Printers’ progress

The imprint is clear as we step into the office of JAK Printers Private Limited. Trophies line the walls and bespeak the printers’ progress. Recent prestigious prizes await shelf space. Among the most cherished are the Bombay Master Printers Association (BMPA) awards including the "BMPA’s Super Star Title” won at the Print Awards 2008 in November and the Best National Printer Award 2005-2007 presented to JAK Printers at the Fourth National Awards for Excellence in Printing held by the All India Federation of Master Printers in February 2008 at the Science City Auditorium in Calcutta.

Giving JAK its cutting edge are managing directors Khushru Patel and Aspi Forbes. "We are brothers, not blood brothers but childhood friends who have been together since pre-primary,” Patel explains. The name JAK was scripted from the first letters of Jasmine (Khushru’s sister), Aspi and Khushru. "It was our father Paeterasp and mother Dolly who started the venture as a home unit but the real birth happened in 1984 when we started business from 250 sq ft premises at Byculla,” Patel explains. "We had studied printing technology for two years in night college, but in practice we had to teach ourselves! College just gives you theory!” Forbes asserts.

(Top): Six-color Heidelberg press (Photo: Jasmine Driver); two generations: Paeterasp Patel (seated) with (from left) Khushru Patel, Jasmine Singh, Aspi Forbes; Best National Printer trophy (center) and other all India awards

The first couple of years were a tough fight. "Everybody negotiated on price. They wanted jobs done cheaply. We struggled. There was honestly little to do, but we knew what we wanted to do!” Patel smiles as he remembers. The initial breakthrough came from the Taj Group. "I am very proud to say our first job for them was rejected! It was a technical error — one word had shifted from the grid,” Patel narrates. "We accepted our fault and told the Taj we would reprint the order. The customer fell in love with us! We gained confidence and after that there was no looking back.”

Top left: Team JAK. Right: Patel and Forbes (third and fourth from left) receiving BMPA’s Super Star award from Dev Nair, president, Print India ’08 and Subhash Chander, AIFMP president ; (Second row) design studio and the way up; (third row) sketch of Byculla works, American antique (inset) and CTP machine (Photos: Jasmine Driver)

"We use top of the line technology, from pre-press, press to post-press,” Patel explains as he takes us on a tour of the current large premises, also in Byculla, which they bought in the year 2000, moving in two years later and steadily expanding. Walking past colorful computer screens and intent designers at their workstations, we circulate around and across reams of papers on the shop floor, some printed, others awaiting first impressions. Carton upon carton of printed products are stacked tall, awaiting delivery, be they prose or poetry — beautiful books, illustrated weeklies, brightly hued posters, humbler product packaging.

Hard at work amidst the bustle of men and machinery are the laborers preparing the ground for an honored partner in progress — a six color Heidelberg soon to arrive. "It has the maximum frills that a machine can have. Our immediate challenge is to install and tame this machine, produce the best out of it. It is unique in India,” Patel draws the outline. "Heidelberg is the Rolls Royce of the printing industry. From single color to six color, we have had the guts to buy Heidelberg (through the years) and put ourselves on a strong footing.”

Offset duplicator in use in the early 1930s (Photo: Jasmine Driver)

"In post-press, we have the largest bindery for finishing all kinds of jobs,” says Patel. The Kolbus hardcase line occupies a large area where the entire process of binding and finishing high-end coffee-table books is done speedily, fully automated. To his knowledge, says Patel, JAK is the only commercial printer in Maharashtra who has this specialized equipment.

"Everybody gives quality. It’s not as if others don’t. Competition is fierce,” notes Forbes. In an industry where clients have tight budgets and tighter deadlines, Forbes believes it is JAK’s personalized and timely service which is their hallmark. Patel nods his assent and adds: "It is also in-depth knowledge of equipment and product, whereby we can deliver the unexpected extra.” New show windows sometimes pop open unexpectedly — a foreign visitor to a bookshop at a five star hotel once pestered the store manager to find out and give him the address of the printer because he liked a coffee-table book that he saw in the shop! "He was a photographer. He came here and got a book printed by us,” Forbes narrates the inside story.

"The maximum high-end books used to be printed in Singa­pore due to import duty exemption. Sin­gapore, Hong Kong, China, there is competition from all these places but we have convinced publishers to get books printed here,” declares Patel. "We are constantly upgrading our skills and have taken hands-on specialized training in Europe and Australia. There is no machine the two of us cannot run.”

Exhibiting their work at world printing forums, JAK Printers won a silver award at the 51st International Calendar Show in Germany in 2001 and a bronze in 2002. Their present tally is 10 international and 88 national awards, states their brochure. At the Drupa Fair (the world’s largest and most important trade fair for the printing and media industry) in Dusseldorf in May/June 2008, JAK had five entries for Drupa’s top 100 awards. Four were selected for the Drupacube, which displayed the 100 best print products worldwide through the days of the Fair. "Germany is the Mecca of the printing industry. Drupa is so huge we couldn’t finish seeing it, though there were five of us!” Patel chuckles.

Above (from left) Priyan, Jeroo, Nainaz and Aspi Forbes; Zeenia, Khushru, Meheru and Parvana Patel;

As far as printing presses go, "we stand nowhere in terms of size. In terms of quality, we are high up. We have won recognition as a good quality supply chain. The challenge is to live up to it and not fail. Our technically qualified and skilled staff continually support our thoughts and vision,” Patel asserts. "When we shifted the press from Worli (where they were from 1986 till they moved in 2002 to the present site), it took a great toll on us. We did not realize it would be so hard!”

In October 2008, Patel was invited by the deputy municipal commissioner (education) of the Bombay Municipal Corporation to be a member of their technical panel "to contribute your knowledge and experience which will help us in modernization of our press…” Every job is tricky, he asserts. "We had a client from Dubai for whom we were doing visiting cards which is not normally in our portfolio. He had come to us after two to three tries elsewhere. It is very difficult to get a base color (on visiting cards) evenly, without scratches. It is a nightmare. If you succeed, you will have a customer for life!”

Is Parsi entrepreneurship thriving? we query. "No, Parsi enterprises are not fighting it out. They are not changing with the times,” opines Forbes. "The older ones, the ones who have been in business for the last couple of generations, are closing down. There is a lack of capability to absorb change in the way the business is run. They cannot change, we respect that, but they are paying the price,” says Patel. Though there are new enterprises, in general it is a backward trend, they believe.

Aspi (center) with Jasmine and Khushru

Khushru’s wife Meheru is one of the partners of the well-known, family-run Parsi Dairy Farm and the younger generation has chipped in to help overcome some of the problems that beset it in the recent past. The Patels’ older daughter Zeenia, 22, who was into competitive skating earlier, is doing commercial art at Sophia College. Parvana, 21, has studied bakery and confectionery at Sophia College and takes keen interest at Parsi Dairy too. Aspi and Jeroo also have two daughters. Priyan, 16, is a second year Arts student at Jai Hind College, Nainaz, 12, schools at Villa Theresa.

Both Khushru and Aspi prefer to remain out of community controversies. "We are not into Parsi politics. We are simple businessmen interested in doing good work. We do our own small social service, like giving employment to the visually challenged or printing and distributing free of cost prayer books, as the current generation is asking for the Khordeh Avesta in English. We do whatever we can,” the printing professionals assert.

Moving up the value chain is important, with training and development an integral part of JAK’s large team. On the anvil is the setting up of new branches and looking for opportunities in international markets. "We make a difference,” states their motto. "We have never forgotten our roots and that has made us strive more, towards perfection,” Forbes sums up.