contrast to black and it shines out better even in the night. Retro sign is another trend that the company is developing to give road signs a new direction in the region.

“We’d like to thank Mehta Cad Cam Systems Pvt Ltd for their laser cutting machine, which we installed as first machine of its kind in the town,” said Prakash. He then burst the power of the machine as breaking news by creating exhilarating tattoos on bikes, leather jackets, etc around Dehradun. It has always been New Arora Arts being spotted for their innovative works in the region. “Value of your works can be defined by many factors including span of your association with customers,” remarked Prakash adding proudly that some of their clients are as old as the company itself. Earning revenues of just Rs 50 lakh, Prakash doesn’t mind much about turnover as his current state of mind is fully on inventive/innovative jobs.



Impressions Advertiser
(Dehradun)
A one-stop solution corner

Ashish Aggarwal

Considered to be one of the major players in Uttarakhand’s signage market, Impressions Advertiser boasts of a complete combo of signage jobs catering to its clients rushing from local areas and far off corners of the state. The company’s establishment was marked with the installation of a five feet Caldron printer with XAAR 126 piezoelectric drop-on-demand inkjet printheads from Caldron Graphics in the year 2005. Then the machine portfolio of the company kept on upgrading with a set of Caldron printers equipped with Seiko, XAAR and Konica printheads and an Infiniti printer with Konica printheads from VK Enterprises.

“As long as the growth that the signage market of Dehradun or Uttarakhand is concerned, we cannot go idle without upgrading technologies and service,” said Ashish Aggarwal of Impressions Advertiser. He added that the company’s job profile is defined to be a mix tasks to accept all sorts of printing works from a large number of customers belonged to varied levels. Of course, those gathered in beeline at the reception counter of the company are of mixed faces who are either walk-in customers or a corporate head.

Banking and telecommunication sectors are the main areas where Impressions Advertiser primarily explores around to serve good number in these prolific domains. TATA DoCoMo, Allahabad Bank, Indian Bank are some of the frontrunners in Impressions Advertiser’s list of clients. “It’s not only printing that makes our presence in Uttarakhand’s signage market, we have been around as a distributor of an array of Caldron inks and Print-on medias in the region,” mentioned Ashish adding that the line of products is likely to broaden further.

When talked about the next move the company would take, Ashish is very positive about robust growth to be ushered in the region’s market with bigger demands for new applications. “I hope that flatbed printing will shape a new future of Uttarakhand’s signage market,” admitted Ashish who wished to magnify the current activities of his Rs 1.4 crore company to a new high as they have been growing at 20 percent over the last few years. Probably by February 2012, Impressions Advertiser will impress their customers with its new flatbed facility!



Uttaranchal SignAge
(Dehradun)
A destination for all requirements

Manoj Bhutani and Sanjay Agarwal

Believe it or not, all that started with Uttaranchal SignAge in the first place was merely on a floor of 210 sq ft. But this signage major today boasts of its jumbo production unit of 7,000 sq ft production workshop with an office area of 800 sq ft equipped with a line of excellent digital large-format printers and digital presses. “We unveiled our business as a mere activity to deliver flex prints using a six feet Gongzheng solvent printer, which was immediately replaced by updated line of machineries within seven months because we went largely for backlit prints/boards and other quality jobs for few big clients,” mentioned Sanjay Agarwal of Uttaranchal SignAge.

Uttaranchal SignAge sprang up to a new level over a short span as its line of machineries upgraded with 10 feet Gongzheng printer followed by instant additions of other machineries including a new Graphtec vinyl cut and print machine, cutting plotter, laser engraver from Angel India Cad Cam Pvt Ltd and an eco-solvent printer from Magson Technologies. “With our aim to introduce a one-stop-shop for all sorts of printing jobs, we expanded portfolio with a new division equipped with XEROX DocuColor press with which we fulfil the demands for customers coming for jobs like visiting cards, brochures, etc.

