Harveer Sahni

Total Post: 298

LMAI Brand owners’ event, a roaring success!

LMAI Brand owners’ event, a roaring success!

Label manufacturing continues to evolve into different tangents involving diverse technologies. The retail selling scenario is undergoing a sea change as also the need to make consumers repetitive buyers of branded products. The times of shopkeepers promoting sales of their preferred brands is transforming rapidly into one where the consumers decide on their own what to lift off the shelf, given the modern retail growth. In view of growing need for printers having capabilities to produce decorative and innovative labels that catch the consumer’s eye providing brand security and enhancing the brand’s image as well; there is an imperative need for brand owners to connect with the label converters. In such a scenario, India’s label association, Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) organised a program exclusively for label printers titled, “Brand owners’ perception of labels in changing scenario” at hotel, The Orchid, Mumbai. The program was attended by over 100 delegates comprising mostly of top end label printing companies, packaging professionals of renowned brands, sponsors and LMAI board members. It was an effort to promote the positive escalation of labels in a changing scenario bringing the stake holders at a single platform to strategise a win-win solution.

Following prominent speakers shared their thoughts:
 
Suresh Gupta Former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL
Somnath Chatterjee GM Procurement – Pernod Ricard, Segment: Liquor
Anil Choubey Head Packaging Dev.-Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. Segment: FMCG
Ajay Bapat Associate Dir. Packaging Dev. Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Segment: Pharma
Vishwas Jangam Packaging Dev. Mgr. at Future Consumer Enterprises Ltd. Segment: Retail
Prabir Das Head – Packaging Tech. Services Mylan Laboratories Limited segment: Pharma
Ainain Shahidi, Director SIES School of Packaging was special invitee who moderated the event
Other Packaging industry professionals who attended the program include Fazal Farooqui DGM Packaging Development Zydus Wellness formerly Kraft Heinz Company, Sunil Patil-HPCL and Ms. Koel Bhadra-Packaging development Professional.
 

Delivering the keynote address Suresh Gupta, former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL expressed his philosophy of success for the entrepreneurs present, “Sound fundamentals are enshrined in Good values; being Good compassionate people, knowing knowledge is power to be used with integrity, ever improving quality and service and continuous innovation makes for happy customers. Be the flag bearer of standard in your industry” He further cautioned printers to be ready; for the present equipment to become outdated in 5 years due to fast evolving label technologies and be ready to invest in new equipment after properly understanding the technology. Impressing upon the fact that Digital printing is the future.

Prabir Das, Head Packaging Technical Services (OSD) of Mylan laboratories spoke about Importance and effectiveness in Product-People Connectivity where packaging is the connector and labelling is the communicator. It is a necessity therefore to design the packaging that establishes the connection and the regulatory and statutory information is communicated through the label.

Somnath Chatterjee, General Manager Procurement of Pernod Ricard said that labels must appeal delivering a lifestyle message. He also stressed the need to reduce wastages. Referring to the increase in counterfeiting in liquor, Somnath invited printers to offer them unique solutions even though they themselves are already implementing security measures to safeguard the interests of there consumers. He felt that it is important to get all stakeholders in label production to ponder over the needs with the end user consumer in mind. 

Ajay Bapat, associate director packaging development, Emcure Pharmaceuticals informed about the necessity of right information, cleanliness and the need for smart labelling. 

Anil Choubey Head of Packaging Development Patanjali Ayurved Limited spoke the need for effective, sustainable and eco friendly labels and would be looking forwards to printer suppliers offering such products. 

Vishwas Jangam Packaging Development Manager of Future Consumer Enterprises Limited the company that owns Big Bazar chain of retail malls and stores spread across India, dwelled on specific needs of designs for labels on the shop shelves. Modern day retail that is growing at 21% CAGR needs the attention of the consumer who makes an impulsive buying decision in just about 12 seconds.

The event was moderated by Ainain Shahidi a packaging industry professional and now the director of SIES School of Packaging. He enthralled the audience with his amazing Urdu poetry and couplets while leading the flow of event. He also apprised the audience about the activities of SIES School of packaging. 

Before presenting vote of thanks Manish Desai past President LMAI, announced the next LMAI conference at Grand Hyatt Hotel, Kochi on July 2019, the Indian label Industry’s most important and biggest event.

The event was sponsored by Avery Dennison and SMI Coated Papers as gold sponsors and Creative Graphics as silver sponsors. Manish Desai while thanking the audience felicitated with mementos the speakers, the moderator Ainain Shahidi, the packaging professionals who attended and Harveer Sahni who curated this event with help of LMAI leadership team. Leading printers who attended included Amar Chhajed from Huhtamaki-PPL, Vivek Kapoor-Creative Labels, Chandan Khanna-Ajanta packaging, Manish Desai-Mudrika Labels, Tejas Tanna-Printmann, Arvind Shekhar-Sai Packaging, Aditya Patwardhan, Mahendra Shah-Renault Paper, Sandeep Zaveri- Total Prints, Naveen Goel-Any Graphics, Rahul Kapoor-JK Fine prints, Patricia-Letragraphix, Sandhya Shetty-Synergy Packaging, Anil Namugade-Trigon Digital, Sanjay Purandre -Shree Ganesh Graphics and so many more. The event was media covered by and attended by Naresh Khanna and his team from Packaging South Asia, Pradeep Saroha Country head for Tarsus, Aakriti Agarwal- Indian editor of Labels and labelling UK and Noel D’Cunha and his team form Printweek!

Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi March 2019
Print Publications are free to reproduce this article giving credit to author Harveer Sahni

SMI celebrates 25 years, reaching 100 million square meters production!

SMI celebrates 25 years, reaching 100 million square meters production!
On the 2nd of February 2019, India’s largest indigenous labelstocks manufacturer Ajay Mehta led SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd. headquartered in Mumbai celebrated their 25th year of existence, in grand style. Over two hundred guests who were shown their impressive factory were in awe of what they saw and felt proud that their industry mate could set an example of success impressing the mantra; “Make in India”! The event also exhibited the typical Punjabi will and firm resolve to work hard and find success even while starting from scratch. Ajay’s father Om Prakash Mehta suffered the first jolt of leaving home in Multan, now in Pakistan, empty handed he came to Delhi after the partition of India and then moved to Kolkata where he set up his print lamination business. He had settled down well there with business growing when the second jolt hit him, once again he had to leave everything in Kolkata due to the turbulent days of Naxalite movement in the 1960s. Leaving behind all that he had made he with his family moved to Mumbai when his son Ajay was just 10 years old. Om Prakash Mehta was a very brave man and took all the adversity in his stride and moved on in life. He re-established his print lamination business as S M Plastic Industries in Mumbai named after his wife Shakuntala Mehta. In 1983 Ajay joined business and they started fabric lamination but when the business stopped growing the Mehtas decided to quit that business and establish a new business in 1993 producing self-adhesive labelstocks in their new enterprises S M Industries which was later renamed SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd. 
 
 
They started production with a 20inch coater. Ajay Mehta, his son Rohit, wife Swati and daughter in law Saloni. All contributed their efforts in growing SMI to where it has reached today. Ajay and Swati’s daughter Nikita, after training in vocal music in USA is pursuing a career in singing also in USA.
 
 
 
 
For the 25th year celebration SMI invited the virtual who is who of the label industry to showcase their manufacturing facility. The outstation guests were all put up in the iconic ITC Grand Maratha Hotel. On the 2nd morning multiple groups in different buses were taken to Ambernath for factory visit. Earlier in the preceding days they had arranged for the local label printers of Mumbai and surrounding areas to visit their factory. 
 
 
 
The event was extremely well managed so that smaller groups were taken around for a one-hour factory tour so that everyone got a chance to visualise and understand the capabilities and manufacturing as well as quality control systems employed by them. On arrival the guests were first given an impressive presentation of SMI’s journey, achievements and awards. SMI has been recipient of over 20 domestic and international awards.
 
 
 
 
The factory is set up in a 25000 square meters plot with a 13000 square meters shop floor. With seven coaters; two hotmelt adhesive coaters, two acrylic emulsion adhesive coaters, two silicone coaters, one recently installed tandem coater and a host of finishing and material handling systems they consume 1350 tons of paper each month to produce 100 million square meters of pressure sensitive labelstocks per annum. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Tandem coater recently installed is capable of coating silicone and adhesive in-line in a single pass with automatic turret reel changing for continuous production. 
 
 
 
 
Eight story motorised movable stacking system helps the store material with optimum utilisation of space. An ERP aided workflow ensures smooth storage and movement of materials from receipt to despatch.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
Well-equipped laboratories for testing and quality control of both inward materials and finished goods guarantees delivery of perfect quality material in each reel supplied to their 200 customers spread in 22 countries. 50% of SMI’s turnover comes from exports that constitutes over 300 SKUs offered by them. 
 
