LMAI creates knowledge, entertainment and networking magic at Label Conference!

LMAI creates knowledge, entertainment and networking magic at Label Conference!

The 4thLMAIconference was well managed from start to finish. Incoming delegates were picked up from Delhi airport and transported in 8 coaches toJaypee Palace Hotel and Convention Centre Agra, in the historical city ofTaj Mahal. There were many from Delhi and other north Indian towns who drove in their own cars. On reaching the hotel, as delegates descended from their vehicles, they were welcomed with beating of drums, traditional welcome by hostesses and LMAI conference team.
Lighting of lamp
The conference commenced with a welcome speech fromSandeep Zaverifollowed by lighting of the lamp. This is considered as an auspicious ritual before commencing any important event. LMAI initiated their new creation, the LMAI anthem which was played after the lighting of lamp.
Sandeep Zaveri, welcoming guests. LED screen in backdrop
Welcoming the over 550 delegates and thanking sponsors, Sandeep Zaveri mentioned that the label industry was like a joint family. He dwelled on the conference theme, “Innovation Simplified” and stressed on the need for innovation to spread to all processes of label creation. Label is the important part of a product and connects it directly to the consumer.
Pankaj Bhardwaj








Pankaj Bhardwaj Senior Director and general Manager, Label and Graphic Materials South AsiaAvery Dennison, delivered the keynote address.






Lisa Milburn Managing Director LabelexpoGroup



In her special address Lisa Milburn, Managing Director Labels Group, Tarsus Group PLC UK mentioned the strong and ongoing partnership with LMAI. She also spoke on the forthcoming meeting of L9 (The federation of nine leading global label associations) which is scheduled to be held next year in India. Pradeep Saroha, Country Manager for Labelexpo group gave information onLabelexpoEurope in Brussels in September this year. Conference ChairmanKuldip Goelapprised the audience with agenda of the event.



Harveer Sahni awarded lifetime award with family and LMAI leadreship team


At the same time he announced an award toHarveer SahniofWeldon Celloplastfor a “Lifetime in support of the Indian label industry”.






The day ended with an entertaining evening sponsored byBobstFirenzeand themed, Mughal-e-Azam followed by Dinner. Many delegates were in traditional Indian dresses.
Entertainment program



Jitesh Mehta, Director Avery Dennison
Next morning after breakfast Rajesh Nema secretary LMAI initiated the conference by showing avideo of LMAI activities during the past year and informing the day’s agenda. Jitesh Mehta, Director Avery Dennison had interesting questions for the audience on innovations in the structure of Taj Mahal. Interesting facts came to light. He also said, “Innovation is a team sport and aids profitable implementation of ideas, creating value across the value chain” he further added, “By making innovation complex, we maybe killing it”.




Ajay and Rohit Mehta SMI being felicitated





Ajay Mehta and Rohit Mehta ofSMI Coated Paperscautioned that reverse auctions were affecting printers adversely and instead of becoming complacent, they need to move on. Competition brings innovation making quality and consistency in product offering an imperative for driving growth.







Paolo Grasso Omet and Pawandeep Sahni Weldon



Pawandeep Sahni ofWeldonand Paolo Grasso ofOmetmade an impressive presentation titled “simplify Visions, innovate processes” The presentation which was interactive with the audience, was highly appreciated. Shaun Paullen ofMark Andyspoke on “Turning market needs into machine deliverables”.





Amit Ahuja Multitec
Amit Ahuja ofMultitecspoke on wastage control. Gavin Rittmeyer ofMartin Automaticexplained the need for automation and nonstop continuous production to reduce wastage. Impressive knowledge delivering presentations were made by the large number of speakers representing companies who sponsored the event. A holistic session was held byIsha Foundationof Sadguru fame. The swami ji hosting the session taught the delegates the nuances of meditation. A session of “Isha Kriya” was taken up with audience participation. He said that for the power to create, we need to meditate to success. Success is not an aspiration, it is your work that others will connect with and say he is successful. He also advised the congregation that creating happiness at workplace will get full potential from employees.The last part of the evening hosted by SMI Coated Papers, began with a high powered motivational lecture by renowned management guru, Shiv Khera.
Motivational speaker Shiv Khera

Shiv Kheraspoke for almost three hours and the delegates in full attendance were glued to their seatslistening in rapt attention.Quoting boxing legend Mohamad Ali he said, “We need the skill and the will to succeed. Between the two, will is more important” Such was the delivery of his address that the audience was left in awe. Quoting the former President of India, Dr. A P J Kalam he said, “Dreams are not that make you sleep, dreams are those that don’t let you sleep”. Adding more to this he went on to convey that success is not absence of problems, it is the overcoming of problems. Luck is not designed to deliver success but concentrated efforts do deliver it. His advice to the audience was that for conflicts in life learn to resolve issues and not dissolve relations. The evening ended with dance performances and networking dinner.



