Malaysian printer continues boosting
business with Manugraph technology
After the Manugraph machine installation, we now have more confidence of
our reliability and also the increase in our productivity gives us the
opportunities of selling more time slots for other publishers,” commented
Syamil Fahim B Mohd Fahim, executive director, Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd.
W
ith successful installation of Manugraph’s one Hiline and one Cityline Express press, consisting of eight towers with two folders, along with QuadTech registration and cut off control system, Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd has effectively started boosting their business. “After the Manugraph machine installation, we now have more confidence of our reliability and also the increase in our productivity gives us the opportunities of selling more time slots for other publishers,” commented Syamil Fahim B Mohd Fahim, executive director, Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd.
Established in 1988 as a small printer with sales turnover of RM (Malaysian currency) five million, Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd has now grown to be the biggest commercial printer with newspaper printing capabilities to a sales turnover of more that RM 110 million in the year 2009. “The Hiline machine at our facility is equipped with 2 No: s F1240 and Cityline Express with 2 No: s F222. We are the biggest web user in Malaysia, with two Goss M600, four Toshiba webs, five multicolour sheetfed inclusive of eight colour press, and extensive binding equipment from Muller Martini from perfect binding, stitchers to thread sewing, etc,” conveyed Syamil.
“Cost effectiveness of owning the press, reputation and representation by a well known agent, and substantial market share were the reasons behind making the bold decision to own Manugraph machines when there are a lot of international players in the segment,” stated Syamil, adding, “With Manugraph, we have got the value for our investment, an excellent performance at par with European brands at a competitive cost. The machines’ performance is at the expected level and installation as well as after sales support has been very good.”
“With the current trends of newspaper runs getting smaller, digital news delivery getting more prevalent, newspaper publisher/printer will soon realize that the investment that they made might not be that ‘useful’ in the long run, thus, there must be applications/reusability of the machine to be able to capture different applications as well. Ability to print commercial products, faster makeready and changeover, advertising related features, and perhaps, some digital device attachments for some personalisation bits are required to meet the emerging demands,” opined Syamil, explaining, “Cost saving is of high interest now. Lowering makeready waste and running waste, increase in operational and labour costs, print runs getting smaller, publishers becoming more cost conscious and demand higher quality, etc. These are all industry’s evolving scenario due to shrinking margins on both publishing and print.”
“Resultantly, we now need to be on the edge of technology or technical know-how to make sure that our operations are very lean and efficient. Operating with the lowest labour cost, producing at high productivity within same timing, and generating high quality print effortlessly are not just dreams of a printer, but precise requirement to ensure the survivability within the business,” concluded Syamil.
INMA Workshop
Boosting advertising revenues"
D
esigned to provide practical, relevant best practices to grow print advertising, the first ever one-day workshop for newspaper sales advertisers organised by International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA), South Asia recently concluded in Mumbai under the theme ‘Unleashing the power of print: kick-starting advertising revenues.
Bringing together executives from the leading South Asian companies, the INMA workshop focused on new strategies to increase advertising revenues, the role of print in multi-media advertising campaigns, and better understanding what advertising clients are thinking about their marketing strategies and how they are allocating budgets.
Tariq Ansari, president-INMA South Asia and managing director, MiDDAY Multimedia Ltd; Ravi Kiran, CEO, South Asia & emerging markets, Sarcom Mediavest Group; and Andre Purshottam, chairman, Media Research Users Council (MRUC) were among the key speakers.