“Our major clients who turn up to assign us digital large-format printing jobs include Kajaria Tiles & Ceramics, Anchor, Radico Khaitan, etc,” mentioned Sanjay adding that they also have valuable walk-in customers in the local pockets around Dehradun. He truly acknowledged all clients in their roster in equally important value. “There will always be the roles of pebbles, when we build a huge wall of stones. This is the principle on which we entertain both small and big clients equally,” explained Sanjay. No doubt, flatbed is a buzzword for many in the town for their future expansion. Among the chatters is Uttaranchal SignAge whose infrastructure would soon be magnified with the adoption of flatbed printers. “Such infrastructure boost with the new technology would help us find business route to in-shop or indoor display/signage,” said Sanjay signifying that their next level expansion would also boost the company’s current turnover of Rs one crore to double. Commenting on UV and Latex, he opined that Uttarakhand may take certain time to get matured with such technologies because the city is now very much depending on big markets like Delhi for high-end jobs.



Real Host
(Dehradun)
An authentic stage craftsmanship

Sanjay Singh

Aname that would be reckoned as a synonym when it comes to crafting stage works for events in Dehradun will definitely be Real Host. This company incepted around a decade ago under the proprietorship of Sanjay Singh is a committed firm delivering stage works, which include banners, backdrops, canopies, cut-outs and other display works any event stage would require. Also, this company is known for handling quite a wide range of cultural events, musical shows, business events and others executed from time to time around the city. “We have been associated with some big events like Dainik Jagran’s annual dandia programme and others like anniversaries, get together parties of corporate companies,” asserted Sanjay.

“In an average, we can say that whenever any event is organised in Dehradun,” asserted Sanjay adding that their stage displays help many corporate companies promote themselves and connect with clients or public during the occasions. This is why thematic stage displays sometimes manifest rather effective than any kiosks or roadside canopies. “We use varied range of materials including flex prints, cut vinyl, thermocol letters, etc to craft creative items such as standies, hoarding and tableau to construct the stage displays,” explained Sanjay. He added that thermocol was the only means earlier to design the backdrops, but the advent of flex printing has changed the ways they do to produce these creatives.

Among the landmark jobs that Real Host has delivered so far would be the creation of a replica of Kedarnath Mandir erected during a recent Khadi National Exhibition held in the city. “Visual impact is the most important thing we always focus on while working out any stage display,” said Sanjay adding that visitors passing the replica temple removed their shoes as though they sensed the real feel of the holy place located in Garhwal Hills. Also crafted in impressive ways included the replicas of Lal Quila and India Gate that stunned viewers during some cultural events in the city. “We use high-quality flex prints to image the monuments while thermocol are implemented for curves and shades, created manually to produce 3D effects,” explained Sanjay.

Real Host has tied up with some leading PSPs for their prints as well as helping hands in fabrication and installation jobs. “We are really grateful to them for their dedicated help and prints of any kind including solvent, eco-solvent, vinyl and digital as per our requirement,” remarked Sanjay. Now, Real Host bagging a turnover of Rs one crore is looking ahead to capture new paths to create more attractions and values in their jobs and services in near future.



Ad World
(Dehradun)
A world of everything in signage

Sanjay Garg

Sanjay Garg (Real Media), Arvind Jain (Lifetime Media) and Manoj Bhutani (Uttaranchal SignAge) are three musketeers who have joined hands to establish Ad World, a one-stop corner for complete outdoor signage solutions. This JV company unveiled just around six months back has its keen vision to provide finest outdoor display solutions to a number of corporate clients. “We define ourselves as an outdoor solution company dealing with quite a vast range of activities, including prints, event or exhibition displays, hoardings, banners, kiosks, dimensional signs and more,” said Sanjay Garg of Ad World adding that they aim at innovations to hit new paths in the city.

Incredible jobs of Ad World are evident all around Uttarakhand as the company has worked extensively for big clients in various cities. “We have worked for Glitz and Silver City multiplexes for their entire fabrication and branding jobs including indoor graphics, directional signs etc to give new get ups to these two leading cinema houses in the city,” remarked Sanjay. He also mentioned one of their display jobs done for the fabrication of Uttarakhand Police’s beat boxes. Incredible tasks of Ad World do not end up at local level as the company has roped in a number of corporate clients in different industrial clusters, such as banking, telecommunication, appliances, etc.

