Established in 1838, the Times of India belongs to the Indian media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times Group). Its circulation currently totals more than 3 million copies per day. The newspaper company operates 13 printing centres across the country. At the site near Delhi, newspaper production takes place on four web presses. The portfolio includes the Times of India and Navbharat Times, both of which are published daily, as well as various other titles for Delhi and the surrounding area.

“We opted for EAE, or rather QIPC-EAE India, because they’re a supplier with enormous experience in press retrofits. They were able to offer us a solution that is very much geared to standards and based on hardware which is freely available in the market. The decision to equip the press with the most advanced control, drive and preset technology possible will profit us not only with higher availability but also with a leap in productivity,” says  Snehasis Roy, the Times of India’s Technical Director. “We were also persuaded by the fact that EAE presented themselves from the outset as a partner interested in long-term collaboration with us on a local level who would adopt a flexible approach to our specific needs.”

Key order in the Indian market
A slightly unusual procedure was chosen regarding the execution of the retrofit work. Whereas EAE in Ahrensburg (Germany) will take care of the planning, software development and project-related coordination, the operational implementation in the field will be in the hands of QIPC-EAE India. QIPC’s Indian subsidiary will source the necessary hardware from the local market, then carry out the essential preassembly and testing and finally the installation. QIPC-EAE India will additionally provide primary service and support and set up a spare parts depot.

“We’re delighted that the Times of India has put its trust in EAE’s retrofit expertise and standards based solutions by entering into a partnership with us,” comments Vijay Pandya, Managing Director & CEO of QIPC-EAE India. “This key order will help us demonstrate our retrofit capabilities to the whole of the Indian newspaper market. It’s also further proof that QIPC and EAE’s seamless cooperation is working in a global context.”

Menno Jansen, Chairman EAE expressed his gratitude to Mohit Jain, Times group Executive President Supply Chain during his visit at EAE’s headquarter in Ahrensburg Germany. Thanks to EAE’s ingenious retrofit concept, all modifications to the newspaper web press will be undertaken in the midst of normal production, which will not experience hindrance in any way. The preparations at EAE will begin in June 2017; the current plan is for the retrofit to be implemented in Sahibabad between February and July 2018.

About EAE Engineering Automation Electronics GmbH:
The Ahrensburg-based company is active in graphic industries, automation solutions and automation technology. The company, founded in 1962 by Richard Ewert, is the leading supplier of controls, automation solutions and software for newspaper printers. EAE's solutions are being used in all areas of a newspaper printing plant – from pre press to the mailroom. Worldwide more than 550 newspaper printing plants are using EAE's control systems to produce more than 125 million newspapers each day.

For more information on EAE please visit: http://www.eae.com