Prakash Art
Tradition that continues…

Sanjeev Arora

Genesis of Prakash Art in the field of signage is quite a history as this company has its root dating back to the days of India’s independence. Established in the year 1954 in Bareilly as a brainchild of two brothers, Om Prakash Arora and Ved Prakash Arora who were migrated from Pakistan, Prakash Art was merely a 4x4 feet wooden khokha producing manually painted signboards. And the line of business grows hierarchically carrying on by their sons - Sanjeev and Hitesh Arora. “Sprouted from a scratch, Prakash Art has eventually incarnated into a signage corner where customers these days can get total outdoor signage solutions churned out on the latest digital large-format technologies,” said Sanjeev Arora of Prakash Art. He added that the company’s outdoor space which handled hardly 20-25 boards earlier is now exclusively covering 400 hoardings all over Uttaranchal and western Uttar Pradesh.

Outdoor space of Prakash Art Studio is quite a popular medium in redefining brands to newer extent of promotions. The company promotes brands through its outdoor spaces consisting of rooftop billboards, welcome gates, unipoles, wall wraps, kiosks, mobile van campaigns, etc. The company’s production facility has recently been upgraded to a new standard and the existing portfolio consists of a line of quality printers, such as Roland RS-640, ColorJet NEPTUNE-10123, Flora 3204 (with XAAR 500 printheads) and TR 510 CNC router. “We have enhanced 200 percent in our overall production following the recent update in our infrastructure,” remarked Sanjeev adding that company’s current delivery capability is around 15,000 sq ft prints a day.

Big Bazaar, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are some of the leading clients which have been associated with Prakash Art for years. “We cover right from Uttaranchal upto Lucknow for Pepsi outdoor campaigns and for Indian Oil, our services and products stretch to Agra and Dehradun,” mentioned Hitesh Arora of Prakash Art. He added that Prakash Art is known popularly for its presence in region-wide campaigns covering Kumaoan, Garhwal, Uttaranchal and Haryana. On time deliveries, consistency and efficiency in final outputs of the company have been handled by a devoted team of 50 well-trained professionals supported by another sub-team who are assigned to attend complains and maintain all logistics.

Dynamism of Prakash Art ever since its inception around five decades ago is what people do appreciate. “We keep moving in every front, be it in technology or service. Our activities in outdoor space would soon be expanded to NCR area of Delhi by opening a branch in Ghaziabad,” mentioned Rajeev adding that the new setup in the area will equip with a Dilli UV flatbed printer to tap the glass décor segments. He mentioned that Prakash Art’s staff would be increased to double following the branching out of the new unit of the company to NCR, so will be their current turnover to be doubled this fiscal year.



Impact
Along the pace of time

Pravesh

An ordinary lad who brought up amid a treasure of wealth, but in a village setting where professionalism/entrepreneurship was neither discussed nor noticed among his friends, Pravesh never ever dreamt that he would someday land into the world of signage as a leading player in the region. “I certainly lost my way while deciding on choosing a right business path,” recollected Pravesh adding that he along with some partners (friends) started to operate a small-scale job work signage agency. They kept running from pillar to pillar to get orders, indeed a hectic task which left them little profit margins when considering all their huge efforts.

“After struggling sometime as freelancer in the market, it must be the grace of god that I was blessed with some resource to open a production facility of my own in the year 2008,” said Pravesh referring the establishment of Impact – The Advertising Station which popped up in the signage market of Bareilly as a new player having full of confidence and competence. Today, the hard-earned eminence of the then ordinary company is a Rs four crore signage firm and one of the most sought after corners in the region where thronged customers from far and near areas of the region.

Unveiled with an Infiniti printer (XAAR printheads), the portfolio of Impact has been updating in accordance with the needs and demands of their customers. A couple of Chinese printers and Roland VersaArt-

RS 640 from Apsom Infotex have enhanced the company’s production facility to churn out arrays of quality outputs catering to their clients based in entire Uttar Pradesh. Vodafone, Samsung, Fevicol, Diesel and Colgate are some of the corporate giants who have been regulars with Impact for years.

Apart from outdoor signages, Impact has good contacts with some of its clients like Diesel for in-shop branding, fabrication and other related activities. “Of course, we do some in-shop jobs too. But our main focus is predominantly on outdoor signages for which our team of 25 skilful professionals is assigned to execute and complete any project at any given deadline,” asserted Pravesh. And Impact thus keeps its ring of third parties in loop for helps whenever they are required to handle projects in large scale in or beyond Bareilly.