Appadurai Country manager HP




Two days of hectic schedule and non-stop presentations, did not tire the delegates and one was surprised to see they were ready for more.The final day again had a holistic meditation session by Isha foundation. This was followed by presentations by Samir Patkar-Gallus,Appadurai-HP, Manish Jain-Loparex,Seigwerkand A K Datta-Kurz. Guest speaker Sudhaker Kasture spoke on export strategy on labels. The day’s presentations ended with presentations fromHuber groupandTesa Tapes.







Round Table in Progress
This was followed by a very interesting event; LMAI Round Table. For this part of the event all the sponsors were divided into different groups that were allocated different rooms with round tables. Each sponsor was allotted a table. The printer members were also divided into groups. Each group of printers were the made to sit on round tables with sponsors for 10 minutes and then asked to move on to next sponsor’s table. The sponsors and printers got to interact one to one driving in satisfaction in the process whereby their queries were answered face to face. All through the conference, a well spread out table top exhibition was in progress. Delegates were able to visit, interact with exhibitors and collect literature.
Gala Evening






The final part of the conference was a gala evening hosted by Avery Dennison with theme “an Affair to remember” and titled “Moulin Rouge”! The evening started with conference chairman Kuldip Goel giving vote of thanks.







Sophie Choudry






This was followed by a vibrant musical performance by celebrity artiste Sophie Choudry. After this the dance floor was thumping with delegates dancing till wee hours of the night or the morning.









This conference was appreciated and enjoyed by all. They left Agra with lingering memories of a euphoric networking event. The industry was a little more bonded and connected giving credence to Sandeep Zaveri’s statement that the Indian Label Industry is like a joint family. As the delegates bid good bye they went with hope of yet another similar event in the summer of 2019!

The sidelines and the "Fun Part";

























































Printing magazines and publications may reproduce this article giving credit to author. For a copy of this article in word format or high resolution pictures please email toharveersahni@gmail.com


Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi July 2017

LMAI: Extending membership to interiors of India!

LMAI: Extending membership to interiors of India!

On 9th of December 2017, Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) conducted a “Technical workshop and networking session” at hotel The Lalit, Chandigarh. It was a very successful event attended by almost 100 delegates giving credibility to LMAI’s efforts to extend its membership to smaller towns that are now attracting investment in production of labels.

The event besides delivering knowledge provided opportunity to printers to join the mainstream association with a platform to interact and network with their peers in the industry. The event was sponsored by Avery Dennison India Private Ltd., SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd., Flint Group, NBG Printographic Machinery Co. Pvt. Ltd., Provin Technos Pvt Ltd. and HP Inc. and offered an opportunity to them for making presentations to new entrants in nascent areas.

The evening’s first presentation was made by Ankur Joshi Product Manager of Provin Technos Pvt. Ltd. He explained in detail about the Miyakoshi presses offered by them. This was followed by a very thought provoking session by Bhupinder Singh of Avery Dennison. He initially explained how Avery partnered with printers to offer the PS Label solutions engineered to their specific needs.

He then spoke on ground realities and effects of competition in the label industry with emphasis on the imperative need to innovate and decorate their product adding value to the end product such that even if the margin in terms of percentage wise remains the same the quantum of profit gets bigger due to higher value of the end product. He also gave a comparison of PS labels to wet glue and suggested ways to motivate wet glue customers to switch over to PS labels. Shamim Alam of HP Indigo impressed upon the need for change in the label industry to achieve growth. He presented case studies in personalization with digital to achieve success and dwelled on possibilities by going digital. Harshal Mahajan of SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd. made a presentation to educate printers on the right selection of face paper, adhesive and liner. He also spoke on the effects of weather, ambient temperature, storage condition and service temperature on labels and label materials. Sailesh Sharma of Flint informed the gathering about upcoming trends in inks. He also explained the negative effects of migration and Flint’s support to customers for low migration printing and converting. He also spoke of Good Manufacturing Practices and benefits of LED UV inks offered by them. Finally Nitin Garg and Kishore of NBG Printographics presented details of the new indigenous full servo flexo press developed and offered by them.

