When we look at the growth of self adhesive label industry in India, as a first step we try and calculate the amount of labelstock consumed during the year that went by and the amount by which this figure increased over that in the preceding year. This does give the indication of the growth achieved in the last financial year and we end up assuming that the growth pattern will remain the same in the current year to arrive at a figure of estimated demand. This maybe the most obvious way to calculate but in my opinion the actual health of the industry and sustainability of growth rates comes from the level of capacity enhancement in the industry. The amount of capital invested in new and modern equipment alongwith the capability of such equipment to convert volumes is the true indicator of sustained growth in the years that will follow. However unexpected economic trends like those in the difficult year that went by, cannot be ruled out. It is a matter of rejoicing that India had strong fundamentals and financial discipline because of which it is pulling out of an otherwise distressing economic slowdown at a steady pace. If we look at the reporting pattern on the growth and new installations in the label industry in India, we note that most of the time it is the fancy branded imported presses that get the mention leaving our local presses unnoticed. It is the growing number of imported presses that are taken as the parameters indicating the health of self adhesive label industry. The local label press manufacturers, who were small and struggling to find recognition, received only occasional mention in articles reporting on the Indian Label Industry. I am happy to say that I chose to write this article on the Indian narrow web press manufacturers. They are moving out of the shadows. Slowly and steadily they continue becoming a force to reckon with. Already the amount of labelstocks converted on the Indian presses is a substantial share of the total consumption of material consumed in the country. These press manufacturers have toiled hard and have served their customers well, success is finally showing up on their side as well. It will not be long before they are on the world map selling their presses internationally and offering value for money. Indian press manufacturers are spread across the nation and each one trying to improve upon the technologies that there equipments employ to produce the best labels. The presses are within the reach and affordable for the small entry level label printers. Even larger label companies are buying these equipments to enhance capacities at least for simpler jobs. India’s self adhesive label industry initially evolved by depending on and largely employing small Japanese flat-bed label presses. Iwasaki, Onda, Siki, etc. were the names that were synonymous with sticker or label production in the earlier days. “That has changed!” exclaims Manojbhai of R K Machines, Ahmedabad. He goes on to add “Now no one in this segment looking for a new press will shop abroad, they come to RK”. He asserts that the industry is now in top form after a slowdown last year. R K Machines have grown steadily in the flat bed label press segment. According to Manojbhai, they sold 60 presses last year and hope to sell over a 100 presses this financial. They have moved further and feel that the future is not in the flatbed press segment but in the rotary flexo and higher technologies. To complete their range of offerings, they were importing tower stack type presses and selling them here. Now they have developed this model locally and will be showcasing the same at Labelexpo India in New Delhi in December 2010. Jandu Engineers are another press manufacturer who has tasted success in building label presses. They offer only rotary flexo printing and converting machines. They started to build these presses in the mid nineties, with the first one going to Prakash Labels at NOIDA. Baldev Singh Jandu is proud to declare that over a 100 presses are in operation. He is a busy man and says “we cannot meet the demand” He further adds that, “we hope to deliver 20-25 presses in this financial year achieving a growth rate of over 25%”. Jandu is now building a four colour plus one UV station modular rotary flexo press and plans to make a full UV six colour press in the near future. To cater to the plain label and barcode label segment they have recently introduced a “Baby Model”. This is a small low cost rotary die cutting press with two die heads. They have yet to decide the products that they will showcase at Labelexpo or perhaps they wish to keep the information as a surprise! “It is great time now” says Amit Ahuja of Multitec at Faridabad, when I asked him how the Indian label industry was shaping up after the slowdown. He feels his company will grow 50% in this segment. They sold 12 presses last year and hope to sell over 18 in the current financial. He is quite excited about showcasing his next development, “A full servo multi-colour modular rotary flexo press” at Labelexpo India, Delhi. I had visited his facility earlier last year and was highly impressed by the setup and their capabilities. This company will go a long way! Hamayun of Keen Engineering Mumbai, also feels the industry has moved away or lost interest in the slow flat bed machines that he was making. In view of the flexible dies becoming affordable, more and more customers are opting for rotary models. Though he did not find much success last year yet he is happy that the industry is growing by 20-25% and that has prompted him to soon launch his rotary intermittent press. He feels there is a definite segment for this technology. Apex Rototech in Delhi sell a couple of machines each year and are also trying their hands on an all servo press. There are other players also trying to carve out their place in the industry. Shreya and Rattan in Mumbai, Webtech in Faridabad and few others across the country are catering to localized customers. Auto print in Coimbatore is a relatively big player and quite respected for the quality of their offerings. The one fact common to them all is that they are all of the view that the self adhesive label industry is growing. The pace at which our Indian Label press manufacturers are growing, the day is not far when they will showcase at international shows and go global, rubbing shoulders with the best in the world. Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 http://www.weldoncelloplast.com/