Doorga Advertisers
A decade of success

Shailendra Singh

It has been over the last ten years that Doorga Advertisers keeps serving the signage market of Bareilly with significant presence to fulfill the needs of their customers. Unlike metros or big cities, signage players in the township market setup of Bareilly hardly join races towards the competitions of adopting high-end technology as average standard in infrastructure could easily meet the customers’ demands. This is what Shailendra Singh of Doorga Advertisers shared, “We have been working for eminent clients like Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), State Bank of India (SBI) and Microtek over the years, optimally satisfying them through our existing infrastructure comprising a portfolio of a Caldron solvent and a Caldron inkjet printers.”

But the business plan of Doorga Advertisers in pipeline is adoption of a new set of machineries to upgrade the infrastructure to a new standard. “Eco-solvent printer and another brand new inkjet printer, probably from Hewlett Packard (HP) are what we are planning to add in our existing portfolio to speed up our jobs and increase volume of production,” mentioned Shailendra. He decided that the new set of printers will arrive at the facility of Doorga Advertisers in the next few months.

The workshop located in an open area adjacent to the company’s main gate shows Doorga Advertisers’ competence in fabrication job. In fact, the company is known for its dedicated fabrication and installation jobs executed all over Bareilly and neighbouring satellite towns of Haldwani, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and far off destination like Lucknow. “We have 15 staffers who are assigned to handle printing, fabrications and installations at our best levels,” affirmed Shailendra adding that the team maintains on-time deliveries to remote destinations too.

Now, earning a turnover of Rs 75 lakh, Doorga Advertisers is still on steady move to tap some unexplored market domains to boost business. “It’s quite a fact that the signage market of Bareilly is now foreseeing growth in near future,” said Shailendra adding that they are planning to expand their job profile by switching to router cutting activities. It’s visible that wood carving market in the region gets booming to provide additional verticals in the business of signage players.



Creative Advertisers
Newly found prospects

Deepak Gupta

More than two decades of experience in the realm of offset printing has instilled Deepak Gupta to embark upon the domain of digital large-format (signage) printing activity in the year 2006. He mentioned that the favourable growth in flex printing in the signage market of Bareilly over the last few years is phenomenal. He added, “Since we have been into the printing line over the last 24 years, there is nothing new for us to adapt any fresh activity like digital large-format printing, which we adopted in 2006,” said Deepak. The production setup of the company is equipped with two ColorJet NEPTUNE solvent printers.

Having been working for a number of clients from defence department, agriculture and service sectors, Creative Advertisers is looking ahead to broaden business horizon by expanding its production setup as well as clientele. “Our workshop for fabrication and installation would be renovated into an upgraded setup after we branch out our facility to a new location, which we have already acquired and some construction work is going on,” mentioned Deepak.

Clientele of Creative Advertisers are also from different cities and towns across the country. However, the company has its close connection with a number of regular customers based in Punjab and Chandigarh. “We can easily handle our customers in Punjab and Chandigarh in swift manner as these regions are in the close proximities of Bareilly,” asserted Deepak.

In his reply to the question on Creative Advertises’ next level development, Deepak mentioned their plan to adopt some new machines of eco-solvent and UV technologies. “I’m a regular visitor to signage exhibitions organised in different parts of the country. Visits to such expos give me the ideas of what is happening in the contemporary market. In a few years, we would like to upgrade our infrastructure to a totally new standard,” he remarked.



Om Sai Ram Netmart
One-stop-solution provider

Vijay Kumar Agarwal

Among the many in Bareilly who have changed their business tracks after seeing the robust growth in the digital large-format printing market include Om Sai Ram Netmart. “Our business establishment is dated back to 1962 when we started as a dealer of Indian Oil,” said Vijay Kumar Agarwal, managing director, Om Sai Ram Netmart (P) Ltd. Incorporated in 2007, Om Sai Ram Netmart set up its presence quite noticeably in the signage market of Bareilly over a short duration of its inception. The company is indeed a one-stop professional signage set-up specialising in outdoor, printing, fabrications and installations.

Om Sai Ram Netmart always looks beyond its day-to-day existence, beyond the everyday process of doing business and seeks to make a difference. “Main focus in our overall activities is to continuously understand the needs and requirements of customers,” told Vijay adding that the company provides value additions or innovative solutions which address the latest demands surfacing in the region’s market in due course of time. Principal talents of this expertly managed, highly motivated professional PSP can be summed up as experience, reliability and real commitment to the quality.

Production facility of Om Sai Ram Netmart is fully equipped with a line of quality printers, viz. Roland Soljet Pro-III XJ-740 eco-solvent, Roland Advance Jet AJ-1000, etc. “Now, we have decided to adopt Tekwin TS Series UV flatbed printer with which we are planning to explore new market segments, such as in-shop and interior décor domains,” said Vijay adding that the UV printing would bring up a gamut of opportunities in the gradually budding signage market of Bareilly.