 
 
 
Besides the Ambernath factory they also have a stock point and slitting facility in Dubai, UAE. The father son duo of Ajay Mehta and Rohit Mehta, with their dedicated team of 225 team members work tirelessly to achieve a steady growth rate of 15-20% per year. Commenting on the future Rohit wants to consolidate strength and expand into new areas of self-adhesive materials. While they see potential in exports of their products, yet they intend to cater largely to the Indian market which with a large population, is growing at a fast pace. More so in the face of a fast-growing organised retail spreading into remote parts of the country.
 
On the evening of 2nd February 2019 SMI arranged a gala dinner for all the visitors who came to share the celebrations of SMIs 25 years of growth. Speaking about the future prospect of the Indian Label industry Ajay Mehta says, “Label stock materials is a highly technical field with high turnover and low margins. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Global players need to work together to improve the financial health of the industry.” He further adds, “The Indian Label industry is poised for quantum growth. This needs to be fuelled well with better margins. Intense competition should be handled by creating innovative solutions, instead of just indulging in a price war.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ajay took time to honour and felicitate his team at SMI. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was a memorable moment when Ajay called his mother to the stage and recalled her contribution towards the growth of their business over the years. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Suppliers and customers too spoke on their appreciation of SMI’s journey in the past 25 years.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Besides investing and contributing to social causes, SMI has also been an ardent supporter of the India’s Label association LMAI, Label Manufacturers Association of India. They have been regularly sponsoring LMAI events promoting fellowship and networking in the industry and supporting technical seminars for the benefit of members. In a magnanimous gesture Ajay Mehta has agreed to provide space in his Ambernath facility for setting up of a LMAI training centre for operators and a lab for providing testing facilities to LMAI members.
 
 
 
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi February 2019

Trigon Digital Solutions, successful in digital printing of labels

Trigon Digital Solutions, successful in digital printing of labels
On the 22nd of November 2018 at the LMAI Avery Dennison Awards night, held on the side lines of Labelexpo India, the winner announced in digital printing category-Wine and Spirits was Trigon Digital Solutions, Mumbai. Just over a week later, on the 29th of November 2018, Trigon was declared the Printweek India “Digital Printer of the year”. This was Trigon’s fourth award; the first two were Printweek “Pre-press Company of the year” awards won in 2015 and 2017. It is an incredible performance by a company promoted by first generation entrepreneurs just 10 years ago, with no previous experience in running a manufacturing company. They moved into roll form digital printing of labels merely 3 years ago. They have invested in a digital printing press at a time when we are witnessing the evolutionary shift of label production in India from conventional processes to digital. Digital printing is a segment of label industry that leading label manufacturing companies have been extremely hesitant to invest in, due to high cost of equipment and consumables. Anil  Namugade the co-founder, along with partner Milind Deshpande, have promoted Trigon Digital and successfully led it on its digital label journey.

 

After graduating in Economics from Mumbai University Anil Namugade, also a Printing Technologist from the Government Institute of Printing Technology, took up jobs as a scanner operator from 1994 to 1997 in few of the leading pre-press houses in Mumbai. Here he acquired immense knowledge in repro-colour separation and prepress. In 1998 he joined Heidelberg as a software specialist and continued to work there until 2003. Anil joined Kodak as packaging and proofing specialist in 2003. It was a purely technical job where he developed his passion for proofing, learnt the nuances of colour management and the imperative need of good prepress for excellence in final print. During his stint with Kodak he was also handling technical and sales support which helped him gain experience in selling as well. Unfortunately, by 2007 Kodak was seeing a decline in business and as restructuring process was being put in place, he had to exit Kodak. Suddenly that one day he found himself jobless, away from a stable job in an MNC(Multi National Company). He firmly believed in and followed a simple mantra of success and excellence; “Look at problem as an opportunity and learn to grow and excel”. Drawing inspiration from this mantra, he along with partner Milind Deshpande who is also a printing technologist, set up their maiden start-up venture Trigon Digital Solutions. 

 

From past experience and knowledge he had acquired from working in the previous jobs, Anil knew that customers needing packaging, wanted to see how their product would look, before they opted for actual printing and production. He saw the opportunity in this need, so Trigon was set up as a proofing and mock-up producing company. His knowledge of prepress and colour management helped him to achieve his goal. Earlier it used to be the creative agencies that visualised and created a format for packaging, Trigon creating an actual marketable mock up for the companies was a new and welcome development for brand owner companies. The first equipment they invested in was Kodak Approval NX that printed in sheet format and started to take up proofing and mock-up creation for customers. Finding success in their endeavors he soon realised that being closer to the customer is an imperative.  In 2010 Trigon opened a facility in Bangalore and followed it up by setting up a unit in Delhi in 2012. In 2015 they went international by setting shop in Dubai and later an office in Singapore. All the units except the office in Singapore are equipped with Kodak Approval NX.

 

In 2015 they saw the opportunity in customers demanding label mock-ups in roll form, so in their Mumbai facility they invested in an Epson Surepress to produce samples including Flexibles, Laminates and Labels by digital printing in roll form. Moreover, the production on Kodak was turning out to be expensive and limited to sheet format. Soon their customers upgraded from demanding just mock-ups to ordering short runs for their specialised marketing needs.  They also started to see business emanating from the shrink sleeve segment as also a growing demand for other roll form variants. The slow speed of Surepress could not cater to the demand they were getting and also there was a limitation that it could not produce shrink sleeves. At this time in 2017 Trigon decided to take a major step of investing in an HP Indigo 6000 digital press and enhance their capability to produce a larger range of products. A year down the line in 2018 Trigon yet again upgraded their HP Indigo 6000 to HP Indigo 6900 which had enhanced features. On this HP 6900 they could do inline primer coating saving them the time and valuable space, print metallic inks and florescent inks. With a widened customer base and enhanced capabilities they now cater to applications in FMCG, Liquor, Personalised labels, Variable Data labels, QR codes and a lot more. They now produce and sell a range besides labels, offering flexible packaging, complex laminates, lamitubes and shrink sleeves. Anil Namugade firmly believes that digital is the future of printing and innovative packaging. Dwelling on the general apprehension of label printers regarding ROI (Return on Investment), he feels that it becomes better from an expanded vision of providing specialised services to the customer. These services that Trigon offers include brand management, database management including validation, preparing the mock-ups for test marketing before indulging extensively, offering creativity to customers for their evaluation and aiding decision making, personalisation or customisation and incorporating variable information on each label or package at short notice. Their experience in pre-press has helped them greatly and he believes that by adding full post press setup Trigon has become a one stop shop for the needs of brand owners. The additional cost of digitally converted products needs to spell value for customers to justify the cost. Anil asserts that the vision for success of flexo graphic printing and Digital printing should be looked at separately and not as a comparison. 

 

Trigon Digital Solutions plans to remain focused in digital Printing. With already a facility in Dubai and an office in Singapore they are a global entity and they will be expanding their global reach by establishing a setup in U.K. in 2019-2020 as they already have customers in 18 countries including UK and Europe. They have endeavored to remain logistically close to customers to be able to provide service at their doorstep. Surprisingly due to their business model of being linked to packaging development, marketing and brand management, their revenues do not come from purchase budgets of customers but come from their marketing budgets. Trigon making optimum use of space operates out of around 1800 square feet shop floor area of all facilities put together. Headquartered in Andheri East, Mumbai they have a workforce of 102 persons. At Trigon every new creation is a challenge but developing it is not. Anil proudly says innovation, technology, extensive knowledge of prepress, and having “People with Passion” in their team has always been a winning force for Trigon. They are committed to improve upon what the customer wants or brings to them for creation of a label or package that will spell success for their products and brand. 

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman WeldonCelloplast Limited New Delhi December 2018

The untold story of Suresh Gupta former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL

The untold story of Suresh Gupta former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL

 

Thirty-one years after joining Huhtamaki-PPL (formerly Paper Products Limited or PPL), Suresh Gupta retired as its Executive Chairman. He joined the company in 1987 at a difficult time for the company, as business had slowed down since 1980 and they had to sell off their paper mill. When Suresh became a part of PPL the turnover of the company was just Rs.24 Crore and with a large workforce of 700 employees. He led the company until his retirement with sales reaching almost 100 times to Rupees 2300 Crores and the number of people working rose to 3500! Huhtamaki-PPL is now the largest producer of printed and finished flexible packaging materials in India. Under his leadership, the company, led not only PPL’s but also India’s foray into diverse label technologies as well. They were the very first entrant into shrink sleeve labels in association with Fuji Seal of Japan. Today Huhtamaki-PPL is the largest player in label manufacturing segment in India with their label sales touching 400 Crores which includes Pressure sensitive labels, Shrink Sleeves, Wrap arounds, In-moulds and other label forms. They are vendors to the virtual “who is who” in the Indian branded consumer goods and pharmaceutical industries. In pressure sensitive adhesive labels alone also, they are the largest at 200 Crores after taking over Webtech Labels, Ajanta Packaging and Positive Packaging.
Suresh Gupta
Being an army man’s son Suresh’s childhood was spent at various locations within India. His father who is now 92 years of age, was a paratrooper with artillery from the well-known 17 parafeild regiment of Indian army and retired as Director of Military intelligence. After retirement he was assigned as Director SSB (Special Security Bureau) by the cabinet secretariat. Retiring from SSB he was taken by the Himachal Government to be the chairman of Himachal State Electricity Board. Suresh has a brother who is 9 years younger than him and followed his father’s footsteps to join the army, has primarily headed combat formations, served in the UN Peace Corps and is currently a Major General. Typical of army families, Suresh’s schooling took place at various schools across the country, the last two being St. Georges School, Agra, and St Xavier’s School Delhi where he was in the boarding and finished in 1967 with excellent marks.  Being underage, he could not apply for admission into the IIT or Delhi University colleges, so at the age of 15 years he did a year of pre-engineering at Government college for Men Chandigarh, where the youth in him got the better of him in not attending any classes other than chemistry. He did poorly, much to the disappointment of his father who was posted in Ambala at that time. His mother gave him 200 Rupees and sent him to Delhi to his grandmother. Admissions had closed for most good courses but a good school marksheet helped him get admission for BA economics honours in the prestigious Hindu College Delhi University. He studied hard and in the very first year he got a first division and ranked in the University to win back his father’s confidence. After graduating from Delhi University Suresh went to the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management studies Bombay, which then was considered amongst the best two in the country.