LMAI President Kuldip Goel in his short speech impressed upon printers to invest in capabilities to innovate and create value in their products to attain continued growth. Harveer Sahni, on behalf of LMAI spoke on the path traversed by LMAI, benefits of its membership and the programs conducted by it. LMAI was established 15 years ago by a small group of printers and the association has thereafter grown to over 350 members. LMAI is recognized by global entities like Tarsus, FINAT and TLMI.

It s also a part of L9, a global alliance of world’s leading nine label associations. LMAI organizes technical and networking sessions across various geographical zones of India. These include programs on cost restructuring, GST training and other important issues. Their annual conference has become a must attend event for the label industry. LMAI has partnered with Tarsus and extended their support to Labelexpo India. On the sidelines of next Labelexpo, LMAI will be hosting the LMAI label awards gala evening and the L9 meet where printer members from these global associations are expected to attend and network with Indian printers. LMAI also successfully publish their magazine, “Label Legacy”. The next LMAI Technical Workshop and networking meet is planned to be held early next year in Chennai.

In conclusion Rajesh Nema honorary secretary LMAI thanked the delegates for their presence and also acknowledged the hard work put in and support given by local printer members Aditya Kashyap and Vishal Vohra in organizing this successful event.  The evening ended with networking over cocktails and dinner.

Label Manufacturers Association of India

A-418, Mayuresh Trade Center,Plot no: 04, sector-19, Vashi Turbhe Road,Vashi, Navi mumbai: 400 703

Mob : 08097333995

Web: www.lmai.in

Posted on behalf of LMAI by Harveer Sahni December 2017

LMAI label conference at Agra, a preview

LMAI label conference at Agra, a preview

 

 

 

 

 

 










 
“Jaypee PalaceHotel and Convention Centre”
 
 
“Wow, tough to miss!” says Chandan Khanna of Ajanta Packaging on going through the
Agenda/Program of the forthcoming LMAI Conference at Agra, the city of Taj Mahal from 20th to 23rd July 2017. Running multiple units in three different countries Chandan was not sure if he could spare the time. Now he is a confirmed delegate. The conference is to be held at the regal “Jaypee PalaceHotel and Convention Centre”, a glorious structural blend of red sandstone and marble is spread over an unbounded 25 acres of elegantly landscaped luxuriant greenery. Sprinkled with enormous water bodies and endless walkways, this magical creation impeccably blends Mughal and contemporary architecture with modern amenities. It is a venue from where delegates will take back wonderful memories.
 
Sandeep Zaveri President LMAI


LMAI President Sandeep Zaveri and his team have done a commendable job and we can look forward to a vibrant event that will be remembered for a long time. The event is packed with presentations on the conference theme, “Innovation Simplified”.   



 
Pankaj Bhardwaj, Avery Dennison






After the inauguration by lighting of lamp and welcome address by LMAI president on the 20th of July, key note address will be delivered by Pankaj Bhardwaj, Senior Director and General Manager Avery Dennison for south Asia. 





 
Lisa Milburn, MD Labelexpo    






Special address will be made by Lisa Milburn the managing director for the Labelexpo Global Series of events followed by address by conference chairman Kuldip Goel. The evening themed, “Mughal-e-Azam” will have dance performances and a show by standup comedian Atul Khatri followed by cocktails and dinner.







