There is nothing trumps about running a printing press but what makes you a winner is being a trailblazer in what you do. Progressive Printing Press is a lyrical ode and a perfect name to the enterprise that is run by a passionate printer (if we may call him that) and is unequivocally experimentative. Asgar Sanchawala is slow to open in what we think is a story worth narrating. Gingerly, he fiddles with various nondescript equipments on his desk and tells us how he built this press and why it is worth investing in technology.
Its been a successful half century for the press, the one that was started by his father in 1965 – a smaller format of the set-up today and in an unassuming basement of their family home in Zampa Bazar. That was an era of the romantic Letter Press – however, printing was a tedious task owing to the technology. The company ambled through various meandering ups and downs until 1992 when Surat was struck by riots and businesses lurched for a while. The family’s confidence did not faze and took it as any other event. They saw this as an opportunity to think and innovate.
In the darkest of the times, sometimes brilliant things happen. The printing press was shifted to Makkai Pul behind Rang Upwan shortly thereafter. And that was when they started with Surat’s first offset machine. It sounds a regular fare now but back in those days, bringing in a totally new technology could be a game changer – either ways. Progressive marched along bringing in more variants – from single to four colour variants in the year 2000. Asgar Bhai fondly recollects the feeling of not buckling under cynicism but instead opening up for new technology and changes which we think is the bedrock of optimism.
In 2004 they shifted to Khatodara, from where they are working currently. It’s a sprawling industrial compound spread over some 40,000 sq. ft. area which is incidentally largest in the state. They serve with everything from designing to delivery here under one roof. There is a familiar hum and a soothing buzz of the press in the humble structure from where Asgar Bhai operates. The place is milling with people designing brochures, catalogues, prints and delivering the print outs. Amid this, he tells us that people do use offset machines but they are all imported and second hand. However, Progressive believes in investing in technology and has worked with brand new machines. Despite everything they have achieved, Asgar Bhai loves challenges and yearns for quality clientele that can challenge what they can deliver. They are preparing the ammunition and backbone with automation being the underlying theme.
Proudly enough, the third generation is slowly getting into the system and raring to make Progressive Press bigger and better.