“Since telecommunication sector is considered to be one of the robust domains where many in the signage market reap big business, we are also aggressively pushing ourselves to get broader in this sector,” said Sanjay. The company has been working extensively for big telecom giants like Uninor, TATA DoCoMo and Idea. And those corporate giants in other industrial sectors for whom the company has been working comprehensively are State Bank of India (SBI), Life Insurance Corp, UNITECH, Pacific, Union Bank, TATA Sky, etc. Most of the company’s clients are associated via agencies and a few directly.

The world of Ad World covers far beyond Dehradun as the company has catered kiosks and other outdoor display items in the neighbouring cities of Haridwar. Uttaranchal SignAge is responsible for all printing jobs of Ad World while the rest in any point of time or space is handled by an eight-member team comprising installation and fabrication professionals. But in case of the urgent need for manpower, they hire more people who could be either in Dehradun or other regions like Haldwani, Kumaon, Muzaffarnagar, etc. This signage major is now moving towards LED boards, which they have installed in Mussoorie and further planning to make it bigger soon!



Agarwal Digital Printers
(Haridwar)
A locally leaping player

Amit Agarwal

During his days as employee of KVM Digital Technologies, the then unit of APSOM INFOTEX, in Haridwar, Amit Agarwal gained the knowledge and experience of digital large-format printing, which eventually helped him open Agarwal Digital Printers, a PSP of his own. “We purchased a ColorJet from APSOM INFOTEX and a Lekai digital printer of 600 dpi,” said Amit Agarwal of Agarwal Digital Printers. “Our regular jobs include both large-format flex prints and digital graphics for in-shop branding and displays,” he mentioned. Most of the company’s clientele include some of prominent trusts in Haridwar such as Gurukul, Dharmarth Chikitsalaya and others.

“We have been working for some big financial companies like Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank (PNB), apart from our activities involving largely into big cultural and religious events in Haridwar,” asserted Amit. He further mentioned the big programmes organised seasonally at Shantikunj for that Agarwal Digital Printers takes responsibility for stage graphics, displays and signages around the venues. He proudly admitted that such opportunities are advantages of being in Haridwar, a city of happening of religious and cultural happenings throughout the year. Baba Ramdev’s regular events are also what Agarwal Digital Printers has always been taken care of all the time.

Agarwal Digital Printers is quite competent to handle any sort of jobs of any scale as per the requirement of clients. The company has recently executed a big outdoor project for Intex in which a large number of signboards were installed all across the regions of Rudrapur and Badrinath. For such big outdoor assignment, Agarwal Digital Printers boasts of its strong fabrication and installation team capable to handle any jobs in any given time and situation. “Alongwith our assured maintenance and consistency in service, we maintain efficiency in prints quality,” said Amit. He mentioned SK4 and AT Inks as their choice of ink brands along DG media from Pioneer with which they could assure magic in prints.

The main principle under which Agarwal Digital Printers has been surviving in the signage market of Haridwar is nothing but the company’s consistency in quality. “Though we don’t command with a large turnover, we are proud of being a PSP capable to attract regular customers, regardless of our location in a pothole gali,” said Amit adding there is nothing of the idea that those companies located in the upmarket area will sell the most. What is planned for the company’s next expansion move is adoption of an advanced printer built with USB feature from APSOM INFOTEX.



Uttarakhand Printers
(Dehradun)
A firm of two unrivalled deeds

Naveen Khanna

CRI Events, which engages in stage crafts for events, is a parallel division of Uttarakhand Printers – one of the notable PSPs in Dehradun. “We opened Uttarakhand Printers around four years back to assist printing jobs while crafting stages for events or occasions,” said Naveen Khanna of Uttarakhand Printers. He further mentioned that printing part in a stage craft was the most complicated task they faced before owning their in-house production facility, which equipped with a 10 feet solvent printer with Konica printheads from VK Enterprises. In addition to stage craftsmanship are the company’s other activities like road shows, exhibitions, wedding ceremonies, dealer meets and conferences that CRI Events handles in extraordinary fashions.

Apart from being assisting CRI Events, printing activities at Uttarakhand Printers have been soaring up as separate business, which delivers flex prints, boards, banners and others to a number of clients across the region. “Our entry into printing has provided us a new opportunity that helps us grab two-way advantages in business,” affirmed Naveen adding, “Even our clients at CRI Events require prints, we provide it as a combo alongwith stage crafts.” And he agreed that the activities of his twin firms are quite allied and collectively productive.

