Photo: property of the company RIG
Imagine a printing machine (machine) that can think, forgives the inexperience of the operator, is cheaper than analogues, and at the same time allows you to produce many times more products. Fancy? No, it is already a reality. Such book and album making machines are now produced by the RIG company. Its founder, Sergey Guly, knows the printing industry inside out: he once started his career as a print equipment installer. Having spent a few years as Deputy General Manager of the company, he realized that he wanted to create his own business in the field of printing. I decided to immediately slide into mechanical engineering, considering it the most understandable and studied for myself. An additional incentive to enter this market was the high added value and low competition.
AND THE PANDEMIC IS NOT AN OBSTACLE
In 2018, his own savings of 700 thousand rubles turned into start-up capital. There was enough money to register a company, pay the first rent, make an advance payment on some of the parts, and launch an advertisement. Within a couple of months, a new player on the market received the first orders for the production of printing machines, and by the end of the year he had already sold six such machines.
Photo: property of the company RIG
A year later, RIG presented its products at the Printech-2019 fair and received good reviews from professionals. Further, the process began to develop in a spiral: Turkey became interested in a domestically-made cap-making machine, and the company was invited to Turkey for a printing exhibition. It was not possible to reach the “southern borders” due to the pandemic, but other countries opened the doors at the same time: in the same 2019, the first export deliveries went to Bulgaria and Uzbekistan.
In the midst of a pandemic, when production work was halted and exports suspended, the RIG team began assembling controllers, the brains of any modern machine. First, we take care of the hardware and then we take the management software.
In September 2022, the company received financial support from the Innovation Promotion Fund. His grant is used to purchase equipment and plans to relocate the assembly site and create a machine-building plant in Moscow. At the same time, new areas of development are being worked on: the production of high-precision parts in pieces and on a small scale on demand, as well as new modern domestic metalworking equipment (it has already been developed and is at the stage of pilot assembly ).
The company’s plans are ambitious: in the next 1-2 years, to occupy a large part of the market not only in Russia, but also in Russian-speaking Asia, in particular, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The company is actively in the process of creating its own design office, recruiting designers and developing the circuit engineering department.
Photo: property of the company RIG
FROM “SCHOOL STUDENT” TO “OFFICIALS”
“In addition to the deployment of design offices, production facilities are being located. The assistance of the SME Corporation in obtaining a lease was not only financial support, but also a symbol that the project was feasible. It was simply impossible for us, a small company, to buy with our own funds or with an expensive bank lease, and the exchange rates that had fallen at that time made the acquisition very profitable. In fact, this helped us to make a phase transition in the production of components for our products”, said Sergey Guly.
Together with his team, he constantly improves his devices. From the first machines with the modest name “Gymnast” to the serious “Officers”, a long inventive and design path has been traveled. Today, the machines easily cope with the tasks that are required in the market. At the same time, the devices, unlike their foreign counterparts, are more accessible and much cheaper.
It is not difficult for a company to find customers for its products in our country. Both small and large companies show interest in cooperating with RIG. In general, sums up Sergey Guly, the prospects and goals are clear, the task is to work in these areas.
“GO BIG”
Alexander Isaevich, General Director of SME Corporation, recently became convinced of the fact that the company has all the prerequisites for success. Following the visit to the production, he wrote on his Telegram channel that “the boys have made a lot of progress.” The company has known the Corporation and its management for a long time, in particular, through it, RIG received a much-needed lease for a powerful metallurgical center, which is actively used in production.
As Sergei Gulyi said, today, among other things, the company is engaged in issuing a patent for its developments, the necessary applications for registration have already been filed. At the same time, work is underway to improve not only the machines produced, but also the development of new technologies. In particular, it is planned to transfer them to the so-called dry gluing technology. You will eliminate waste and increase the productivity of book production. At the same time, the technology is completely Russian, and even consumables for it are also produced on the territory of our country. The search for new markets, including foreign ones, continues, negotiations with potential partners continue
