Coimbatore’s capabilities in the manufacturing and service sectors are expanding to different verticals and tapping the emerging opportunities. One such is the recent growth of printing units. During the last three years, modern printing facilities that have state-of-the-art machinery have come up in Coimbatore.
Apart from the large number of small-scale printing units that do different kinds of printing jobs, including flex and poster printing, the city has at least 50 large-scale printing units. And, nearly half-a-dozen of these have modern and high-technology machinery.
B. Thilak Kumar of Sri Maruthi Printers says the average investment in each large-scale modern unit is about Rs. 3 crore. Earlier, institutions and customers in Coimbatore used to go to Sivakasi or Chennai to print books, brochures, etc. Now, the units in Coimbatore get orders from all the southern States and even from overseas customers. The facilities here are adequate to meet the local demand. Customers from countries such as Sri Lanka and Dubai also outsource the printing jobs to the units in Coimbatore through their local representatives.
Mr. Kumar says most of these units have representatives in different cities who take orders and pass it on to the printing facilities in Coimbatore. Advertisement agencies also design the material and outsource the printing work to the units here. The customers include individuals, institutions, corporate business houses, book, notebook, diary manufacturers and agencies. The products printed are wedding cards, business cards, packaging material, books, notebooks, brochures, catalogues, etc.
The advantage of the large-scale units is that they have modern and imported machinery that gives speed and quality. Coimbatore units have expanded the network and are able to give competitive prices to the customers. Hence, the city is now emerging as a major printing centre.
