Manugraph continues strong
international business acumen
Don’t know about you, but there are no early morning cat fights at my home over who-gets-the-morning-newspapers-first these days as my daughter does not feel ‘cool’ to be reading a physical paper. Online is her choice. Mind you, she’s well informed about things to know. That is, what the new generation thinks they ought to know. Therefore, I am left with the entire load of dailies that keeps me busy for a couple of hours. Thank God for small mercies.
Foreground: from L-R Mammem Mathew, editor and MD, The Malayala Manorama Co Ltd shaking hands with Sanjay Shah, vice chairman and managing director, Manugraph India Ltd. Background from L-R, George Verghese, chief GM company affairs; and P P Prakash, GM materials, The Malayala Manorama Co Ltd; and VA Narayanan, vice president marketing, Manugraph India Ltd.
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One secret of success for mature Manugraph in the printing industry is learning how to leverage traditional strengths with strong international business acumen. No wonder, they have established themselves as one of the ‘global leaders in single width technology’. Recently, while the company announced the commencement of the first installation at Mwananchi Communications Limited in Tanzania (Africa), they also received orders from Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd Group (Malaysia) and Malayala Manorama Group (India).
Mwananchi, a subsidiary of Nation Media Group, is the leading printing media company in Tanzania. They publishes three leading newspaper titles; Mwananchi (the top selling Swahili paper), Mwanaspoti which sells the highest number of copies of any paper in the country and The Citizen, their prestigious English title.
Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd Group (Malaysia) is investing in two Manugraph Hiline and Cityline Express presslines, a massive 16 tower order. These presses would adorn the new expansion plan of the company. With each machine having eight towers, two folders and eight autopasters, the installation will be massive one in this category. The Hiline is to be installed at Kuala Lumpur and the Cityline Express would be at Penang. The web machines will cater to the printing of Sinar a leading daily of Malaysia.
Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd Group has a lot of publications in their listing. Other than the newspaper, they do have a bouquet of printing assignments ranging from magazines, catalogues, leaflets, textbooks and directories. Formed in 1988, the company is today the largest magazine printer in Malaysia. The founder of the company Hishamuddin Bin HJ Yaacob and the board of directors have kept the vision of making Ultimate Print, the top commercial printer in the industry, one that offers the best value to customers.
While from the Malayala Manorama Group, Manugraph bagged yet another prestigious order for six Smartline ‘double width’ machines (4x1) in 546 mm cut-off. This press is capable of giving an output of 70,000 copies per hour.
Malayala Manorama group had been forerunners of Manugraph range of products right from the first Coroset to the recently completed Frontline installations. Malayala Manorama is a leading vernacular daily newspaper in Southern part of India with ten editions, having a circulation of almost 1.6 million copies per day spread over the entire Kerala. Due to the burgeoning circulation, they are now in need of augmenting the printing facility with high-speed machines.