Finishing his MBA, he was motivated and impressed upon by the head of HR department of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute who was also the vice president of Corning Borosil to join Corning Borosil, which he eventually did as a management trainee in 1974. 




 
Suresh and wife Kumi




The following year in 1975 he got promoted and got married to Kum Kum Talwar fondly called Kumi. Kumi graduated from the prestigious Lady Shriram College in Psychology honours and did her Masters in Social Work when she topped her class in Delhi University, and has been Suresh’s close confidante. At a young age of 23 he was posted in Madras as Regional Manager South for Corning Borosil who manufactured custom designed glass reactors for specialised industrial chemical processes, laboratory glassware and consumer ware under brand names Corning, Borosil and Pyrex. Surprisingly his immediate colleague working under him, the Head of Sales and Service was 52 years old. 






 
With daughters Ratna(L) and Shivani(R)
He enjoyed his stint in Madras as it was great learning time there and in 1979 his elder daughter Ratna was born. Post Emergency when the Janta government came to power the then minister George Fernandes came down heavily on US companies. While Coca Cola left the country, Corning was asked to dilute their equity to less than 40%. Suresh Gupta was at this time transferred to Delhi as Regional Manager North with additional responsibility of interacting with government and convincing them to excuse Corning from this equity reduction as a special case. Being a high technology company also supplying critical materials to defence, they were not allowed by USA government to setup ventures where they did not have full control. It was tremendous experience for Suresh, one side interacting with government and other side selling to large industries, government laboratories and finally setting up channel sales for their consumer products. Once it was clear that government of India would not relent regarding equity dilution, the company stopped further capital investment into the country. Now that it was evident that there would be no growth in the company, Suresh decided it was time to move on in life.
He shared his thoughts with a friend at Usha International, who instantly arranged for Suresh to meet Lala Charat Ram of Shriram group. He was taken on board and became Divisional Manager of the Lucknow Division of Usha International, stationed at Lucknow when he was 28 years old with almost 200 people working under him. Usha was selling sewing machines, electric fans and agricultural pumps. This was a challenging job as the market was extremely competitive and majority of the employees i.e. the mechanics, belonged to a militant union and were unionised. The area of operation for him was interesting as criminals and bad elements roamed free there. There are interesting and scary stories of his time spent in those areas. Due to his frequent tours his family at home had to be provided armed security guards due to threats.
Sardari Lal Talwar Founder Paper Products






During this period there was pressure from his wife Kumi’s family to join Paper Products Ltd. the company founded by her father Sardari Lal Talwar.











In the meantime, a close friend of Suresh Gupta from Middle East came visiting him in Lucknow out
of the blue with a first-class open ticket and a proposal to join the Doha headquartered Almana Group whose Chairman wanted an executive director who he could trust to join his Board as there seemed many issues with his existing team. Suresh took the trip to evaluate what was being offered, finding it very exciting he accepted the offer and joined them in late 1982. In due course, various businesses were put under him some of which he started, and seven companies including an IBM agency reported to him. He then was designated as Executive Director-International, he started businesses or had oversight of investments in Saudi, Dubai, Turkey, UK and US. After joining he recruited 16 Indian Managers in his team and parted company with four other Managers already in the company. He spent the next five years in Doha and reminisces of them as fascinating years, as a time of immense learning, travelling all over the world for 15-20 days each month. His younger daughter Shivani was born there. In the beginning of 1987 Suresh and Kumi were reviewing their career and lifestyle. Their eight-year-old elder daughter who was going to British school could not speak a word of Hindi, their mother tongue. They wondered if they should continue to live in the Middle East. The Almana Chairman understanding their dilemma offered to station Suresh in another country of his choice. At this time Suresh was also toying with the idea of taking up an assignment with United Nations but Kumi’s family was persistent and he decided to return to India and join Paper Products. 
Rare picture of Suresh Gupta and father in law Sardari Talwar
In October 1987 Suresh Gupta and family returned to India to join Paper Products as a promoter and he acquired a minority shareholding. As mentioned earlier even though being a legendary company it had problems, the paper mill they had in Roha was sold. Kumi was the youngest child of Sardari Lal Talwar her two brothers were ageing and not keeping well and have since passed away.
Paper Products Limited was founded by Sardari Lal Talwar in 1935 in Lahore, that time in undivided India. Sardari Lal was running one of the four largest departmental stores of India of that time called Moolchand of Lahore with a customer base of Indian royal families and Britishers. The store stocked goods like a modern-day multi product retail and was founded by his Grandfather Moolchand and Uncle Khairati Ram who were also very charitable persons. They were running Hospitals, Schools, Temples and Dharamshalas (subsidised dwelling for travellers). Moolchand Dharamshala in Lahore was just opposite the Lahore Railway Station. The founders passed away at an early age and leaving the business to a young 15-year-old Sardari Lal. Moolchand store was importing milk bottle caps made of paperboard and paper crimped cups for the army till one day a British army officer in charge of the Dairy came to him and suggested that he import the paper and make the caps and pastry crimp cups in India. It would save the army some amounts enabling them to extend their budget. Sardari on advice of his international friends got the hand presses developed in India, imported some dies and punches and started to make the caps and cups in Lahore in 1935. 
To start this maiden manufacturing venture, he emptied one of the Moolchand store warehouses and commenced production with the signboard outside reading, “PAPER PRODUCTS”. He later imported machinery from Windmoller and Holscher Germany in 1939 to start manufacturing paper bags. This was the inception of what is today Huhtamaki-PPL.
Moolchand Hospital Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi
Then came the partition of India, all was lost and left behind in Lahore when the family migrated to Delhi. For all the charitable work that the family did in what was left behind in Pakistan, Sardari Lal was given land in Lajpat Nagar as compensation. He had an emotional need to carry the philanthropic ideals of his parents, so before doing anything else he established the “Moolchand Kharaitiram Hospital” in Lajpat Nagar, South Delhi. He also started making packaging products that he was already doing before. Immediately after world war II in 1948 the Germans were holding the first Drupa, Sardari Lal, travelled by ship to attend where he met and struck friendship with some of the leading packaging people in Europe. Owing to his good reputation, Windmoller and Holscher gave him five Bag making machines with printing, on open credit. He returned to start a factory in Faridabad in 1949 followed by one in Ghatkopar Mumbai. Paper Products started to grow steadily and Sardari Talwar took his company public in 1951 retaining 51% with himself. Paper Products started to grow steadily and Sardari Talwar took his company public in 1951 retaining 51% with himself. 
Thana Factory
Billy Heller owner of Milprint (now a part of Bemis Company, Inc.), then the world’s leading flexible packaging company based in Milwaukee, USA became a dear friend of Sardari Lal. Billy was also a philanthropist wanting to share his knowledge with the world, had set up an organisation called Milprint International Club with global leaders including Paper Products as members. With Milprint’s technical help he built the Thana factory in 1960 to the then world class standards. At this time his elder son Dr. K K Talwar who had done his doctorate in USA at the institute of Paper Chemistry returned to India. A little later his younger son Suresh Talwar completing his master’s in economics from USA, also returned to India. Dr KK Talwar was amongst India’s foremost scientists in chemical technology and paper making, he drove the company’s technology leadership. Suresh Talwar was the dynamic operational business head of the company. Business grew after Thana factory was commissioned, and many small factories were constructed across the country at Madras, Calcutta, Nagpur, Hyderabad and a paper mill in Roha.
Around 1980 things slowed down due to various reasons, the paper mill in Roha got sold, it was a difficult period. In 1987 the family had convinced their son-in-law Suresh Gupta to return to India and join the company. Suresh joined in October 1987 and spent a whole year working hard, travelled extensively in India and around the world to learn the technology and business as also meeting all the major customers and suppliers of PPL to understand the intricacies of their business. By 1989 Suresh was ready with his business plan that included induction of new latest technologies, while very slowly shutting down all factories except Thane. Due to the humane angle they did not abruptly sack people but informed transparently that in 10 years’ time this would happen. This with intention to let ageing employees retire and not add any new ones. However, expansion in Thane factory was kept going on, old machines were phased out and replaced by new ones and the staff from shop floor workers to upwards were given in-house training in latest technologies. Meantime a new cadre of craftsmen trainees, diploma trainees, graduate engineer trainees and management trainees was started with inductions of freshers from ITIs, diploma schools, engineering colleges and management institutes. An elaborate program of in-house training was put in place. The program was designed by Suresh and his colleagues to suit their specific needs may they be technology, customer or people handling. They were transforming the company to project their acumen in offering the latest in packaging. They went digital way ahead of time in 1989 when they started digital scanning and digital engraving of cylinders. They also started to computerise the company ahead of time. A start up consultancy company was recruited to put-in a modern computer hardware and software system (one of the first ERP’s) to replace the old card punch system. While modernising operations in Thana factory he shut down the old printing and wax coating converting lines and installed modern gravure printing and lamination lines making Thana a state of art unit once again. The first metalliser capable of producing certified barrier coatings was commissioned in 1994. There were many things done for the first time in India.
With Amar Chhajed
Suresh continued to add new products and expand his footprints into the world of packaging and in one of his frequent travels in 1990 he saw shrink labels in Japan. He established contact with the Fuji Seal Chairman Masaki Fujio, the global inventor of shrink sleeve and became the only licensee of Fuji Seal for shrink sleeve manufacturing in 1991. At around the same time he was discussing Therimage label technology with Dennison, later merged with Avery to become Avery Dennison. This technology enabled labels to be printed on a coated film and transfer the images on to the bottles eliminating the need for release liners. PPL installed the Therimage label production facility in Thana. Therimage was a challenge for Avery’s core business of pressure Sensitive adhesive products, so they bought Dennison and killed the Therimage business. Suresh saw the future of Therimage with Avery was not bright, so he shifted focus to pressure sensitive labels where the growth looked inevitable. PPL invested in an Aquaflex Label press and they were into manufacturing PSA labels at the Thana factory in 1994. In later years wanting to grow in labels business, since he was not finding enough of the right people and expertise to expand, he decided to buy expertise. For this reason, he bought Amar Chhajed led Webtech Labels, the leader in pharma labels in India. Then, Suresh extended his reach in fmcg by buying Chandan Khanna led Ajanta Packaging as well. In between he had acquired Positive Packaging which though large in flexibles had also taken over the labels business of SGRE in Bangalore. Therefore, now they have pressure sensitive label production in Mahape, Baddi, Rudrapur, Thana, Daman, Hyderabad and Bangalore.  