All the staff comprising of 150 people came to the far off airport to see him off. What a feeling it must have been, to so many people in a foreign land waving to bid him farewell.On return to India, Ranesh worked hard travelling across the country, selling and servicing, Taiyo forms presses for Standard Printers Providers. By 1993 he was restless and ready to move ahead in life, it was time to start on his own. The same year he launched his maiden startup venture, Creed Engineers.  The first agency they got was that of A B Graphics for Omega Slitters and Rewinders. They also sold used label printing machines and the first such press he remembers he sold to S Patel & Co., Ahmedabad. Selling used presses gave him substantial profits but Ranesh’s vision was focused way ahead. He decided to visit Drupa ’95 and also made sure many of his prospective customers would be there as well. Such was his selling acumen that he sold 8 presses during that show. That was indeed the turning point in his life. He got noticed by equipment suppliers making lucrative deals and soon offers for agencies were pouring in.Ranesh’s father had packed up his business in Chandigarh and moved to Delhi to support and guide Creed Engineers. Ranesh’s family is an educated intellectual lot. His mother is a doctorate (Ph.D) in Botany, sister a pathologist and wife Geeta also a doctorate (Ph.D) in communications. Geeta is a senior and respected professor in a leading management institute in Gurgaon. The family is a very well knit one forming a strong support system for each other.By end of Drupa 1995, Ranesh was convinced that to succeed, he had to build the brand “Creed”.  Also that to achieve this he had to be selling new label presses and not used ones even though he made more money selling used presses.  He indulged and soon had Creed Engineers representing leading press manufacturers, “Rotatek”.  There was no looking back thereafter.  Today Creed has seven offices across India and over a 100 employees. They represent and sell a diverse range of companies and their products including Rotatek, Acquaflex, Linetec, A B Graphics, Security inks, Kodak flexo plates, Jet polymer plates, security software, etc.  It is a record of sorts that till date they have sold almost 100 Omega slitter rewinders.  Besides this they have sold in all about 60 label presses. The biggest deal Ranesh attributes to his selling two 16 colour printing presses for security printing.Ranesh’s USP is his smiling face. He is the provider of consumables and equipment to the label printing industry and does it all with a smile.

Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 www.weldoncelloplast.com

“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, the talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source you will truly have defeated age” These words came from the famous Italian actress Sophia Loren. So very true! As parents, when people my age witness their offsprings unfold the talents and creativity they have acquired as they grew up, there is a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. Every parent strives hard in the given means to provide the best education and professional training to their children, so that they can standup to the challenges of modern day competitive living. In our Indian business society, the fathers or for that matter even mothers are natural mentors who guide the youth to eventually grow up to inherit the businesses that they painstakingly set up. It is a pleasure to see the children join you as trainees, gradually transform into managers, become business owners and eventually business leaders. Our label industry which originated in the seventies of the last century, is now witnessing a handing over of the baton to the next generation. The way this generation is moving out of the shadows of their mentors to evolve into professional managers who modernize, expand, systemize and lead the companies successfully to new arenas, is commendable. I dedicate this column to the Gen-Next of the Indian Label Industry!Finat, the international association of the self adhesive label industry, recognized the need to channelize the energies and huge potential of this emerging group of young managers. The association decided to form, “Young Managers Club”.  The FINAT-YMC, as the club came to be known, was formally launched during the 2008 Finat congress at Paris. The occasion was also to celebrate the 50years of Finat. In lines of the Finat initiative, Vivek Kapoor, President LMAI announced the setting up of LMAI-YMC (LMAI Young Managers Club). The club would have Sandeep Zaveri to be the head and assisted by Pawandeep Sahni who is also the member of the board of Finat-YMC. The LMAI-YMC is aimed to bring together the next gen leaders, create exchange opportunities with Finat-YMC, participate in programmes like innovation, lean management, succession, etc. The YMC members will be young leaders under the age of 40 years. They maybe first, second or third generation entrepreneurs.I have made a study of some of these young leaders across the country. It is difficult to cover each and every one of these dynamic youths, yet I have tried to cover many who I have seen taking their positions to lead and excel with fervor and passion. Leading the group is the enterprising Gautham Pai, Managing Director of Manipal Press Limited, a part of the 750 million dollar Manipal group. Manipal Press was started with a single letterpress machine in 1941 and is now spread over 600000 square feet with over 2000 employees and state of art machines. While Manipal Press is a predominantly a security and offset printing company yet Gautham has lead the company’s foray into self adhesive labels. They have also struck a strategic partnership with Chennai base UPSL which is again headed by a young Rakesh Kukliya, son of the founder of UPSL. Chennai is also home to one of the oldest label printers, Better Labels owned by Dilip Sutaria who is systematically handing over the charge to his son Pakshal. In Sivakasi, the scale and quality of investments being made by the Raveendran and his brothers at Seljegat leaves one in awe! Also commendable is the way this soft spoken and humble family is handing over the decision making to their sons Prashant and Sivanesh.  Gururaj Ballarwad of Wintek at Bangalore toiled hard to achieve a position of leadership for his company. Today day to day business is transacted by his son Girish.  Sai Security Printers, Bangalore having multi-location presence has entrusted their label business to young Arvind in the South and Priyata in the North. Pramodh at Global Printing and Mahaveer at Mahaveer labels are other youthful leaders at Bangalore, designated to lead the label businesses of their companies. At Hyderabad, Pragati Offset has been a highly successful and celebrated offset printer who has experimented with self adhesive labels. The charismatic Narendra Paruchuri has transformed the label business to level comparable to the best in the industry. The shots are now called by his sons Hemanth and Harsha.Mumbai, the birthplace of self adhesive labels has also drawn its succession plans. Bharat Mehta, a pioneer, who can probably give us all the inputs on the history of self adhesive labels in India, is a proud father now that his sons Dhaval and Darshan take most of the decisions. Jagdish Zaveri of Total Print has left it all to his soft spoken son Sandeep Zaveri, who is also the treasurer of LMAI and the president LMAI-YMC. Joe Annunciation had come to meet me for advice before his first Gallus Press was installed at Janus International. Now after three Gallus presses and an Hp Indigo press, Joe is seldom in office because his sons Denver and Janus are delivering.  The young brother and sister team of Santosh and Sandhya Shetty surprised all in the industry when they bought the brand new Nilpeter to announce their entry into self adhesive labels. In Aurangabad the feisty LMAI general secretary Deshpande is now taking time off because his son Hrishidesh is holding fort. PPL (Paper Products Limited) is perhaps the only case I can cite where a professional mentor has made way for a youthful colleague. The smiling, friendly and dynamic “Labels Girl”, my dear friend Honey Vazirani, handed over charge of the labeling division to Mandeep Singh Chhabba. Honey still works in the same organization with different responsibilities.Heading North, I would not like to miss out my own handing over the charge to my sons Pawandeep and Kanwardeep. Pawan has been instrumental in changing the company from being a mere labelstock producer to a total solution provider for the label printers. Gaurav Goel, son of Anil Goel of Gopsons NOIDA, proudly announces his expansion in labels. Jain Transfer at Noida is experiencing the change with Bhrigav and Rishab, sons of brothers Sudhir Jain and Pavail taking charge. Anuj Bhargav of Kumar Printers has gone it alone and maintained the trust of his mentors from day one. It is a pleasure to hear Kuldeep Goel of Any Graphics talking about his passion to attain the ultimate in quality in labels and also about the brand new 100000 square foot factory that he is building. He proudly says that most of the decisions have originated from ideas given by his son Naveen. The list of these youngsters is exhaustive. I wish I had the space to write more about the education, capabilities and caliber of these young men. They are like an aromatic fresh breeze blowing over the Indian Label Industry!Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 http://www.weldoncelloplast.com/