Concerning delight upon the activities of Uttarakhand Printers, Naveen remarked that flex printing is one of the easy-going and easy-earning jobs. “Because this job has nothing to do with cutting, pasting or any lengthy process; just print it, deliver it, that’s all,” he reasoned. He is very optimistic about this sector growing gradually with new technology to gain further acceleration soon in the region. Establishment of Uttarakhand Printers has doubled the business of CRI Events over the years. Around 25-30 percent of the overall assignments at CRI Events involve with printing and prints for displays.

Now that the two firms yield more than one crore turnover with a number of big clients under the belt of Uttarakhand Printers, Naveen foresees the direction of his business leading to a big boom in near future. Some leading clients involved directly include ONGC, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan and Canon whereas others including Amar Ujala are associated through agency. A team of 13 skilful staffs is behind the company’s consistent 24x7 service and on-time deliveries of products in any parts of the region.



Surender Auto: The Letter Art
(Dehradun)
A unique shop surging differences

Surender Ahuja

Situated in a busy lane of auto-part shops in the crowded Virmani Market area near the famous Ghanta Ghar in Dehradun, Surender Auto is one of the popular corners in the city where many clients drop in for eye-catching letter art jobs. “Opened in 1999, we started with simple manual jobs to paint number plates and some vehicle graphics,” revealed Surender Ahuja, proprietor, Surender Auto: The Letter Art. But he further mentioned about the changing scenario in the letter art activities, “Advent of high-end print and cut technologies have face-lifted our entire activities to new style and presentation that we never imagined before.”

It was the tumultuous artistic talent of Surender that instilled him to open Surender Auto while his skill has been nurtured by the modern machineries, which have eventually curtailed all manual efforts. “We did cutting manually to produce number plates and others. But our adoption of Roland cutting plotter from APSOM INFOTEX reduces all our manual jobs as well as quality and precision enhancement,” remarked Surender. He added that they could speed up their jobs and deliveries following the adoption of the Roland printer.

The turnover of Surender Auto keeps increasing to new volumes and directions over the last couple of years as the company has upgraded its machine portfolio with the recent installation of a new VersaCAMM print-and cut-machine from APSOM INFOTEX. Since then the company’s job profile has been expanded to churn out new array of activities viz. vehicle stickers, radium/vinyl stickers, printing and cutting of vinyl and radium in different shapes, display boards, auto graphics, embossed number plates, etc.

‘‘Apart from the hordes of local or walk-in customers swarming around the shop, we work extensively for army to provide quite a wide range of exclusive items, such as sign boards, vehicle number plates, name plates, stickers and others,” mentioned Surender adding that they work for some government departments too. Currently achieving a turnover of Rs 20 lakh, Surender Auto: The Letter Art is pacing up constantly to adopt new, advanced and upgraded Roland machines to augment their business.



Prince Art Studio
(Dehradun)
A tradition that lasts forever

Ravinder Kapoor

Talk in the town is about the demise of age-old tradition of hand-painted hoardings and banners. But room for this practice is still alive and kicking as Ravinder Kapoor of Prince Art Studio believes that there are certain feels in the handmade graphics which machines cannot compete with. Ravinder’s father was a man with a gust of talents in portrait and sign painting during the 1950s in Dehradun. He passed on his bless to his son, who is now the key talent behind the popular signage shop Prince Art Studio–a merger of old and modern sign solutions.

Without even owning any facility with printing machineries, Prince Art Studio could manage to fulfil the needs of its customers turning up for flex prints because they tie up with prominent PSPs in the city for the purpose. “Our jobs are predominately of hand-painted signs, banners, posters and other specific items,” said Ravinder adding that Prince Art Studio serves many schools and organisations for whom the company regularly delivers unique kinds of hand-painted products. Also, Prince Art Studio is a customer’s choice for those looking for eco-friendly fabric arts in the city.

