"Thanks to love, cooperation, determination, care, and honesty in our profession of printing, we have become one of the largest printing companies in the Asia-Pacific region" says Pornthep Samatiyadekul, Managing Director and Chairman of Sirivatana Interprint Public Company Limited.

Sirivatana was founded 40 years ago as a small print shop. Chairman Pornthep remembers the humble start of the enterprise: "We had only 32 square meters of space and two employees. Now we have thousands of employees working to improve our capabilities and focusing on doing everything in-house. We are also developing printing technology and launching social and environmental initiatives to raise Thailand's printing industry to meet international standards and to gain worldwide recognition."
Being able to handle all aspects of production in-house is the basis of Sirivatana's business model and the key to its expansion. The company headquarters is located in Bangkok, and the production plant is in Bang Pakong in central Thailand. In addition, a plant in Vientiane, Laos, producing pop-up books was established in 2005.
Pornthep explains the early growth of the printer. "We opened our first overseas sales office in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, some 30 years ago and opened another in New York before expanding globally. At this time, we decided to change our corporate logo and chose the emblem of a globe to represent our global market reach as we strived to export. In the past we were exporting 70% of our output. Today, however, that figure is only 30%."
Chariman Pornthep details the essentials of the business model: "Sirivatana is a total solutions provider, capable of handling everything from creative design to logistics, all in-house. Our work covers a multitude of segments, such as commercial printing and books for export. Because we maintain very high standards, those who require premium quality usually come to us. Moreover, with our large facilities as well as our large-format presses, we are able to accept a wider variety of jobs and also offer our customers economy of scale. This is the core of our competitive edge."
"As we all know, printing began to encounter strong headwinds about 10 years ago. The emergence of digital technology, especially the rise of online marketing and shopping, had a negative impact on demand for magazines and commercial printing. We were aware of these changes, so we set our sights on packaging, where we already had some experience, albeit on a small scale. Forty percent of our work is in packaging, but we have set a target to increase this to 60% of our total output. To succeed in this field, we invested in printing presses that can print not only on paper but also on plastic sheets. Our print output will be sheets. We will not be producing flexible packaging," adds Pornthep.

Purpose in installing Komori Lithrone G40 and Lithrone G44

As such, Sirivatana early relied on Komori offset printing machines, and has been trusting the service of C. Illies Thailand, the exclusive distributor of Komori machines in Thailand. Sirivatana's first Komori packaging press was the six-color Lithrone G40, specified as a UV press capable of printing on plastics and metallized materials. This machine addresses a range of applications, including boxes.
The company soon followed up with an eight-color Lithrone G44, a B1 press. Pornthep explains this investment: "In this day and age, the larger the press format, the better, especially when it comes to packaging jobs. This is because the paper sheets are thicker. No matter how large the sheets are, there will be no stretching. This press has been in constant use since the day it was installed. I plan to purchase a new press and since most of our jobs are six or seven colors, an eight-color press will definitely give us more flexibility as well as faster output."

Locally well supported by C. Illies Thailand

Along its journey, Sirivatana has been counting for years on the services locally provided by C. Illies Thailand. The company provides quality services on all its products by many well-trained local technicians, whenever needed or scheduled. Sirivatana has opted for other machinery and consumable products as well, marketed by C. Illies Thailand to continue growing its foothold in the packaging printing industry. As Chairman Pornthep points out: “The teams of C. Illies Thailand are very important partners to our business. We highly value their expertise and commitment to our growth. It’s truly a winning partnership.”