S P Ojha and his friend Vinod
Vaidya migrated from their ancestral home in Rajasthan to Mumbai in 1976 to
explore new avenues in their career. In Mumbai Ojha worked his way to handling
marketing operations for a Birla group company and Vaidya went into manufacture
of writing instruments. Despite having moved away in different areas and
getting involved in their careers, they kept the warmth in their friendship
alive and would occasionally meet and reminisce their time together. At times,
they also indulged in some business dealings. Both the families remained bonded,
Ojha’s only son Aditya and Vaidya’s only son Kapil were school going kids, but
like their parents they to became good friends. S P Ojha too started a side
business of manufacturing regulators as contract manufacturers to other fan
producers. Ojha and Vaidya used to often meet and discuss possibility of
starting a business enterprise together.
 |
| Kapil |
S P Ojha’s son Aditya Ojha
finished his BSc IT
and wanted to
initially start producing electrical items like dimmers etc. but his father who
had worked in corporate world, wished that he does some business that is more
organized, accountable, and straight forward. The unorganized small business
had its own challenges and pitfalls with large amounts of cash handling. Vinod
Vaidya’s son Kapil Vaidya completed his master’s degree in Computer Sciences
and then attained his MBA from Sikkim Manipal University. Since his father
preferred that Kapil should get some experience before indulging in business,
he took up a job initially in Computer networking industry in hardware at Aksh
Optic fibre company, where he stayed for 2 years. As Kapil’s father was into
manufacturing writing instruments, he wanted Kapil to gain experience by
working in other enterprises, he subsequently took marketing job in Flair Pens.
After 5 years of doing various jobs, Kapil wanted to start his own business and
a little different from the existing father’s business. As in case of Aditya,
Kapil too found the pen manufacturing line too labour intensive. He wished to
indulge in a business where there was automation. Someone suggested to him to
get into printing and for that impulsively one thinks of offset. Since already
many of his relatives were into offset printing, they decided to refrain from
entering a field where they would be in direct competition with their relatives.
So, they started to look for something else.
It was ultimately due to a
suggestion by Kapil’s father-in-law Kashi Prashad Chamaria that they decided to
get into label manufacturing. Kashi Prashad Chamaria was one of the earliest
people to diversify from screen printing and start manufacturing labels. Kashi
Prashad still has a 40 years old Labelmen label press running in Borivali
Mumbai in his company Jepi Chemo Pack. Taking up on the suggestion of his father-in-law
Kapil started researching about labels and gradually came in touch with
suppliers of equipment and materials. Once the mind was made, both the friends,
fathers of Kapil and Aditya, got together to seek each other’s opinion on the
project. The decision was spontaneous, and both decided to let their sons Kapil
and Aditya to initiate their startup venture as partners and they themselves would
remain as mentors and advisors. Though they initially wished to install a high-end
European press but were cautious to make an entry that would get them started
and after gaining a foothold they would like to expand. The Kapil- Aditya duo
speak very high about industry veteran Amit Sheth who initiated them and
convinced them to opt for a Donghai Label press with the full set of allied
equipment needed to start their label press. To see the demo of the Donghai
Press they visited China and on return Sonic labels with Aditya and Kapil as
partners were in label business in 2011. Due to support from mentors both
families had business contacts from where business was assured to their startup
venture. Their initial struggle was only in learning printing and converting
labels. They happily say vendors supported them and became their teachers whether
it was Ajay Mehta led SMI Coated products educating them on the labelstocks or was
Flint providing information on the inks or Sanjeev Atre of PGI Tech teaching
them about tooling or was Deepanshu Goel of Creative Graphic helping them with
pre-press and drawings for dies. It is interesting to note that the vendors
became their teachers, and they were quick learners who stand indebted to the
team of venders who helped them in their initial time.
