QuadTech technology to drive APPL production efficiencies and support company expansion

Sussex, Wisconsin - QuadTech today announced that Aamoda Publications Pvt. Limited (APPL), one of South India's largest newspaper publishing houses, has made a landmark purchase, with the QuadTech® Register Guidance System with MultiCamTM and QuadTech Ribbon Control System with MultiCamTM each being installed on 28 web offset printing presses.

With installation already complete on 15 of the 28 presses, early customer feedback suggests that the Indian newspaper publisher is already seeing a dramatic reduction in waste for increased cost control and improved margins. This new capability is considered by APPL to be the lynchpin to increased company growth, enabling it to profitably expand its geographic footprint in Telangana and other regions of Andhra Pradesh, with a view to increasing its newspaper circulation and sales.

The QuadTech systems have been specifically installed by APPL to support the expansion of one of its most notable publications, Andhra Jyothi, which has recently extended its production and readership in a number of additional towns and cities including Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Tirupathi and Vishakapatnam. The Telugu language daily newspaper is the second largest paper in Andhra Pradesh, with a readership of 12.5 million people across 21 cities in South India.

Mr. Radhakrishna Vemuri, Managing Director for APPL, commented on the QuadTech investment: "Tight control of margins through increased production efficiencies is key to profitability in publishing, and maintaining a competitive edge. QuadTech's technology is already enabling us to achieve that, and we expect to see current results amplified many times over when all 28 installations are completed next year."

As Mr. Vemuri explains, QuadTech's growing reputation amongst print service providers in the region and longstanding relationship with the manufacturer of the presses, Manugraph, influenced APPL's choice of supplier. "Working with QuadTech for this initiative was based on a number of factors, but principally product and service confidence. As QuadTech systems are already used by many big newspapers in India, they are tried and tested - a proven platform to deliver what we need. With this in mind, along with QuadTech's renowned service support, we knew that we would be well supported by QuadTech."

The Register Guidance System with MultiCam is a closed-loop color-to-color register control system designed to integrate with other QuadTech products, including the Ribbon Control System. Along with reducing makeready times, minimizing errors and cutting waste, another of its main features includes QuadTech's fan-out control software, which automatically keeps the print system in lateral register across the full width of the web throughout the entire run.

The QuadTech Ribbon Control System with MultiCam minimizes waste by making automatic angle-bar adjustments during startup - before ink even becomes visible - and also resides on the ICONTM platform, which allows all QuadTech press control systems to share a single, user-friendly interface. The ICON platform will also provide operators at APPL with instant access to preset parameters for all their saved jobs, greatly streamlining job setup.

"We were delighted that Aamoda Publications chose QuadTech as its supplier of choice for this important project," commented Vinodhkumar Balakrishnan, Area Sales Manager for South East Asia and Korea, QuadTech. "Not only does it clearly demonstrate our leadership in this market, but it also shows the importance of waste management and color register systems in managing cost-effective newspaper production, maintaining profit margins - and in some regions, supporting significant business growth too."