Both the following mornings after breakfast when the conference is initiated by LMAI
secretary Rajesh Nema, there will be “Holistic sessions” by Isha foundation of Sadhguru fame! An impressive number of presentations will be made by Indian as well as global suppliers. It is interesting to note here that the number Indian suppliers sponsoring LMAI events have now started to grow, indicating the importance of this association’s endeavours and the growing stature of India’s label industry suppliers. Knowledge delivering presentations will be made by Avery Dennison, DuPont, Esko Graphics, Intergraphic Pulisi, SMI Coated Papers, OMET, Insight Print Communications, Multitec, System Flexovision, PGI Technologies, APL Machinery, Flexo ImageGraphics, Flint, Vinsak, Martin Automatic, Dragon Foils, UPM Raflatac, Monotech, HP Indigo, Reifenhauser, Heidelberg India, BST Eltromat, LoparexIndia, Tion Enterprises, Siegwerk India, Kurz India, Hubergroup India, TesaTapes, and Macdermid. 
Sanjeev Sondhi, Zircon






Sanjeev Sondhi at Zircon Technologies says, “It is surely a unique event where we are together with industry colleagues and suppliers for three eventful days. I am looking forward to it”.





 
Shiv Khera






On the second day after the presentations scheduled for the day there will be a 3 hour address by celebrated motivational speaker and management Guru Shiv Khera. Guest Speaker Sudhakar Kasture will speak on “export strategy for labels” 







 
Hemant Paruchuri, Pragati Pack
On 22nd after lunch a round table event is organized for one to one interaction of sponsors who are leading suppliers to the label industry, with printer members attending the conference. This program, that was initiated at the last conference received appreciation from both suppliers and printer members. Hemant Paruchuri of Pragati Pack Hyderabad says, “I am looking forward to information sharing sessions at the conference”. All speaker presentation sessions will be interspaced with coffee/Tea and lunch breaks. At the end of the conference on 22nd evening a gala evening is arranged with theme, “An affair to remember”. The evening will culminate with a musical performance by the renowned celebrity artiste “Sophie Chowdhary” before the dance floor is thrown open to those who wish to extend the celebration of being together with industry peers.
Dinesh Mahajan







What an amazing response this conference has received! Networking will attain another dimension in quality and opportunities at Agra. “The countdown has begun for the finest label technology event” says Dinesh Mahajan of Prakash Labels.  






 
Rajesh Chadha, Update Prints


480 delegates from 334 companies spread all over the world, have registered so far and the registrations keep coming. 191 label printing companies and 143 suppliers have registered to be at the event. 30 speakers along with 3 guest speakers will deliver information driven by technology and innovation. As the euphoria builds up, demand for more bookings is pouring in. All the rooms arranged at the venue hotel have been sold out while registrations are still coming in. LMAI leadership has arranged a few rooms at another hotel Courtyard by Marriot but the way it is going they will have to soon express inability to accommodate any more delegates. In words of Rajesh Chadha, Managing Director, Update Prints, “All the conference committee members have worked incredibly hard, we are proud of them”!

 


Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-India July 2017

Avery Dennison AIDC Summit 2017, at GOA!

Avery Dennison AIDC Summit 2017, at GOA!
It was business mixed with pleasure from the word go! As delegates landed at Goa’s Dabolim airport, office bearers of the AIDC Technologies Association of India were there to greet guests. The buses were waiting to take the arriving guests to a signature property The Lalit Golf and Spa Resort which is about one and a half hour drive from the airport. Snack packets and drinks were handed over to the guest for the way. It did build an aura of excitement of great hospitality waiting for the arriving members at this event. The office bearers of the association were very excited and greeting all arriving guests with smiles and hugs. 
 
 
As we deboarded the bus at the hotel, a Goan band was playing for us and then the president of AIDC Viral Vyas with his other office bearers was personally there to welcome the incoming guests.  Welcoming hostesses, came forward to garland arriving guest with garlands made of sea shells and offer welcome drinks before directing delegates to the registration desk for registration collecting room keys and their summit kits. Surprising as it may seem, lunch was still being served for incoming persons till 4pm. Guests were given an hour to reassemble for the inauguration of the summit/conference. It was an amazing, widely spread out resort on the beach which was exceptionally clean.
 
 
 
 
For me personally AIDC meant it was an association somewhat like the label association dealing with blank labels, printing and providing bar code printed labels to end users. The only extension appeared that they would also supply thermal transfer barcode printers and TTR rolls with some software support. This summit was an eye opener for me personally, realizing the amount and scale of technology that members of this association are involved with. AIDC stands for “Automatic Identification and Data Capture”.  It is a broad category of technologies used to collect information from an individual, object, image or sound without manual data entry.  AIDC systems are used to manage inventory, delivery, assets, security and documents. Sectors that use AIDC systems include distribution, manufacturing, transportation, medicine, government and retail, among many others. AIDC applications typically fall into one of a few categories: identification and validation at the source, tracking, and interfaces to other systems. 