 
Silvasa Factory
Being a first-time entrant into some of the evolving technologies he had to develop global suppliers and was instrumental in their eventually coming India. By 1994 Suresh was wanting to build another world class factory, despite resistance coming from the family which still held 51%, he went ahead with his plans for building it in Silvasa. PPL made a rights issue to raise the money to build the factory and enhance the working capital for growth. Construction began in the 12 acres property in 1995 and in one year the unit was in production for mainly flexible packaging including shrink sleeves. They made profit in the first year itself. Paper Products Ltd was growing at breakneck speed ranging between 20-30% per annum.
In 1998 Suresh bought the Hyderabad unit of Gautam Thapar, Ballarpur Industries which had been 
Hyderabad Factory
setup as a joint venture with A and R, a leading European flexibles company. The unit was completely refurbished and new capacity was added. Hyderabad became the centre for wrap around labels. Meanwhile the company had made another rights issue to fund growth and the family’s holdings reduced to 32% as some members did not exercise their options. To fund the continued growth and expansion Suresh wanted to do yet another rights issue and wanted the family to increase their holding. But the younger generation were pursuing other professions, so it was decided to bring in an outside investor in synergy with PPL’s business. Van Leer and Huhtamaki combination which eventually merged to be one entity became the major investor chosen from amongst many options. Rather than the family selling its shares, PPL’s share base was doubled and the foreign partner directly invested into the company through preferential allotment of shares equivalent to 51% of the enhanced equity on 16 July 1999.
The company now with Huhtamaki as the new majority shareholder continued to aggressively pursue growth. Huhtamaki worldwide as a Euro 3 billion consumer packaging major had almost 100 companies across the globe. In 2001 and again in 2005, the Huhtamaki Board awarded PPL with the most exclusive and prestigious award of “Best Company of the Year”. PPL also received the “Most Innovative Company of the Year” award. Meanwhile Suresh was awarded the globally best “Manager of the Year” award, a unique honour.
Consequent to new fiscal incentives being announced by Government for Uttarakhand, a huge factory was built yet again on a 12-acre plot and commissioned at Rudrapur which again made a profit in the first year of production, and PPL continued with growth.
Huhtamaki wanted Suresh Gupta to head Huhtamaki’s global flexible business which he was hesitant to accept as he had no interest in moving out of Mumbai. However, he accepted to take the responsibility for Asia Oceania, operating from his base in Mumbai for three years. Finally, Huhtamaki removed his objection to running the group’s global flexible packaging business by telling him he could run it from his Bombay office. He had to accept the responsibility and ran the global business as an EVP and member of the Executive Board for Huhtamaki for six years. Thereafter he reverted to be the Executive Chairman for PPL but stepped down from his role as a promoter and simultaneously as per Huhtamaki’s desire he sold his shareholding to Huhtamaki.




Meantime industry peers honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award and Print Week, based on a readership vote. ranked him number 1 in the top 100 ranking of individuals in the industry. In Feb 2018, Suresh handed over day to day running of HPPL to the new Managing Director while he focused on tying up Board issues.
 






On 31st December 2018, Suresh Gupta retired and left the company that he so fondly nurtured.
 

In recent years, as a hobby, Suresh has been a supporter of socially beneficial enterprises from start-up stage and of businesses with purpose. He is also deeply interested in Art. He plans to intensify his work here and run a packaging industry advisory from his new office in Bandra. He would be happy to be of help to industry colleagues. He also plans to continue his active role in the “Indian Flexibles and Folding Cartons Association of India (IFCA)”. He leaves behind for his successors in HPPL his philosophy for success: “Sound fundamentals are enshrined in Good values; being Good compassionate people, knowing knowledge is power to be used with integrity, ever improving quality and service and continuous innovation makes for happy customers. Be the flag bearer of standard in your industry”.

Suresh Gupta can be reached at his email: suresh.gupta20@gmail.com

Print Publications are free to reproduce this article by compulsorily giving credit to author and mentioning blog address http://harveersahni.blogspot.com 
 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Ltd. January 2019

Labelexpo Americas 2018, a pictorial presentation

Labelexpo Americas 2018, a pictorial presentation
I have been attending labelexpo exhibitions since the onset of new millennium. In those days there was only the main event Labelexpo Europe in Brussels followed by Labelexpo Americas in Chicago and labelexpo Asia in Singapore. Labelexpo Asia was later moved to China which eventually settled down as labelexpo China as the market for labels started booming there and the sheer market size due to the population there, drove in visitors. However, as I see, it is now primarily a China show, though visitors still do come there from various countries due to the price considerations of Chinese products. The mother event of Tarsus, “Labelexpo Brussels” continued to grow phenomenally and became the centre stage for the global label industry suppliers to showcase their products and project the ultimate evolution of label production technologies. It is a must attend event for any progressive label producing company. It would not be wrong to say it is the “Mecca for label printers” around the world! Labelexpo Americas was the second most important show of Tarsus, more so because it was the home turf of industry founder R Stanton Avery, also because USA has the highest per capita usage of labels. However, since the importance of the Brussels show escalated due to geographical global growth of label industry, labelexpo Americas comparatively became a region centric show which has not lost its relevance because it still contributes largely to innovation and evolution of label making. It is surely smaller in size than the parent event at Brussels.

 

Tarsus saw the proliferation of label industry into other parts of the world and felt there was a need

 

to have presence in countries that saw growth of retail and a growing market for labels. In an effort, to bring global technologies to their doorsteps and to make it convenient for printers who were small and had potential to grow but could not travel long distances to witness the evolving technologies, they moved to other countries. They acquired the “India Labelshow” and renamed it Labelexpo India. Recently also launched a show Labelexpo South East Asia in Bangkok to cater to the South East Asia markets. With growth of labels and packaging in the MENA region, they have the Gulf Print Pack in Dubai. They have also started to hold label summits in Africa and Latin America as a precursor to setting up shows there when situation warrants. Labelexpo Americas 2018 was recently held in Chicago from 25-27 September 2018, I had the opportunity to visit and connect with peers on the industry. I call my personal visit and meeting global label industry friends as “Bonding in labels”! A day before the show opened on 24th September 2018, the judging for World Label Awards took place. I feel honoured to have been one of the judges for this global competition which was chaired by Mike Buystedt of Flint Group who moderated it with professional efficiency. I reproduce my pictorial attendance at this event and the events on the side-lines. I always feel pictures do communicate more than the words.
 
