Pragati to foray into flexography

Hyderabad-based printing major, Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd, is foraying into flexographic printing.

The Rs 67-crore company will be setting up a subsidiary for this purpose which is likely to become operational by September this year.

Flexography typically uses flexible plates where the image to be printed is higher than the non-printing areas. It is usually used for high-speed, speciality applications like packaging material, labels, cartons, corrugated containers, plastic bags, adhesive tapes, wrappers and the likes.

"We are setting up our third subsidiary which will undertake flexographic printing work. We are importing machinery from the Netherlands," Harsha Paruchuri, executive director, Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd, told Business Standard.

The privately-held company will be investing $1 million for this purpose. Funds will be raised through internal accruals and bank loan.

Pragati Offset has been operational since more than 40 years and has nine presses in Andhra Pradesh. It has two other subsidiaries - Pragati Pack and Pragati Box - focusing on paperboard cartons and rigid boxes. Some of the company's clients include Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Mercedes Benz, Pfizer and Apollo Hospitals. It employs over 300 people.

At present, 15 per cent of the company's revenues come from the export market, predominantly the US.

"The UK market is also growing," Narendra P, chief executive officer of Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd, said, adding that, nonetheless, the competition from China was increasing.

Meanwhile, Narendra said that though the company was not keen on going public, it had kept its options open for consolidation. Pragati Offset is eyeing a turnover of Rs 70 crore-Rs 80 crore this year, followed by over Rs 100 crore in 2007-08.

The company has also invested Rs 4 crore in a city-based e-learning company, MEdRC Edutech Limited. Narendra said that the exact shareholding in MEdRC was still being worked out.

Read more: Pragati Offset wins Asian Printer of the Year award