BHUBANESWAR: After bearing financial losses for almost two years due to the Covid pandemic, flex and printing press operators including graphic designers in the Capital are finally seeing a surge in their businesses because of elections.
The lifting of Covid curbs in February with two back-to-back elections have opened up opportunities to get their business back on track.
The printing press and graphic designers who were busy meeting the orders of candidates contesting for panchayat polls last month are again occupied with printing flex, posters, banners, pushing cards, leaflets, and other materials required by the political parties and their candidates for the urban elections.
Some of the flex printing operators are, in fact, keeping their shutters open round the clock and printing more than 10,000 to 15,000 sq ft prints on a day to meet market demand.
The monthly turnover which used to be around Rs 1 lakh has increased fivefold this month, said Daitari Behera of Behera Graphics in the ID market.
He said the business was even more during panchayat elections due to the large number of candidates from the nearby areas coming to the city with flex and poster orders.
The prices of flex printing have also been reduced by some of the operators owing to competition in the market for campaigning materials.
Manoj Swain of SMR Advertisers in Rasulgarh said they are offering prints at a price of as low as Rs 8 per sq ft for bulk orders of flex and prints for campaigning activities.
One of the printing operators in the city said that the candidates are spending around Rs 1 to Rs 1.2 lakh for the printing of campaign materials and branding of their campaign vans, even if most of these expenses come as sponsorship.
Printing press owners also agreed that elections have always been a crucial business time for them as the entire ecosystem of campaigning activities is largely supported by the printing and graphics industry.