?P? for passionate... about printing

Consider this. You bring some informative books carrying lots of pictures of fruits and vegetables for your kid, home.

The kid likes some pictures, rubs his hand over them. Lo and behold! What does the kid smell?

“The same smell that let’s say comes from an apple or a banana or lady finger would be there immediately after the kid rubs his hands on them,” says Amit Bhargava, general manager of Prakash Packagers, a prominent name in printing not just in UP but in Northern India armed with the prestigious ISO certification for quality printing.

Of course, this technology, that’s already there overseas would take sometime coming to UP.

“But, we would be bringing the technology to Lucknow as soon as we can,” says the young GM.

Amit, who took over as GM of Prakash Packagers, in 1998 after doing a course in print technology from London followed by an MBA, says his visits to UK and Germany for the international exhibition of printers was an eye-opener.

“There is a big gap between their processes, technology and methodology and ours. Obviously, now I want to revolutinise the print industry in UP,” Amit told HT WE. He, recently added another feather to his cap—the prestigious Excellence in Printing Award given by the All-India Federation of Master Printers.

The award given every four years came to Amit for printing a liquor label that had the experts in print technology going ga ga over the fineness with which the work was done.

And yes, Amit can rattle off the names of most of liquor brands available in the country with consummate ease. No, he may not have tasted all of them and neither is he tipsy round the clock. It’s just that ever since Amit took over he started taking print orders for liquor barons and now Prakash Packagers set up in 1972 caters to 80 per cent of the liquor market of UP as far designing labels is concerned.

“People often joke around that till the time I took over my father Prakash Bhargava used to print Ramayana and Mahabharata. But, I have shifted to liquor with extensive specialization in gold foil printing,” Amit jokes.

But, the decision was a wise one. For Amit realised that to carve a niche in printing, he had to reach out to hitherto untouched regions, like liquor. The move has been a runaway success. 

But Amit, whose hands are full with orders pouring in not just from UP but from Uttaranachal and Jharkhand besides several other states of the country and even outside, is still not satisfied.

“The immediate aim is to go digital. Now, people want quality work at short notice. Presently, we try and accommodate whatever we can.

But, with digital technology we would be able to improve quality at half the cost and time. Five years down the line the present technology would be obsolete.

The latest the world over is the print-shop concept with focus on personalized printing. That means even if you want 50 invites for a conference at short notice we should be able to get you that,” he says. How short would be the short notice? “Let’s say 15 minutes!”