 

 

 

 

Judging for World Label awards in progress
 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
On the evening preceding the opening of Labelexpo Americas, a networking gathering was arranged. It was a good to connect with global Industry friends, I personally call it "Bonding in Labels". In the picture is Jules Lejeune-Managing Director FINAT, Dan Muenzer-President TLMI and Noel Mitchell-label consultant and former Vice President UPM Raflatac.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nilpeter Stand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Gourav Roy of FIG at the Mark Andy Stand

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Avery Dennison Stand
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gavin Rittmeyer VP Martin Automatic
 
 
 
 
 
Craig Moreland Chairman TLMI

 
Label Awards Night
 
 
 
Georges Gravanis President Label/Graphic Materials Avery Dennison
 
 
Lisa Milburn MD Labelexpo and Keren Bec Mexico
 
 
   
Bobst Stand

 

Gururaj Ballarwad of Signode India with Ramon Li of Brotech China 

 

Christian Menegon HP
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gallus Stand
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Automation Area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A selfie with Label Guru Mike Fairley and Andy Thomas
 
 
 
Delta Modtech
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amit Sheth at Pulisi Stand

 

 

 

 
Steve Katz Editor Label and Narrow 
 
Dan Muenzer President TLMI
Indian Exhibitor Mona Equipments
 
 
Finat President in a meeting

 
 
The above presentation is written, produced and compiled by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India. October 2018
 

Chris Ellison: FINAT President, setting standards in workflow management.

Chris Ellison: FINAT President, setting standards in workflow management.
In an ever-evolving label scenario, the need to produce more efficiently, reduce wastage, shorten downtime, reduce interest and financial stress due to big inventories, reducing manpower and achieving more revenue per asset are necessities that will add to financial health of companies. To achieve the here mentioned imperatives, many companies are increasing the use of digital technologies, automation and artificial intelligence. This not only helps them to be system driven rather than being human driven but also empowers them to add to their bottom lines with peace of mind. Chris Ellison the 20th President of leading global label association FINAT has transformed his company OPM Group, Leeds UK, to be a lean manufacturing one with increasing use of automation and digital MIS system to put in place a workflow that performs efficiently and delivering the desired results. This leaves the management in a comfortable managing environment, their customers happy and results in better relations with all stakeholders including suppliers and customers. A walk through the OPM facility is a delight. There is perfect workflow with no bottle necks or stagnation of materials. A very neat and clean unit where every process leads to the next with aid of an IT enabled workflow and automation. The MIS system has been created by involving the internal team, all suppliers, prepress developers, logistic partners and customers as well. Generally, printers do not share information with their vendors, here the vision of the Ellison family has created a system that makes the unit to work with perfect harmony and the appreciation they get helps in better relations with their customers.
 
In most printing companies the sales force is nowhere in sight and the general perception on the shop floor is that sales people have all the fun travelling and partying with customers. Chris’s vision is to inculcate a sense of togetherness and team work in the entire workforce. Each shift when workers enter the factory, in the first room they get to see behind a glass wall, is the sales force working hard at their desks preparing for yet another gruelling day with customers creating a continuous flow of order. This also instils a sense of bonding as Chris feels that all the workforce needs to feel committed and create success with the inspiration, “Together we will”! Each order that is entered into the system goes through a digital workflow that is available on screens throughout the company and every department can see the progress without any hindrance. From costing, quotation, order approval, pre-press, inventory management, delivering raw materials to presses, finishing, packaging, despatch and invoicing goes on in clockwork precision. All staff, vendors, transporters and customers are hooked on to the system for the information that they are required to access and react to. It is an information highway created for smooth travel of all orders from initiation to delivery. 
 
One cannot see any congregation or unnecessary movement of workers in the factory or over loaded warehouse. A company with 20 million pounds turnover has just 73 employees. Chris says, “implementation of these system has helped us achieve a high turnover of 4 million pounds per asset or per Label press” he further adds that trained and efficient people are scarce to find so they must invest in an IT department and in training people, which is expensive, but it is justified for them to be more efficient. Subscribing to principals of Total Quality Management, all products at OPM are produced to ISO 9001:2015, BRC/IoP Global Standard Food Packaging standards Grade AA and PS9000:2016. They are printed using low migration/ Food Grade Inks. Truly, Chris Ellison as industry leader is setting examples for peers to follow.
 
Jack Ellison and his three partners ran a small engineering company building overprinting machines. His 20 years old son Chris wished to have his own business so started importing Dot Matrix printers from Germany and selling in UK. While in school Chris did not really excel in academics but was very inquisitive about how things worked, enjoyed creativity by changing things and wished to do something different and innovative. After finishing school education, he went on to a technical college to study engineering. He had two brothers and a sister. Both his brothers died due to cancer, one passed away at the age of 34 when Chris was just 15 years and the second at the age of 40 when Chris was 20 years old.  These losses left a void in him and he vowed never to waste a day in his life.
 
One Christmas a person made him a good offer and Chris sold his Dot Matrix business. Mean while one of the partners in his father’s company died in 1986 and discontent started between the partners creating uncertainty. His mother too was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 64 however she passed away much later at the age of 93, just one day after Chris moved his operations to the present facility. His father Jack Ellison could not take the stress at that time, so Chris first took over his father’s share in the business that his father was in with partners and later, since he had the cash from sale of his own business, he bought over rest of the partners. The company had at that time just installed a small Tackiboy label press. Operating out of 1000 square foot factory, 95% of the business was coming from the label press, machine manufacturing was terminated making them primarily a label manufacturing company. 
 
The company was renamed OPM Labels & Packaging group as Chris wished to produce labels and flexible packaging which till date remains their core business. In 1989 OPM bought their first flexo press Propheteer the very first one to be sold into UK. By 1999 OPM flexibles was in place to produce printed films, filmic laminates and sachets. They had by then acquired 6 Nilpeter label presses. As time went by OPM have upgraded their machines by replacing the old ones with new machines. This was done to achieve better efficiency, low wastages and faster production, the number of presses remain; 6 Nilpeters. A seventh Nilpeter is expected to be installed in the last quarter of 2018. About waste management Chris Ellison says “OPM take their environmental responsibility seriously, we are proud to assure our customers that their label products are being produced with as little impact on the environment as possible”. They have recently been awarded their Zero Labels 2 Landfill Certification.
 
OPM is jointly owned by Chris and his wife Susan Ellison. Susan is active in business, looks after the human resource functions, Manage and organise implementation of MIS and Automation systems, Project Managing, R&D alongside with Chris, offers inputs from a design and repro background, takes initiatives for new developments, marketing-Communications and strategic planning. She came to the business with reprographic experience having worked with various companies in the field. Their daughter Charlotte 28 and son Arnold 26 are also working in OPM making it a totally family owned and managed company. 
 
 
Chris feels it is challenging to keep pace with your business as it evolves. One must rely on people and motivate them to grow with your business, the leadership must have the desire, passion and will to take it further and pass it on to his team. Chris and Susan also are involved in a lot of charity work investing time and money in cancer research and aftercare. His elevation in FINAT as president has helped him to get a broader perspective of international label trade. It has helped his expand his knowledge through the global networking platform that FINAT offers. He tries hard to connect with the large spread out membership base and create value for members.
 




The above article is exclusively written for Label and Narrow web magazine USA. This may not be reproduced without permission.
Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman, Weldon Celloplast Ltd. New Delhi India September 2018
 

Labels on the move-growth in India-2018

Labels on the move-growth in India-2018
Fifty years ago, 80% of India lived in villages.
 
People are moving from villages to cities to experience the modern-day city life as they see on TV and internet. 





 
The scenario has transformed over the years. As a result of ongoing urbanisation, the urban population in India has now grown from 19.4% in 1968 to 33.5% in 2017. The shift has a direct impact on the consumption of household goods, as daily needs in city dwelling are obviously different and more than that in villages. More so due to the impact of a growing rate of literacy level which is the percentage of people aged 15 and above who can read and write having increased to over 72% percent from 40.76% in 1981. People in the working age group 15-64 years has escalated to 66.2%, from a level of 55.4% in the last 50 years. In 2017 the median age of the country, which is half of the people to be younger than this age and other half older, was estimated to be 27.9 years. In a country of 1.32 billion people a growing need for household goods or consumer goods also referred to as FMCG or “fast moving consumer goods” means there is an ever-growing huge demand for labels and packaging that are a part of the consumables they buy.

 

According to a report in The Economic Times dated May 01, 2018, consumer products market grew
13.5% in the Financial year 2018, with eight of 10 leading companies posting double-digit value growth, FMCG being the 4th largest segment of the economy. Online sales of consumer goods is also seeing an enormous rise as number of online users is poised to cross 850 million by 2025. According to a report by marketing research firm “eMarketerOnline” retail sales in India are expected to grow by 31% this year to touch $32.70 billion, led by e-commerce players Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall. Retail market is estimated to reach US$ 1.1 trillion by 2020, up from US$ 672 billion in 2016 further expected to boost revenues of FMCG companies to 104 billion US Dollars. The data herein mentioned indicates a definite, constant and escalating demand for labels and packaging.