Kapil reminisces that the biggest
challenge they faced was printing bar code labels for pens on flexo. Since their
connect was with the writing instrument industry most of the business they were
getting was coming from that segment. By their own efforts they have formulated
a specialized process to create these and it has become a niche segment for
them. Till date they remain perhaps the most successful supplier of barcode
labels specially for pens industry. Though their first success came from
supplying to a leading brand of electrical switches and thereafter the journey
became smooth and growth oriented. Three years down the line Sonic labels felt
the need for expanding capacity, they again pondered over the idea of going in
for a larger European established brand press but on deliberation and mentor’s
advice, it was decided that it is too early for them to take a big financial
risk and that they should go in for yet another similar press, so in 2014 they acquired
their second Donghai Label press. Unfortunately, in 2013 Kapil’s father Vinod
Vaidya passed away. “He did not witness the success that we as entrepreneurs
achieved” says Kapil in a pensive mood. As they progressed, their customers
also started asking for corrugated boxes, so as part of diversification and
expansion they also put up a corrugated box manufacturing unit. However still
they are firm in their opinion that label market is more stable and growing
part of packaging plus it has a lot of room for innovation. It is for this
reason that post the downslide due to the covid19 impact, label is one product
that bounced back the fastest.
Talking of short runs, they say
they are comfortable doing that on their flexo machine only and have not really
felt the need to go for digital, which they say is not cost-effective and their
customer will not pay the higher price. Moreover, flexo printing is working
very well for them. Ecstatically they mention that after acquiring the second
Donghai, they were able to pay it off in just about 18 months and by mid-2015
with capacity fully utilized, they were envisaging yet another label press! Moreover,
the previous two machines were only printing 6 colours, they had a constraint
of not being able to cater to customers who had jobs of more than 6 colours. With
focused marketing they had built up a good customer base for themselves, but it
was a handicap and distressful to lose an order that was more than 6 colours. Ever
since inceptions Kapil Vaidya had wanted
to have one of the best equipment available but they did things
systematically and endured the initial struggling by investing conservatively
in the initial years. Once they were fairly settled, they approached bigger
brand owners for orders but faced a situation whereby they were asked which
label press they possessed, this also motivated them to move on to a higher
platform. This time around they had made up their mind to upgrade and so
started researching on options available and at Labelexpo 2017 they finalized
their order for a Gallus, a brand that had been in their mind since long, even
though it was way beyond their planned budget.
Such is their dedication to labels
that just a few months after installing their new Gallus label press Sonic
Labels became the
winner of the UV flexo special effects award at
the Flint Group Narrow Web Awards at Labelexpo Chicago in 2018. The
partners are optimistic about them achieving robust growth in the ensuing years
by also adding more products that are in synergy with their printing
capabilities. Aditya says, “IML is one growth area we have identified, and we
are excited to add that to our range in the near future”. Kapil agrees and
states, “we have established Sonic labels as a brand, we will continue to
expand and grow”. At Sonic Labels, they are already running to full capacity so
the next expansion may happen by end of 2021. However still they are committed
to stay focused to label manufacturing and foraying further into IML. Digital
or other printing technologies are not considered, as they wish to stay focused
on the flexographic label printing that has given them success so far, moreover
the costing of digital printing remains beyond their comprehension given the
fact that India remains a very price sensitive market. As they grow, they are
now concerned about waste management and may soon consider ways to reduce waste
and evaluate processes to curtail their adverse impact on the environment.
Waste also occupies a large amount of expensive real estate, so it needs to be
shredded and responsibly disposed off.
With every new equipment they
acquire they evaluate the output, make effort to reduce manpower, reduce
wastage and implement more automation to minimise the dependence on operators. They
have implemented ERP, CRM, and other management systems. They also plan to work
on inventory management and implement “just in time” purchases to have a
healthy cash flow. Both Kapil and Aditya feel that the label industry in India
has a tremendous scope for growth. It is for them to envisage how much of this
opportunity they can capitalize and benefit from. They are confident that
capacity enhancement and expansion is going to remain a way of life for their
enterprise. Given that vision, they still exercise caution and give a lot of time
for planning before investing so that their investment gives maximum returns. Sonic
Labels is operating with approximately 40 people out of a
shopfloor area of 10,000 square feet 40% of
which is available for more expansion. They try to restrict their operation to
the present location, but the growing business has prompted them to set up a
finishing unit in Nashik, to service a customer at their doorstep there. It is
maybe the first baby step to go multi-location.
Being in their mid-30s, both
partners have the enthusiasm, vision, time, and zeal to rise above the crowd!
They are a team to watch…
Written by Harveer Singh
Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi February 2021