Some of the quality-conscious customers in the clientele of Om Sai Ram Netmart include Idea, Videocon, SAMSUNG, Karbonn Mobile, Unilever, Dish TV, etc. “Our basic attitude to establish the long-term relationship with clients for their ultimate satisfaction is the professional way of working with high degree of technical experience,” remarked Vijay. Having the capacity and capability to meet even the minutest requirement of their clients based in every nook and corner of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Om Sai Ram Netmart’s timely delivery schedule and services have been their forte of success in the market.



Sharp Flex Printers
Robust in local presence

Himanshu and Ved Agarwal

There is no doubt to say that almost every signage player in Bareilly has one or other background connecting to age-old tradition of printing trade. Sharp Flex Printers, which runs its sister concern unit called Sharp Colour Graphics for multi-colour scanning and CtcP activities, has also been a bastion of printing surviving ever since the era of letter press in the town. But the generations of the Agarwals keep adopting newer trends of printing from time to time in the printing industry. So was how Sharp Flex Printers has been established by Himanshu Agarwal, supported by his son Ved Agarwal, to cater unmatched signage service and outputs to local customers.

Sharp Flex Printers was opened with the adoption of a DGI printer from Apsom Infotex, which was followed by ColorJet and Infiniti printers. Infrastructure of the company has never been stagnant. The portfolio keeps updating with gradual installations of brand new machines. Now the production facility is being furnished by two ColorJet printers and capable to cater the finest prints which the company’s clients found quite satisfactory.

Himanshu appreciated the quality which ColorJet printers (with XAAR printheads) deliver. “Prints produced on these machines are quite coherent and colour textures are firm even in the peak summer,” he remarked adding that such machines easily fulfill the requirements of the company’s local clients who are kirana shops, departmental stores and others. In addition to the local customers are some corporate companies whose jobs are brought in at Sharp Flex Printers through agencies.

Every customer in the roster of Sharp Flex Printers enjoys a complete signage solution. “Though we do not undertake fabrication and installation jobs, we tied up with some third parties who provide all such tasks as per the clients’ requirements,” said Himanshu.



Sona Publicity & Builder
Just job works, ready to move

Vijay Kumar Parasar

Interesting attribute of Bareilly’s signage market is its characterisation of all sorts of players living and kicking in their own ways of business. Sona Publicity & Builder is one such player whose engagement in signage jobs catering through outsourcing to a number of high and low-end customers is quite demanding in the town. This company, way back a decade, was a signboard painting shop run by artist Vijay Kumar Parasar along with his team of friends. When the tradition of the hand painted jobs became an out-of-date activity after the advent of digital large-format printing, Vijay switched to the new trend of digital large-format printing, but without owning any machine setup of his own.

“As per the circumstance or requirement, we accept orders of wall paintings and other manually painted sign works,” said Vijay showing that the old habits die hard. But he agreed to the fact that Sona Publicity & Builder should follow the typical norms of owning a production facility to the tune of what all is going on in the contemporary market. “We would surely open our own production facility soon by installing an up to date solvent printer first,” he enthusiastically mentioned. As of now, Sona Publicity & Builder outsources their job works to PSPs based in Paharganj, New Delhi.

Ever since their early days, Sona Publicity & Builder has been associated with a number of regional political parties for campaign and publicity projects carried out extensively in and around Bareilly. Other customers who are in the current client list of the company include some leading cement companies and ad agencies. The year 2013 has been set as Sona Publicity & Builder’s target to launch their own production setup.



John Arts
Surfacing from tradition

Habib Ahmed

A very common tradition among the signage players of Bareilly is their deep rooted backgrounds in hand-painting jobs. Habib Ahmed of John Arts was one of the most popular sign makers in town who created magic in manually painted signboards. “New trends developed as per the changes in time and technologies have eliminated the culture of hand-painted sign boards,” said Habib. But his professionalism is still in his spirit. He recently upgraded his John Arts into a new avatar by installing a Nutek Prime digital large-format printer.

Apart from being a PSP with single-printer production facility, John Arts has a stronghold position in the region’s signage market. “Clients we have been associated with for a long time are through agencies as well as direct marketing,” shared Habib. Indian Oil is one of the big clients for them John Arts has been executing various big projects in and around Bareilly. Other regions wherefrom the clients of John Arts keep pouring in include Pilibhit, Sharjanpur, Nainital, to name a few.

John Arts boasts of its dedicated team of professionals who are skillful enough to handle all sorts of fabrication and installation tasks. “Since we have limited manpower, our boys get engaged in all kinds of activities, be it designing, machine handling, deliveries, installations…, until the completion of any given project,” explained Habib.