 

 

Indian Label industry has been witnessing challenging time since demonetisation of currency and later due to implementation of GST. While these measures may be beneficial for the industry at large, yet they slowed down the trade impacting margins and revenues. With capacity growth already committed by existing label companies who had already placed orders for new equipment and by those entering the segment in this period, slow down impacted adversely the positive sentiment in label industry. The Label printing and converting equipment was being upgraded globally by machine manufacturers to achieve efficiency in production, reducing wastages, producing to economies of scale and was becoming more expensive. An industry that was used to a quicker ROI (Return on Investment) and better margins found the situation challenging, decided to be cautious and held-back investing decisions. While the economic parameters of growth as mentioned in the earlier part of this article were on the move all the time, a pause or back stepping for two years created a gap that has resulted in now a positive situation whereby new investments to increase capacity are being made. However still, label printers are apprehensive that this sudden indulgence may result in over capacity, promote unhealthy competition resulting in lower margins and make servicing of loans a little difficult. Despite this the positive sentiment in the label industry is evident as those who have excelled are committed to expand and maintain their position.

 

 

Change is the only permanent in a growing scenario, also stagnation leads to deterioration so one has to keep improving, innovating and expanding to remain in reckoning in a vibrant colourful industry. The label industry, much to the discomfort of the existing peers of the industry is seeing a lot of investment from the sheetfed offset printers. The sheet offset industry is used to big time investments in equipment and voluminous sales justifying their lower margins with massive turnovers. They were content with ever growing toplines, yet when the bottom lines needed strengthening labels appears to be a solution. While this would not add much to the top line but would surely contribute positively to their bottom lines. In a conspicuous effort to make their balance sheets look more presentable, it seems the offset printing industry is becoming indulgent in labels. It is for this reason we see label exhibition stalwarts Tarsus targeting the offset printers for their upcoming Labelexpo India. This is much to the discomfort of existing label industry constituents as it would add to the intense competition bringing pressure on already depleting margins in terms of percentage.

 

 

The label demand in India continues to grow and investments in label printing and converting equipment is on the rise. Though not much authentic data is available, yet the author based on experience and time spent in the industry has attempted to reach a reasonable size of the market. There are about 1000 label manufacturing companies in India. These include very small and big plain label, barcode label and product label manufacturers both in roll and sheet, spread all over India. The number of machines that each of these companies possess varies from just one machine to multiple machines, in many cases the machines installed are in double digits. On a very modest estimation if I assume an average of just two machines per label company, the total comes to 2500 label converting machines. The number of rotary machines announced in media in the recent past as installed in India over the years till now by leading label suppliers like Mark Andy, Gallus, Nilpeter, Omet, Bobst, Edale, MPS, Weigang, Orthotec, etc. coupled with those supplied by local manufacturers like Multitec 200 machines, RK label 150 rotary plus 600 flatbeds, Jandu 135, Alliance, Webtech and others, is well over 1500. Now if we add the used machines, the intermittent and other flatbed/rotary options, the figure is definitely over 2500. Working backwards for converting capabilities with realistic downtime, the per capita consumption of labelstocks is well beyond 1 square meter.

 

 

Calculating quantities of label stock manufactured from the number of coaters installed with Labelstock manufacturers we have, according to the author’s personal estimation, Avery Dennison is leading the pack and SMI following, together they account for over 40% of the production in India with almost 48 Crore or 480 million square meters per year. According to Jandu Engineers, who have been the main coater laminator supplier to the unorganised sector, they have till date installed 150 adhesive coating lines in the country. While Jandu asserts that his coaters run at 100 meters per minute but for a realistic estimation their speed with down time has been considered at 50 meters per minute. Added to this is the production coming from numerous Hotmelt coaters installed and together with the stock lots used, the total again justifies the 1 square meter per capita usage. Another evaluation done with base consumption that most in the industry had agreed at 0.25 square meter in the year 2003. Applying a year on year growth rate of just 10%, this year we cross the 1 square meter per capita usage. The estimation is the author’s personal estimation only, many of the industry peers may not agree with the author’s estimation yet it appears that we have come a long way in the last 20 years. The self-adhesive label production and consumption in India all including roll, sheet, stock lots etc. this year seems to have reached a whopping 1.30 billion square meters!!!

 

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India September 2018

 

Make in India: Producing Magnetic Cylinders and machines for labels

Make in India: Producing Magnetic Cylinders and machines for labels
Pioneering efforts and firm dedication, established Sanjeev Atre of PGI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. as the first Indigenous manufacturer of magnetic cylinders in India. Sanjeev belongs to a typical Marathi Brahmin family from Pune. His father Prabhakar Atre, an accountant working with a CA firm in Pune got transferred to Aurangabad just one year after Sanjeev was born in 1957. Aurangabad eventually became the family’s Karmabhoomi (land where fate locates a person to work and be active in). Even though his family had no experience in running a business enterprise, Atre left his job in 1964 and decided to try his luck in business. Initially he tried his hands at book-binding but soon moved on. Those days, people were using treadle letter presses to print letter heads, bill books, posters, etc. and for printing variable information they would lead typefaces that were typeset or assembled as a block that would finally be used for printing. Prabhakar Atre started a type foundry to produce typefaces. This was the family’s first tryst with the printing industry. Integrating forward, he bought a treadle press to start printing as well.

 

Sanjeev after completing his schooling, finished college with B.Sc in Physics and took up a job in 1976. Just 2-3 months later he gave up his job to join his father and help him in business because his elder brother Bhalchandra, instead of joining the father’s business had preferred a job in bank. In 1980 Sanjeev wanted to invest in a small offset printing press but his father was worried how the money could be raised. They somehow managed a loan from NSIC (National Small Industries Corporation) and since he was very active in the printer’s association, friends helped him raise the Rupees 10,000.00 margin money. They acquired their first small offset printing press, a single colour Swift of size 15 inches X 20 inches. To start with they got some small odd jobs from Brooke Bond India Ltd. who had a meat exporting unit at Aurangabad. An opportunity came their way when an order for labels came from Brook Bond for 500,000-600,000 labels each month. Nostalgically Sanjeev remembers that he produced the label in 5 passes and got his first regular label business. By 1986 the father son duo, were ready to invest in their second single colour press. Five years hence in 1991 they further upgraded by investing in their first multicolour printing machine, a two colour offset. They followed it up with yet another similar machine two years later. All this business was under their company titled Mudranika, Aurangabad.

 

 

 

The label industry in India started to evolve and grow around the mid nineties. Sensing the future trends, Sanjeev decided expand into self adhesive labels. In 1996 they finally made their entry into production of self adhesive labels in roll form by investing in a pre-owned 7 inch wide 5 colour CI letterpress Kopack machine. Sanjeev worked hard to succeed in this new venture. He was committed to serve his customers with timely deliveries. For a particular job, he needed a different magnetic cylinder. The supplier quoted him a price that was high and Sanjeev was not comfortable with it. On repeated requests for a lower price, the supplier knowing Sanjeev’s dilemma, did not relent. An annoyed Sanjeev decided to make his own magnetic cylinders and started work on the project. In the same year 1996, Sanjeev Atre made his and India’s first indigenously manufactured magnetic cylinder! Proudly Sanjeev reminisces that the Cylinder worked excellently. Kopack on which he installed it, on was sold in 2005 and he proudly says, “It must still be working well on that machine, wherever it is working now”.

 

 

In 1994, Sanjeev Atre’s elder brother left his job in a bank and together they setup another sheet offset printing unit in 1998 under name and style of Prabhakar Print Pack Private Limited. They started with a four colour machine and all allied equipment. Sanjeev continued to concentrate in the self adhesive label business. In 2004 a 10 inch Mark Andy 2200 flexo label press was acquired and a year later after selling their Kopack they acquired yet another Mark Andy 2200, 13 inch press. Even though Sanjeev was expanding in labels yet in his heart he still wished to replicate his success in manufacturing magnetic cylinders. In 2005, he again indulged to produce these under his new enterprise Precise Graphics.  In his early days on entering the self adhesive label industry with a Kopack press, Sanjeev got a lot of help and advice from Manish Desai of Mudrika Labels in Mumbai. Mudrika already had three such Kopack presses and mentored Sanjeev to success. When he initiated his new venture he apprised Manish Desai about the magnetic Cylinder produced by him. Manish was excited on hearing this and immediately asked  Sanjeev to produce one for him, even though when offered by Sanjeev to supply on cost, Manish insisted and prevailed upon Sanjeev to add his margin and supply, also assuring to refer him to other fellow printers. So Mudrika labels became the first customer of Precise Graphics for magnetic cylinders. Sanjiv remains indebted to Manish Desai who has been instrumental in his success because of the support provided to him and proudly says, “This was an encouragement of Make in India concept”.