As per Wikipedia, The actual technologies involved, the information obtained and the purpose of colletion vary widely. 
Current AIDC technologies include:
  • Barcodes are a bar of black and white vertical lines of variable thickness. These are as we see every day in retail and have been visible in our daily life routine. Higher end barcodes are used for industrial applications like track and trace.
2D barcodes store information not only horizontally, as one-dimensional barcodes do, but vertically as well. That construction enables 2D codes to store up to 7,089 characters. The traditional, unidimensional barcode has a 20-character capacity.
  • Magnetic stripes, as seen on credit cards, debit cards, key cards and swipe cards. The stripe consists of iron-based magnetic particles in plastic-like tape. Each particle is a tiny bar magnet. Information is written on the stripe by magnetizing the tiny bars in either a north or South Pole direction. The writing process, called flux reversal, causes changes in the magnetic field that can be detected by a magnetic stripe reader.
  • Smart cards, which are plastic cards about the size of a credit card with an embedded microchip. A smart card can store much more data than a magnetic stripe card. It can be loaded with data, used for telephone calling, electronic cash payments, accessing services and other applications. The card can be refreshed for reuse. Some smart cards can include programming and support multiple applications.
  • Optical character recognition (OCR), which is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer. The process includes scanning the text character-by-character, analyzing the resulting character image and translating that image into a machine-readable character code, such as ASCII. Among other things, OCR is used to digitize documents and books, sort mail, and process checks and mail-based payments by credit cards.
  • Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, which consist of three components: an antenna and transceiver (often combined into a single device) and a transponder (the tag). The antenna transmits a signal that activates the transponder, which then transmits data back to the antenna. The data is used to notify a programmable logic controller that some specific action should occur. Because RFID does not require direct contact or line-of-sight scanning, RFID tags are replacing barcodes in many applications.
  • Biometrics: Various biometrics applications, which identify individuals by comparing captured biological data, such as fingerprints, voice characteristics and iris patterns, against stored data for that individual.  Biometric systems consist of a reader or scanning device, software that converts the scanned biological data into a digital format and compares match points, and a database that stores the biometric data for comparison. Authentication by biometric verification is becoming increasingly common in corporate and public security systems, consumer electronics and point of sale (POS) applications. Specific biometric AIDC technologies include finger scanning, electro-optical fingerprint recognition, finger vein ID and voice recognition.
  • The Internet of things (IoT) is the inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
 


The AIDC summit titled “Tarang-The wave of digital India” was thrown open by lighting of the traditional lamp. After the secretary AIDC’s speech Pankaj Bhardwaj Senior Director and General Manager of Avery Dennison delivered the keynote address, appreciating the work of the AIDC association he added, a young and educated India is bound to ensure growth and emerging of new technologies and that Avery is committed to empowering their customers with knowledge. 



 





Ajay Mehta of SMI Coated papers spoke on the enhanced reach and capabilities of SMI in regards to labelstocks manufactured by them. Other presentations were made by HP, Guagzhou Shangchen Electronic company, Novexx Solution, Stic-on papers and Epson. 








This was followed by entertainment program and networking cocktails.
 
















 
The next morning after the secretary’s speech the representative from GS1 came onstage to give a very informative lecture on the role of GS1 and the developments being made on evolution of data sharing and tracking with barcodes. GS1 India is a Standards body (registered under Societies Registration Act 1860) with founder members comprising Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, FIEO, IMC, APEDA, Spices Board, IIP and BIS. It is affiliated with GS1® a not for profit global standards organisation. 
 


After a presentation by Avery Dennison on their products, a panel discussion took place on “Opportunity for AIDC industry in Transportation, Logistics and Retail Verticals.” Rohit Mehta of SMI spoke on labelstock selection procedures. He also informed that SMI had launched an App that can help users identify the product, its quantity, substrate and adhesive requirement. Chainway India spoke on their handheld RFID readers and devices. Ricoh Thermal informed the conference about their company, infrastructure and sales network that they have setup in India for their TTR Ribbons and other products. 
 

