North India’s first Xerox 1000 kit has been commissioned at Nehru Place in South Delhi. The unit is within 100 metres from its second unit, which houses an iGen3 since October 2008. Put together Friends operate from a 5,000 sq/ft premise in Nehru Place.

Partner, Mohinder Gupta at Friends Digital, said: "The big development in the Xerox 1000 is the use of the EA toner and a dry fuser with the USP that we can print at rated speed on all stocks."

Friends is witnessing a growth of 30% per year. "We are steadily upgrading and setting new benchmarks for our infrastructure and capacity. An investment of Rs 30-cr plus is a testimony to our endeavour for an in-house state-of-the-art facility acting as a single point digital solution for customers," added Gupta.

Friends Digital has 16 digital machines ranging from small, mid and high-end digital B&W and colour production presses. The digital fleet is complemented with an in-house finishing setup.

The "mini iGen" as Gupta nicknames their 1000 at Friends, is a four-colour machine upgradable to fifth colour-clear dry ink. The press can print up to 100 A4 pages per minute on a maximum sheet size of 13x19 inches and can take lightweight and heavyweight uncoated/coated stocks from 55 up to 350gsm.

The firm is exploring the export market, is developing new print collaterals and applications to drive the business. "We hope to sustain the 30% growth with scaling volumes trickling from segments like photobooks, book publishing and offset printers," concluded Gupta.

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