 

 

 
The initial success was followed up with support from another industry stalwart Vijay Jain of A and A Labels Delhi. Thereafter there was no looking back and Precise Graphics started to exhibit their products at domestic and international exhibitions. They now have customers spread all over India, USA, MENA region and other countries. They sell between 750-800 units each year and aspire to keep increasing their footprints in the growing industry. In 2008 they developed and started marketing plate mounters followed it up by offering rotary die cutting machines for blank labels in 2012 and slitting and intermittent die-cutting machines in 2014. 

 

 

 

 
Encouraged by his success Precise Graphics was in 2014 renamed PGI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to concentrate in producing engineering and technology driven products for the label industry at large. In 2015 Sanjeev Atre quit the printing business, leaving that to his elder brother. A year on he launched his first flexo rotary 6 colour tower type label printing press, a machine that he displayed at Labelexpo India 2016 was self designed, built in their factory with CNC machined parts and not copied from any other press. This, Sanjeev says, is conforming to the Make in India concept to which he is committed. The machine as displayed at the 2016 Labelexpo India in Greater Noida was running at 60 meters per minute, however this has been further improved and in their factory the press has run at 80 meters per minute with water based inks and hot air drying. Also at the same event they showcased a new development that they were taking up, a turret re-winder with die cutting and rotary slitting for non-stop production of blank labels. The final version of this machine will be displayed at the upcoming Labelexpo India in November 2018.  Even though demonetization and implementation of GST did impact business adversely yet PGI Tech was able to sell eight machines in one year to satisfied customers.  They endeavor, as also continue to upgrade their products on an ongoing basis adding new features and automation to them. They presently operate out of a factory admeasuring 6500 square feet with 26 people. Expansion is in progress and they are in process to acquire a 1.25 acre plot with 18000 square feet built up area, enough for the immediate future plans.

 

Reminiscing a challenging situation in his early days in printing labels and the innovative streak in him to solve the problem, he narrates a time when a customer rejected a whole lot of 10-12.5 million labels due to over punching because the web was breaking on automatic label dispensing equipment. He took back the entire consignment, laminated the liner with BOPP film and returned to the customer. The shipment was accepted!

 

 

This year after renewing business strategies to escalate the fast growing domestic as well as export business of tooling, Sanjeev has consolidated the Tooling division within the manufacturing with the entire operations under one roof including gear tooth profile grinding facility as well. While there is push for increasing the prices in the industry, Sanjeev has publically announced a price reduction in tooling owing to the savings from of this strategic initiative.

 

 

Sanjeev has active support from his wife Namita who is a home maker. His elder son Pinak decided not to join his business and moved to Pune taking a job in IT, planning to launch his own venture in partnership with a friend at a later date. His younger son Ajinkya has joined PGI Tech and is still under training in the company while pursuing a course in architecture alongside. With Ajinkya also in business, Sanjeev has more time on his hands and has tempted him to pursue his hobby of photography and presently he is studying different birds and their migratory streams. He travels to bird sanctuaries and patiently indulges in catching in his camera, the unique images of birds in their natural habitats. It helps him relax, unwind and return to work rejuvenated to indulge yet again in creativity.

 

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi April, 2018

 

Mark Andy’s Mike Russell- Manual Labor to flying planes and selling label presses!

Mark Andy’s Mike Russell- Manual Labor to flying planes and selling label presses!
Mark Andy, Vice President of International Sales, Mike Russell was born in St. Louis where he grew up and went to school in the suburb of Kirkwood, Missouri. After completing his undergraduate studies from WestminsterCollege, Fulton, Missouri in 1974, a college where Winston Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain Speech in 1946, Mike encountered a problem of acute unemployment. America and the western world were at that time facing recession. As per Wikipedia; 1970s recession was a period of economic stagnation in much of the Western world. It differed from many previous recessions by being a stagflation, where high unemployment and high inflation existed simultaneously. Unable to find a regular office job Mike took up his first job doing manual labor of laying rail tracks for Norfolk and Western Railway. Son of a Self employed lawyer, who also sold life insurance, and mother being a home maker, he aspired to succeed in life despite the challenges this earlier part of life threw at him. Six months after his first manual job stint, he joined a small company which supplied air pollution filters to Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems as their lowest paid employee. At this company he did all kinds of jobs that included managing receipt of materials to quality control. 3 years later in 1978 Mike Russell left this job and joined ALCO Controls division of Emerson Electric, to look after production and inventory control. Those days of recession it was the job that was important and not what duties came with it. While at this job he worked during the day and later attended night school for four years finally receiving an MBA degree. Fortunately the company paid for this study. Another 7 years later it was time to move on and he started to apply in various companies, on basis of a good CV and armed with an MBA degree he got selected for a job to look after planning and production in the module assembly department of Mark Andy Inc. He had on 4th of November 1985 finally reached the company where has spent the next 33 years of his illustrious career.
Mark Andrews Sr.

 


In 1946 Mark Andrews Sr. started to print scotch tapes and also built a tape printing press in his basement machine shop. Mark Andy named after its founder Mark Andrews was started as a small family venture. With Mark’s hard work and foresight, the company went on to invent, develop and build rotary label presses that were called Aniline presses prior to be named Flexographic and becoming the leading name in flexo printing and converting presses. So as to grow the market Mark Andrews Sr. with help of one of his machinist, Richard Roseman developed rotary dies to run on presses manufactured by him. He later encouraged Richard to start his own company to produce rotary dies which he did and Roto Die Company Inc. was founded in 1957. Roto Die Company subsequent to its merger with Micrometrics Inc. was renamed Rotometrics.


 
Mark Andrews Jr.



Mark Andrews Sr. passed away in 1980 leaving Mark Andy Inc. to his son Mark Andrews Jr. who had been at the helm since the late 1960s. While the father was an innovator, the son was a businessman. Having no secession plan for his family, and realizing the company needed to invest more that he was willing toward the future, Mark Andrews Jr. sold his stake in Mark Andy Inc. to Dover Corporation in 1995. In 2006 the company was acquired by Morganthaler Partners, an Investment group and then in 2008 Mark Andy Inc. was acquired by American Industrial Partners (AIP) and MAI Holdings. In the summer of 2014 former Mark Andy CEO P.J. Desai and the Desai Family, along with the Mark Andy Management Team and two co-investors, completed the acquisition of Mark Andy, Inc. from American Industrial Partners (AIP).




 

 

Mike with the plane that he co-owned with his friends
After Mike Russell had spent two years in Mark Andy, Dale Bunell Vice President Sales brought him into the sales Department. Dale who is the recipient of the first ever R Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2004, had a liking for Mike. Dale found out that like himself, Mike was a Private Pilot, a hobby which they both enjoyed. Mike reminisces, he loved everything with a motor, may that be trains, planes, automobiles or motorcycles. Mike along with six other partners, owned a single engine Cessna 172 four place airplane.
 
The plane flying over Missouri Countryside where Mike lives
 
 
Gourav Roy, Mark Andy’s Indian agent ecstatically remembers the time in 2000 when Mike flew him in that plane to Cincinnati to visit the Comco factory, which Mark Andy had acquired in 2001, for a plant visit and sales training on the Comco line of presses.  






 
Mike Russell and Harveer Sahni during
Labelexpo Europe in Brussels
 
 

 

 

 

Though posted in sales department yet Mike did not have to travel much as he was looking after sales administration making contracts and quotations. In 1995 when Mike became International Sales Manager looking after sales in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific that he started to travel around the world. Before this Mike’s only interaction with customers was when they would come to the company for trials. His first international sales trip was made to Australia where he could register the first sale under his leadership, an MA 4150 Label press, followed by visits to Malaysia, India and China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Sullivan and Mike Russell of MA with Mike Fairley
visiting Formula1 in greater NOIDA during Labelexpo India

Mark Andy was earlier represented by EAC Graphics, the graphic arts business division of Denmark's East Asiatic Co. Ltd. which was subsequently acquired by Heidelberg. With Heidelberg buying 33% of Gallus in 1999, Mark Andy parted ways with EAC as business interests clashed. Mike Russell’s second international sales visit to Malaysia was due to Claus Larsen who had joined Mark Andy because of him and earlier worked for EAC Graphics in India. This also led to Mike’s next visit to India in 1996 when EAC was still their selling arm there. Here he came into contact with Indian label industry veterans Sudhir Samant, Gourav Roy and Vijay Pareek, all three were employed with EAC Graphics India Pvt. Ltd. to sell Mark Andy presses. Now Mark Andy is represented by Flexo Image Graphics led by Gourav Roy. Talking about his first visit to India “This was perhaps the most challenging time” says Mike. Flexo was not developed in Asia, letterpress was the dominant printing process employed in label printing in this region. Mike soon realized that India followed by China were more likely to accept the flexographic printing technology. This made him indulge extensively and succeed in selling the presses making the brand Mark Andy popular in India. Following the initial ground work, there was no looking back and Mike would travel extensively at least once or twice each month to different parts of the world finding success in promoting sales of Mark Andy products. He asserts that in last 5 years the biggest growth has come from the re-established Europe. It accounts for the highest number of presses sold in any region even including the United States. However, the US market still brings in the most revenue due to a higher percentage of complicated configurations, along with the parts, consumable and service revenues inherent to the US market. During his career, Mike has never been part of the North American Sales team.
In an evolving market scenario and intense competitive situation, to remain in sound health Mark Andy has invested in new printing converting and decorating technologies. The major addition was the establishment a little more than 5 years ago their Digital Division making their own Mark Andy HD inkjet hybrid press in San Diego, California. They have also added finishing and other offline process equipment to their product program. In 2008 they acquired Rotoflex International (established in 1973), substantially expanding their brand portfolio to include the inspection and rewind solutions. Subsequently to retain a continuous sales and cash flow they decided to set up a consumables division to expand outside the conventional press selling business as well. In 2012 they acquired Print Products Inc., a distributor of flexographic supplies and in the following year in 2013 they acquired the offset supplies portion of Presstek, Inc., establishing distribution of a variety of prepress, pressroom supplies, consumables, and chemistries which includes the renowned A.B. Dick brand. They intend to be the total solutions supplier to the global label industry.