“It is just around 30-40 percent of our jobs producing manually while the rest are flex prints. But our hand works are still in demand by some of our regular customers including schools, institutes and government organisations, etc,” mentioned Ravinder. Even some schools from far off towns like Musoorie do come to Print Art Studio for flags and banners for school functions. State Bank of India (SBI), CMO Office, Lions Clubs and Dehradun Institute of Technology are some other regular clients for whom the company has been delivering customise cloth banners and other hand-painted signs throughout the year.

Significance of Prince Art Studio is defined to be the company’s unique way of creating exclusive signs, banners, posters, etc that have been regulars since time immemorial. “Our aim to set up a production facility equipped with digital large-format printers is now in the pipeline. But it may take some time because we have a lot to prepare before switching to the new venture.



Digitech Graphics
(Dehradun)
A big boss for big jobs

Abhinav Tyagi

Genesis of Digitech Graphics is rooted out of Dehradun as this outdoor signage major has its origin based in Noida (Uttar Pradesh). “After seeing the unexplored market of the region (Uttarakhand), we shifted our base to Dehradun in 2007 and started to offer new kind of sign and display solutions that had rarely been exploited here,” conveyed Abhinav Tyagi of Digitech Graphics. Apart from outdoor signs, a separate division of the company deals with classroom accessories including blackboards, lecture stands, etc. Digitech Graphics is considerably known for its innovative activities hitting new paths in Uttarakhand’s signage market.

A line of overall activities that Digitech Graphics has been catering to its clients include customised sign boards, flex prints, glow signs, neon signs...to mention a few. “We have witnessed a new high in our business over the last two years following the recent magnification of our activities,” said Abhinav mentioning particularly the company’s recent grabs on new customers based out of Uttarakhand. Major add-on in the company’s task in 2010 was LED boards. So is the reason why Digitech Graphics has been popular for customised LED signs/glow sign boards across the region. “I believe that LED is a new platform that would shape the region’s signage world into a new structure soon.

“Though we cater our service and products through dealer-based network, we have roped in some big companies, such as ONGC, IMA (Indian Military Academy), Woodstock, MBD, CPWD, etc through direct marketing.,” mentioned Abhinav.

Spread over an area of 6,000 sq ft, production facility of Digitech Graphics is designed for assembling, fabrication and installation jobs handled by a team of 12 experts. “We are planning to expand our production facility with the introduction of a new unit in other part of the city,” Abhinav mentioned while highlighting the company’s next move to double the current turnover of Rs 70-80 lakh in the next few years. Another big plan in the pipeline is that Digitech Graphics will surge to a new avatar with the adoption of a line of new machineries.



Shamshad Art Work
(Haridwar)
An ideal shop for basic signage

Tanveer and Kausar

Incepted as a shop for hand-painted posters, banners and other signage items in Haridwar, Shamshad Art Work rose from a scratch to reach the position they have achieved today. Main activity of the company is that they simply collect orders from customers and outsource jobs to other eminent PSPs located in the city. “Still our business is totally based on hand-painted posters and job works for flex prints,” said Mohd Kausar of Shamshad Art Work. He added that the company’s mainstay is the manually prepared signages as well as their age-old photo-framing activities. “We have tied up with a number of leading PSPs to outsource flex prints,” asserted Kausar.

Establishment of Shamshad Art Work dates back to around three decades when there were hardly any flex printers in Haridwar. Since then the company has been maintaining quality and consistency in their work to meet the changing demands for any signage jobs appealed by their customers coming from far and near corners of Haridwar as well as some neighbouring regions like Roorkee and others. Signage prepared with boards made of tin sheets, woods and other materials has been one of the main activities Shamshad Art Work was famous for.

Talking about innovative hand-made signs, Kausar pointed out satin banners being one of the most popular items demanded by many religious or cultural organisations in the region. “There are certain events which give us maximum business,” said Kausar adding that in a holy place like Haridwar, festive seasons or religious occasions create big revenues every year. “Our workloads gradually multiply during the popular festivals like Diwali and Holi,” he remarked.

“As machine installation is our next plan, we are now looking for some high-end eco-solvent printers,” said Tanveer of Shamshad Art Work. He explicated that ‘green’ technology will be the next gen signages. Also, he pointed to the prospects of flatbed printing in the market, which is in the pipeline of the company’s soon-to-be-opened production unit. Most of all, innovative signs playing with creativity is what Shamshad Art Work is always on the anvil.