On an international flight to an industry printing event he met Vivek Kapoor, now owner of Creative Prints and President of LMAI. During the journey Vivek answered all of Chandan’s questions about the nuances of self adhesive label industry. Little did he know at that time, that Chandan would soon be a competitor to him. Nerker of Unique Photo Offset and Gautam Rajani of PM Industries are others who influenced Chandan to satisfy his urge of doing something different by indulging in production of self adhesive labels. He started studying a lot about narrow web label presses. Letterpress was not of interest to him and his heart was in offset printing. He finally bought an Iwasaki waterless offset narrow web press in the year 2000. This was the only one of its kind in India and hence it was different! People in the industry thought he had made a big mistake by opting for a new technology when there were no operators available for such a press. They were laughing at him. Though momentarily, yet Chandan wondered if he really had made a mistake. Not ready to accept defeat, he worked hard trying to get knowledge about the press and the technology. Six months down the line he successfully printed the first self adhesive label in roll for clinic shampoo. The label was well accepted and appreciated. Another few months of running the machine was making profits and Chandan was having the last laugh. Ten years after joining work, Chandan decided to acquire further skills and he joined the S P Jain institute in Mumbai and to get his masters degree in Family Managed Business (FMB). I personally feel happy to have suggested to him this course at that time as my own son was pursuing that course and I was pleased by the outcome.Chandan has a busy family. While he and his father look after the joint family’s label business, his wife is a successful solicitor and his mother, who was a teacher till a couple of years ago is now devoting much of her time to social work. A five year old son and an eight months old daughter account for Chandan’s spare time. I asked him when he will make them splash colors like his grandfather did. To this he laughs it out and says, “It will be good if they take to family business however I will not force them”.Ajanta packaging has steadily grown since then. With 150 employees they have production facilities at three locations i.e. Daman, Baddi and Dubai(UAE). A total of ten label presses have been acquired till date. Three waterless offsets  and a one Nilpeter at Daman, One offset and two MPS flexo presses at Baddi and two offset presses at Dubai. Even though he is an outrightly offset man, Chandan surprised all at Labelexpo 2008 in Brussels by announcing the purchase two Flexo Presses, a nilpeter and an MPS in one go! As his business continues to grow he gives all credit to the team he has put in place. Important customers like Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Wipro, etc. have helped him to implement efficient management systems. He is committed to excel in labels and reach the topmost slot in five years from now and would still be doing something different!
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008

This article was published in Packaging South Asia in their July 2009 issue

His father had separated from a joint family business in commodities. They had moved from their home in Sonepat, Haryana to Delhi some 35 years ago, while his father had a job as a clerk in Railways at a meager salary of Rs.170.00 per month. In those difficult times, Kuldeep Goel had a burning desire to excel and succeed. 

He worked hard to get his small business going. As a young boy he produced stickers and labels by the screen printing process. He fondly remembers the first label he made for Rajkamal Aggarbatti and it fetched him less then Rs.100.00. He went on to supply labels to traders in Delhi’s auto spare parts market in Kashmere Gate, where traders would pack and sell parts in their own brands. Having no conveyance of his own, he would hire a cycle to deliver his produce to Kashmere Gate. One day when he parked his hired cycle and went to deliver the labels to his customer, he was shocked to find that the customer had closed shop and vanished. With that went his previous payment and also that for the goods that he was carrying. Dejected, he walked back to his cycle to get yet another shock. The cycle was gone! Stolen! He was heart broken but did not give up. He never wanted his parents to know and suffer the trauma of loss so he negotiated with the cycle owner that he would pay him in the next six months. That was the acid test which he passed. The next six months Kuldeep went on foot, shop to shop peddling outsourced calendars till he paid off the cycle owner. He went back to his screen printing business with renewed fervor. In 1985 he lost his father and joined his relatives to start a screen printing business. By 1987 Kuldeep was all set to start his successful startup venture Stickline in sector 58 NOIDA.  His work got appreciation and won prestigious accounts like Yamaha and LG.  His quality and excellence was being talked about. His enterprise is the first Indian company to win a global award for excellence in label printing. He decided to move ahead and make new investments and achieve technical enhancement. He built another factory which is now his flagship company Anygraphics.

He has, as of now three label presses, eight screen printing machines, Digital Printing Press, CNC Cutting machine, a fully automatic robotic Dome Label making machine which was perhaps one of the first few such installations at that time. He has a strong ambition for growth and is looking at new horizons. He is a self made man, who has moved on in trying circumstances and found time to complete his B.Com. He then briefly pursued education in law, which he had to leave midway, because time was short. From a humble one room dwelling that the whole family lived in, Kuldeep now resides in one of the finest penthouses in NOIDA’s Sector 92. His mother has always been source of inspiration and support for him. A few days back he has commenced construction of his new and biggest factory so far, which is slated to have a covered area of 100,000 square feet. When asked about the equipment that he would install and the products that he would produce, his face lights up. You can make out from the faint murmur that he utters, “It will be the latest, thee biggest…” His voice trails off and with a strange smile on his face he says, “Just wait and watch”!
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 http://www.weldoncelloplast.com/