Multitec completes 100th press installation

However, this is not the printer’s first investment in a Multitec press. The first Ecoflex VSi was installed at his factory in 2014 and the 8-color, all UV press came loaded with features such as cold foil, turnbar, delam-relam, rail system, corona treater, zerobreak waste rewinder amongst others.  

Mahboubi, chairman of Kalabarchasb, said: ‘Having been in this industry for more than 30 years, we have the eye to judge the equipment and the benefits it offers us in a short period of time. We found that Multitec's Ecoflex VSi press can offer us a short path, excellent register holding capability and all the features a good press should have at a competitive price point. We evaluated a lot of presses from other international manufacturers but the tests we did on Multitec's press were more than satisfactory. The company incorporated some unique features of the press based on our suggestions which made us take the final decision. They could implement some changes very quickly which is what we wanted from a press manufacturer. Multitec could adapt to our requirement almost immediately.’

One of the first label printing firms in Iran, Kalabarchasb is now headed by Mahboubi and his two sons – Payam and Pooya.

Growing at a rate of approximately 15 to 18 percent year-on-year for the last 10 years, Kalabarchasb prints labels for food, personal care, oil, automobile parts and pharmaceutical industries.  The company houses a total of nine flexo presses and a host of finishing equipment at its two plants in Tehran. While one is spread across an area of 40,000 sq ft, the new plant that the printer shifted some machines to in August 2015 sprawls across 100,000 sq ft. ‘There is now room for more growth and much more equipment,’ says Mahboubi. Apart from sourcing substrates from various parts of the world, Kalabarchasb has its own coating unit for manufacturing pressure sensitive stock for internal consumption.

Talking of upcoming trends in Iran, Mahboubi said, ‘The jobs are getting more decorative with foiling, special effects with UV varnishes of different kinds, special inks and so on. There is a huge trend for delam-relam jobs. Most of the jobs are now on PP or clear-on-clear material. In-mold labeling has also started in the country and will take some time for this market to grow. Shrink sleeves have been around for some time and we have now started to enter into that market. Digital, however, is still a while away and good for very short runs ranging between 6,000 and 8,000 labels.’ 

‘The way the company is growing, they are already looking at a third press from Multitec very soon,’ said Amit Ahuja, director, Multitec.

With increasing number of machineries being exported, customer service is the key for continued success. Multitec has trained service engineers of their sales agents for handling small issues in some countries such as Lebanon, Algeria and Russia. For the larger issues, the support is directly from the factory. ‘All presses have a remote dial in facility so our engineers can log into the press console remotely from the factory and check the health of the drives and the other press operating parameters. Also, the print or maintenance supervisors are trained for normal maintenance at the time of installation. We are also in the process of appointing even more sales agents and training their engineers for support,’ concludes Ahuja.