Talking about infrastructure update and business expansion, Habib revealed, “But we are waiting and watching where the region’s market is heading to,” he affirmed. His words of wisdom opined judgmentally that there is no need of rushing to high-end technology which would be lying idle in the budding market like Bareilly.



Shine Graphics
Varieties of prints on offer

Sanjay Sarad

Though the company was incepted as Shine Graphics just a few years ago, actual birth of the company is rooted to the year 1995. In fact, overall activities of Shine Graphics have been a mix of digital large-format printing, plate making and offset printing. “We established with a process camera and installed a Basys Print CtcP machine in January 2012,” said Sanjay Sarad who supports his father Somnath Sarad to expand the company’s activities in different verticals.

Shine Graphics engaged in the digital large-format printing with the adoption of a Nutek printer just a couple of years back, which was followed by a Caldron printer. Some of the leading companies listed in the client list of Shine Graphics are Rotary Club, Bank of Baroda and some local companies. “Of course, we are known to a number of local companies who are our regular walk-in customers over a long period of time,” told Sanjay.

Shine Graphics believes in constant association with its clients. The company boasts of its customers who have always been knocking on their doors for big or small projects over the years. “Customers’ satisfaction is our top priority for which we devote everything to appease them to the best,” said Sanjay. Well-trained professionals of the company keep tracking all ins and outs of what their customers want. This is how Shine Graphics shines uniquely among others in the region.

Apart from its plan to surge into the innovations of digital-large format printing, Shine Graphics is looking ahead for a groundbreaking offset printing unit, which would help them deliver varieties of prints to their clients. Sanjay revealed that the offset machine to be installed at the facility would probably be a four-colour Heidelberg press.



Jeet Arts
Turning of manual art into digital

Jitendra Kumar

It may sound just another repeated statement to introduce Jitendra Kumar as an artist who used to paint sign boards around 15 years back and today he is a popular PSP working for a bunch of reputed clients. Jitendra established his Jeet Arts as a PSP just a couple of years back by adopting a Caldron printer. Since demands for the digital large-format printing in the local market sky-rocketed over the last few years, Jeet Arts invested in another Caldron printer soon after the first installation.

“I have never imagined that the signage industry would stream up like what we are seeing today. Everything is so simplified and innovative following the invention of these so-called digital large-format printers,” said Jitendra. He still remembers the days when his team of artists left home for a long time to accomplish big outdoor hand-painted signboard projects around remote corners of Uttar Pradesh. “We worked all day long to finish a signboard which a flex printer today does it effortlessly in one hour,” he shared.

Today, Jeet Arts boasts of its client list containing a horde of reputed companies, such as Dairy Fun (icecream), KC Battery, Hero Cycle and others. “As long as our overall marketing activities are concerned, we have a long way to go ahead to improve it in a bigger way,” said Jitendra adding that they would plan to move faster than they are today in near future to make their business boost like many other counterparts in the region.

“The couple of Caldron solvent printers in our current setup somehow handle and manage the overall demands of our clients to certain extents. But it is evident that we would need to upgrade the technology to eco-solvent and UV flatbeds to take part in the league of the emerging market trends,” mentioned Jitendra. He agreed to the fact that UV printing can play a lot in the world of innovative printing to capture new segments like in-store, POPs, etc.



Raj Shree Art and Publicity
Moving foot forward

Amit Raj

Nobody would believe the two young brothers in their tender age came out to take part into business and challenges in the world of signage industry. The mention is about Amar Raj and Amit Raj who started signage job work business in the digital large-format printing market of Bareilly. They tied-up with a group of PSPs in the locals to share what they tapped from various reputed clients based in different cities and towns of Uttar Pradesh.

“Ever since we could rope in a good number of clients in the market, we finally decided to open our own production facility,” said Amit adding that they have installed a Caldron printer. It has been around two years that Raj Shree Art and Publicity stands on its own feet in the market. And it is indeed a big achievement of the company which had nothing in hands has now become a PSP catering impressive prints to corporate clients like TATA Salt, TATA Steel and others.

Amit is very optimistic about Raj Shree Art and Publicity moving fast forward in the next few years to tackle a broader business. “We don’t have any big team or strong manpower which can handle field works in remote areas or outside Bareilly,” he mentioned adding that their next step would be recruitment of new staffs who could lead the company to new levels of growth.

Among the future plans of Raj Shree Art and Publicity is opening of its branch in Noida, which will be a little bit advanced setup to be equipped with a high-end printer to capture the markets of Delhi and others in north India,” mentioned Amit adding they are planning to finalise everything sooner than later.