Bhagawan Y, general manager, Crown Printing Centre, Abu Dhabi in natter with Venkat Raghavan, shares his opinion about the current printing trends and his approach towards the printing press all these years.
Formerly from India, Bhagawan Y did his schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bangalore. After completing his schooling, he wanted to venture his career in Engineering which made him to join Bachelors of Engineering in Electronics at BMS Engineering College and completed the same in 1995. After completing Engineering he joined in a Telecommunication company for the marketing department. In 1998, few of his friends who were in Abu Dhabi have suggested him to come for a visit to search jobs as the whole region was booming well. One of his friends who knew that he had basic knowledge in printing has suggested him to attend the interview at Crown printing which later made him to join in the press and become a general manager of the press.
HIGHLIGHTS
● The press was established in 1977 and they have almost 4 decades of experience
● They have three warehouses in Mussafah
● Soon they are going for ISO certification as the industry requires that
Talking about his career, Bhagawan commented, “After completing my Bachelors degree, I was doing sales job for sometime which taught the basic things in sales. After gaining some experience, I wanted to start a new venture to prove myself. While I was discussing with many people about my career one acquaintance has suggested about the overseas job. I did not hesitate to take his suggestion and immediately came to Abu Dhabi and that is how I landed up in this job. Since I felt that Crown Printing is an institution by itself, so I thought that I could learn a lot on the job and I am still learning to keep myself up to date. A couple of years after joining the press I got married and now have two kids who are studying here.”
Talking about the press, he added, “Crown Printing Centre has made a place in the print world in the United Arab Emirates with the most sophisticated technological facility at Abu Dhabi on a base of tireless customer-centric service and quality at affordable prices. In over four decades, we have grown steadily with strong workforces with sound pre-press, press and post-press infrastructure. An experienced team of employees working on regularly updated equipment, motivated by a closely involved, experienced management has allowed us to become the printing partner of choice for several leading corporates, Government, Oil & Gas Companies etc. in United Arab Emirates. We offer products like banners, booklets, brochures, business cards, calendars, catalogues, directories, envelopes, flyers, folders, forms, greeting cards, invitations, hand books, invoices, journals, leaflets, letter heads, magazines, mailings, newsletters, memo pads, point of sale prints, post cards, posters, program stationery, prospectus, reports, sales literature, and many more. We offer printing in various types like Litho printing, digital printing, thermo printing, die stamping, embossing, blind embossing, foiling, continuous printing, silk screen printing, metallic printing, numbering, envelope printing, personalization, and few more. Even though the press was started in 1977, we always focus on the technology and that is what our chairman Ali Abdulla Saeed Salem Kaddas Al Romaith wanted from the inception.”
Giving his opinion about the printing industry, he said, “Printing is an industry where technological enhancements occur quite often. Computer to film (CTF) was the process when I joined, it turned to CTP and now, one can actually execute a packaging job digitally without compromising on quality. A lot of processes have been combined to save time and money. Make ready time has been reduced, machine speed increased, etc. Also, the integration of prepress, press and post press has definitely helps ensure a smooth workflow, excellent colour management and quality finishing. Printing is a capital intensive and highly competitive industry. However, digital and packaging will continue to be the main focus and this is where I see growth. Commercial printing will see a decline in the near future due to the Internet and the mobile world. As far as the digital market, I could say that it is under-utilized. There are endless possibilities with variable data printing from a client’s point of view.”
Narrating about his company credit period, employee retentive, market requirement, and plans, he added, “We normally offer credit period of around 60 to 90 days but it is going beyond that and it is difficult to say no to customers. Even few of the customers are making us to wait for 6 months and we have no choice to say no to them, as they are our loyal customers. Retaining professional employees has not always been difficult to us as we offer them as much as we can. Also, we always abide all the rules and offer them as per the rules of the country. Our customers are our main strength, for instance, when there was a much change in the price offering by others, our customers came to us and explained the price offerings and we immediately took their suggestion. I believe that digital is a boon to this industry and we will expand ourselves more in the coming years as the short turn around jobs is the most needed one for everyone.”
Signing off, he advises, all the industry person has to hold on to the existing customers by offering better price and servicing. Also, keep your suppliers and employees happy.
