First DI Press In Middle East Aids Switch To Print

Tarek Jawharji's is proprietor of Dubai (UAE) Color Lines, a jewel in the UAE's graphic arts industry, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Tarek Jawharji's is proprietor of Dubai (UAE) Color Lines, a jewel in the UAE's graphic arts industry, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

At first he was manager and operator combined, but as the workload increased he started recruiting people, hiring qualified staff who either had previous experience or an eye for detail and a will to learn.

Said Jawharji: "I've always believed in long-term investments, so I picked the best machines with the right staff.

This helped us generate profit right from the start, which is very difficult in this kind of business.

I am lucky to have a dedicated team of 75 people to manage such a large set-up and operate it 24 hours a day, even on Fridays." The company has two Heidelberg and two Agfa imagesetters plus four proofing machines and last year it acquired a 74 Karat DI offset press.

"Across Europe, big companies are closing their pre-press departments, and we needed to secure ourselves for the future.

We need to upgrade ourselves by venturing into printing, so we explored two options: either to go for a conventional printing press or to opt for a high-end DI offset press.

DI printing has been around for four years, but we waited for the exact specification that the KBA 74 Karat now has to offer before taking on this new project and announcing the new printing section.

We were inspired by a German report that said that pre-press houses had had a better success rate with DI presses than printers.

CTP systems and DI presses both need professional pre-press people to run them successfully," commented Jawharji.

Tarek Jawharji's decision to invest in a 74 Karat was influenced by his younger brother, Ziad, who at the time was a student at the London College of Printing and also worked at a nearby pre-press house, which had installed one of the first Karats in the UK.

When Ziad told him about the press, Tarek called up the agent for more information and was shown the DI press installed in one of Germany's biggest pre-press houses.

Impressed by the speed, quality and short run time of the machine, Jawharji decided to take the big leap forward by placing an order for the first DI offset press in the Middle East.

Initially he thought that customers in the UAE wouldn't pay the high charges incurred for a DI quality print and the fast speed of job.

However, a market survey soon dispelled his doubts and Jawharji realised that people who demand high quality jobs are ready to buy the time and the quality, which proved to be true once the machine started running at Color Lines.

It now produces brochures, posters, flyers and magazines.

Jawharji feels that the Karat DI's specifications offer advantages both to the company and its clients compared to conventional printing, thus providing Color Lines with a competitive edge in its crowded market.

Registration is claimed to be much better than with a conventional machine, the press runs up to saleable colour in just 10 sheets, and make-ready is remarkably short because there is no need for time-consuming colour adjustments.

With the Gravuflow inking system the same job can be printed weekly, monthly, or after any length of time with the same results claimed KBA.

"With our DI press we have managed to capture the high-quality job segment of the market.

The machine can output 10,000 copies per hour and we are already working round the clock.

The market for this machine is between 500 and 10,000 sheets per run but the Karat has brought in short and long runs outside this range, which is contrary to our expectations.

The cost of printing such short-run jobs on a conventional press is too high and we do a fast job at a very competitive price, which is not possible in conventional offset," said Jawharji.

The 74 Karat consumes Presstek's process-less Pearldry plates, but Tarek Jawharji is hoping that another vendor will enter the market to push down the prices.

He has plans for further streamlining production by implementing colour management and educating both staff and customers on its use and benefits.

He is confident that his customers will be only too happy to take advantage of the offer when they see the enhanced reproduction and lower production costs it can deliver.

He also talks of the need to implement a management information system throughout the company in the foreseeable future.

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