 

The Russell Family
Mike Russell is blessed with two daughters. The elder Ashley is an economist in the oil industry and located in Houston. The younger Lauren is married and works as a nanny or a care taker. Michele, his wife worked in the insurance industry until Ashley was born and later preferred to remain a homemaker. The Russells live in Chesterfield, Missouri, USA, which is very close to the Mark Andy facility. Due to problems with his back he underwent an operation last November, because of which his travelling is reduced now. Mike is starting to think about retirement, as he now wishes to spend more time with wife and children and elderly parents. Since he has never been in charge of the USA market, he has travelled the world but has not had a chance to see as much of the United States as he would like to. Once he retires and has more time on his hands, he and his wife Michele wish to explore their homeland in leisure with an occasional international trip.

 

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India June 2018

 

Printing Magazines are permitted to reproduce this article giving credit to author.

Maiden edition of Labelexpo SEA Bangkok, a success!

Maiden edition of Labelexpo SEA Bangkok, a success!
When the Labelexpo Southeast Asia at Bangkok Thailand was announced by the Tarsus Group, there was mixed reaction all around the industry. Yet another Labelexpo! It meant more investment in shows by exhibitors and dilemma in minds of visitors as to which edition of Labelexpo was the most appropriate for them. Undoubtedly Labelexpo Europe remains the flagship show that attracts international label fraternity across the globe to Brussels every two years. As many industry constituents have said, “It is the Mecca of Label industry and the biennial visit to Brussels is an imperative, so as to remain updated”.  Other than that there is Labelexpo at America, China and India. One can understand the regional organizing of this industry event as it brings important exhibitors to the region for at least for those printers who cannot travel to faraway destinations or for those who aspire to invest in manufacture of labels. The regional shows do bring in new enquiries that otherwise are extremely difficult to locate due to an extremely widespread industrial base. The show also contributes to the regional growth of labels in various geographical zones where it is held. However still given the relatively smaller size of label industry in Thailand as compared to Europe, America, China or India, Bangkok as a venue for Labelexpo was surprising. One would imagine that the show would have more of those visitors who wished to enjoy this holiday destination. A two in one motive would bring in the visitors driving in value for exhibitors and organizers. Surprisingly the show registered success.
 
Labelexpo SEA was held on May 10-12 2018 in one of the halls spread over 4100 square Meters at BITEC-Bangkok which is a world-class venue with a total event space of 70,000 Sq. Meters. having large food courts and impressive infrastructure. The vast, column-free event venue has been custom-designed for ease-of-use and can accommodate up to 40,000 delegates within fully flexible spaces that include 10 expansive exhibition halls, 6 grand convention halls and 28 breakout meeting rooms. The turnout of visitors at Labelexpo SEA was impressive as visitors came from the entire spread of Asia Pacific region. 7934 visitors came to visit the show from 62 countries! One could see visitors from Thailand, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. It was a show that was not restricted to just one country. Most of the regular exhibitors of Labelexpo registered their presence at the show lending to it the importance, indicating their efforts to expand the label markets to different geographical zones that have potential of growth. As the established western markets show signs of saturation Labelexpo moves to centers in the midst of countries that have double digit growth despite substantial population.
 
Omet Stand
Nilpeter Stand
 
 
 
 
Leading press manufacturers exhibiting at Labelexpo SEA included Nilpeter, OMET, Mark Andy, Bobst, Lombardy and Weigang. Other leading industry suppliers who exhibited include Epson, Flint Group, GEW, HP, Konica Minolta, Lintec, UPM Raflatac, Xeikon and Yupo Corporation.
 
 
 
 
 
Weigang stand with Amit Sheth and Rohit Mehta




 
Mark Andy and other stands











 
With Sanjeev Sondhi, Zircon.
 
 
 
A large number of Indian visitors were seen, leading printers who were present from India included Sanjeev Sondhi of Zircon, Anuj Bhargava from Kumar Labels, Deepak Gupta of Shree Lamipack, D Sarkar of Classic Image Offset, Vipul Gulati from Alpine and Anbhazagan R from Retail Solutions and Technologies. Indian Labelstock manufacturer Stic-On papers was an exhibitor while suppliers who visited the event included Rohit Mehta of SMI Coated Papers the largest Indian labelstock manufacturer and press manufacturer Amit Ahuja from Multitec. When asked about their experience at the show, most people expressed satisfaction and felt that given the fact it was the first show in this sector, it delivered well.  Commenting on the success of the show
With Jade Grace, Lisa Milburn and Andy Thomas


Lisa Milburn Managing Director Labelexpo Group said, “We are extremely happy with the event and have excellent feedback”
 
 
Some comments and images:
Jakob Landsberg Sales Director Nilpeter

 



Jakob Landsberg, Sales and Marketing Director Nilpeter: I felt the first Labelexpo show in SEA was a good beginning – despite some few challenges in the setup and tear down phases. We experienced a good volume of quality visitors from all over Asia – and even a few Africa, Middle East and South America. We closed deals, took leads and found new projects that have to be handled in busy months to come. 



 
Paolo Grasso hosting the OMET dinner
Paolo Grasso, Head of Sales – Labels Business Unit press OMET – S.R.L.: Labelexpo Southeast Asia went beyond any possible good expectation we had. A great amount of visitors from all over Asia and some other parts of the globe as well. Nice and clean venue where all the exhibitors could build top-quality booths was comparable to the best of European standards. Good demos, lovely people and especially lots of prospects to work on for the next two years. Congratulations to Tarsus and to the Thai staff of each company because they all did a great job! We’re looking forward already for the 2020 one!

Mike Russel Vice President International Sales Mark Andy: I was very impressed by the turnout of so many influential customers from all over Asia-Pacific. This is the type of visitors that we need to make it a truly regional rather than country specific show. I am hoping that the next show expands on this.
Ranesh Bajaj at Visak Stand



Ranesh Bajaj, Vinsak: The country and the venue are good as expected. Surprisingly, there were more Indian visitors than those from Southeast Asia. Overall, a good show for being a first one. I am sure it will get better footfall with time.



 
David Ho and Hope Hu at Martin Stand


Hope Hu, Martin Automatic: There were many visitors from Thailand, Indonesia, India and other countries, we saw new prospects as well.



Amit Sheth, Label Planet: Being the first show, it has been very encouraging and productive for long run.
David Jones, Alphason



David Jones, Alphasonics: We were pleasantly surprised at the quality and number of visitors from across the world. The next event should be interesting.




Vipul Gulati, Alpine Containers: Enlightening, informative and futuristic! No new inventions are complete without new discoveries.
Anuj Bhargava, Kumar Labels: Saw new products in addition to the regular ones. Well organized as always.
Rohit Mehta, SMI Coated Products: Labelexpos organised and hosted by Tarsus have always been successful. Labelexpo Southeast Asia is yet another example, visiting the show and seeing the footfall and quality of exhibits shows that Southeast Asia has huge potential of opportunity and growth.
Sanjeev Sondhi, Zircon Technologies: Like all Labelexpos, this one also delivered value; the opportunity to see and network with such a diverse congregation of printers from across Asia Pacific gave the credence and immense value to this event. I look forward to the next edition already.
 
On the penultimate day Tarsus held a party for the exhibitors at Hard Rock Cafe. Lisa Milburn enthralled the guests by going on stage to sing. The audience were left in awe by her talent…
 
Images at the show and of the exhibitor evening.
 
 
 
                               

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Lisa Milburn and Douglas Emslie Grp. MD.Tarsus
Lisa Milburn on stage singing and performing
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Written by Harveer Sahni, author and Chairman, Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi May 2018
Printing Magazines are permitted to reproduce this article giving credit to author.