Pragati Offset CEO Narendra Paruchuri with Sappi Award and award-winning print entry

The prestigious 2006 Sappi International Printer of the Year awards ceremony was held in Budapest on 27 October and for the first time in the history of this competitive event, the winner hails from the Asian, Australian and South/Central American region. Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd., headquartered in Hyderabad, India, was named 2006 Sappi International Printer of the Year for its entry in the “catalogues” category and was selected from among the 33 finalists chosen from 7,000 entries submitted by printers around the world.

Pragati Offset’s Hyderabad Plant houses several Mitsubishi presses, including a six-color DIAMOND 1000 with double coaters used to print the company’s award-clinching entry in this year’s Sappi competition. Other Mitsubishi presses at Pragati Offset include a five-color 2F, a four-color DIAMOND 3000LS with coater, and a five-color DIAMOND 3000LS.

Established in 1962, Pragati Offset prides itself on being a truly state-of-the-art printing house. Over the years it has witnessed a steady growth in good client relationships to the point where the company is now viewed not merely as a supplier of high quality printed products, but as an extension of each individual clients’ marketing section.

Up until this year, all previous winners of the Sappi Printer of the Year Award came from the North American, European and South African regions. Pragati Offset, prior to capturing this year’s title as the first printing company from the Asian, Australian and South/Central American region, also set another “Sappi-first” in the 2004 competition by winning an unprecedented number of four Gold Awards.

Sappi – the South African Paper and Pulp Industry – is a global company with production plants in nine countries and is the world’s largest producer of fine-coated papers.