Hora Art envisions digital future

Pradeep Hora and Sanjay Hora, directors at Indian converter Hora Art Centre, discuss their latest investments and the benefits of digital technology.
Hora Art envisions digital future

Hora Art Centre, based in Noida, India, installed its first HP Indigo WS6000 digital press along with a Konica Minolta digital printer in December 2016 and is evaluating investment in its second digital label press. The company has also installed a 6-color flexo press.

Sanjay Hora explains that the company chose to invest in a digital press because the biggest challenge they are facing today is the increasing number of variants with less quantities and shorter deadlines.

‘It is a well-calculated move and suits our customers’ requirements. In our business model, the flexo press complements digital technology,’ he adds.

Furthermore, he points out that setting up a digital press is quick, resulting in less waste as the technology does not deal with plates and other tooling that is required in a flexo process. ‘It is a good option for short printing runs and ideal for CMYK jobs because it can save a lot of money,’ says Pradeep Hora. The company also houses a CNC plotter that it uses for creating samples for customer approvals.

Explaining the investment in a flexo press, Sanjay Hora says, ‘When my customers have a long run or specialized job, the capabilities of the flexo press will come into play.’

While Hora Art Centre primarily caters to home appliances and mobile companies, it is looking at expanding its portfolio of customers to cosmetics and battery labels after the new installations. ‘We will try to enhance the capabilities of our existing customers too, as we feel the market is ready for it,’ Pradeep Hora adds.

Quality demands

The 32,200 sq ft factory in Noida has dedicated areas for quality check of each printed electronic brand. There are assembly lines where printed leaflets, manuals and labels are checked and added to a bundle in a sequence from one workstation to the next. The final assembly is again checked at the end of the line and then dispatched. Elaborating further on the stringent quality demands of the industry, the Hora brothers say that inspection personnel from brands visit the factory regularly to ensure quality standards are maintained.

Though multiple deliveries are made each day according to customer requirements, the company also keeps a certain percentage of ready products at their facility as a buffer. Each brand’s printed labels and manuals are kept in an area dedicated to that client. ‘We are direct online vendors to our brands so the material is lifted from us as per their immediate requirement. Thus, a digital set-up made sense,’ Sanjay Hora comments.

Established in 1990 by the late Shri O P Hora, the company started as a design and processing house. The Hora brothers joined the venture soon after, and it was in 1995 that they decided to offer a printed product to brands. In due course, Hora Art Centre started catering to offset, label and screen printing requirements. The company now prints manuals, booklets, leaflets, labels and stickers in both roll and sheet form. Hora Art started another printing facility in Pune in 2014 to cater to its customers in west and south India. The company will further expand its infrastructure in the near future.

Hora Art Centre housed flat-bed machines for printing labels that the company has disposed of to accommodate the new presses. While pre-press for flexo is outsourced, the finishing division includes installation of new die-cutting machines with online foil stamping and lamination machines.

The commercial printing division includes several Heidelberg presses, folding machines, screen printing units as well as cutting, binding and punching machines.

Pradeep Hora remarks, ‘We are focusing on offering a complete bouquet of services to our customers using our expertise in offset, screen and label printing technologies. With new presses, we are looking at further growing the label business and catering to specialized label jobs using a combination of printing technologies.’