This was followed by a panel discussion on services and regulatory in respect of healthcare, Government, transportation. After a presentation by Honeywell International, the survey vertical by AIDC association was made public. 


 
It was indeed an interesting and informative session. According to the survey out of the total 52 companies reviewed, 32 companies had revenues of less than Rs. 5 Crores, 13 companies had between Rs. 6-20 Crores, 4 companies reported revenues of Rs.21-50 Crores, only one company had reported between Rs.51-75 and 3 companies had revenues in excess of Rs. 76 Crores. As regards usage of Labelstocks Avery Dennison heads the chart with over 50% market share in this segment of the label industry. The final session had more presentations from Todaytec, PGI Technologies, Xiamen Hanin, Armor, Heyday global Retail solutions and technologies before the final panel discussion on IOT (Internet of Things). IOT speaks about computers and smart devices communicating amongst themselves for data proliferation.  It indeed was a conference full of high level of technological presentations about offerings of sponsors. There was also a table top exhibition for sponsors to display on the sidelines of the conference.
Before the conference finally came to an end the AIDC association management lead bypresident Viral Vyas called me, Harveer Sahni, Chairman of Weldon Celloplast Limited to the stage to felicitate and honour me for having spent almost 40 years in the Indian label industry and for my contribution thereof. I was overwhelmed and in my small address to the audience I thanked all for this honour and spoke on the need to mentor and empower our generation next so that the growth and expansion of the enterprises the first generation has painstaking built is infused with the energy of the youth and new ideas to take the industry forward on a path of steady and continuous growth.
 
The conference ended but the fun part started with wonderful performances followed by the bar being thrown open. Feeling lighter, the members hit the dance floor and carried on till the wee hours of the morning taking back memories to motivate them to look forward to yet another edition next year.
 

 
 














Written By Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi June 2017
 

Anuj Bhargava, Kumar Labels: Destiny drove him to labels!

Anuj Bhargava, Kumar Labels: Destiny drove him to labels!
While still in school Anuj Bhargava loved good music and the quality of sound stirred up emotions within him such that he wished to make it better. He was in class six of New Delhi’s prominent Delhi Public School, when he developed an amplifier and sold it to a friend. Encouraged by the deal he went on to make almost 50 more such equipment and sold to friends and relatives at that young age. The interest in electronics lead him join YCCE College of engineering and pursue further studies leading to BE (Bachelor of Engineering) in electronics.  Thereafter he went to USA to do MS in electronics. As luck would have it, after the first semester he had a change of heart and switched to study industrial engineering. He worked to support his education while studying in America. On completing his masters in Industrial Engineering, Anuj took up employment in the central engineering department of Corning Glass for display technology. His job required him to coordinate with all Corning plants in various countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea, etc. In 2002 itself he got posted to their plant in Japan. As luck would have it, before he arrived the company’s packaging development engineer had left job and Anuj was asked to replace him. Anuj whose family was in printing and packaging, had advised him to avoid printing and packaging as a career but that is kismet! Fate had destined him elsewhere he wished one day to be in electronics, another day he wanted to be in the furniture business but had to give up due to the huge investment needed, finally landed up with a job in a global company in their packaging department for large sized glassware.
 
In 2006 Anuj resigned from his job and returned back home. His father S K Bhargava was

planning to visit Ipex exhibition in Birmingham, Anuj decided to accompany him to visit the premier show in printing and packaging. While in college he was greatly influenced by a professor who was an expert and consultant to aerospace industry on lean management. Lean management was a subject Anuj always felt would be an asset to manufacturing which he would eventually indulge in. Digital printing appealed to him and implementation of lean manufacturing principles in the process seemed to be in synergy. Moreover digital printing appealed to him because of instant creativity and delivering possibilities that it offered. All through at Ipex show he kept studying digital printing but yet again fate had other plans for him. By end of Ipex he realized PSA labels were talk of the time. The growth that it was offering and the possibility of success on indulgence made him decide to seriously contemplate labels as his business. Strange as it is, destiny drove him to labels.

 

 

 

M K Bhargava, Chairman Kumar Printers
Anuj is from the second generation of the Bhargava family who scaled immense success in the printing industry in North. His uncle M K Bhagava who has been a mentor to Anuj, is the eldest of the three brothers, initiated his career in printing as a freelancer. He would seek orders from customers and outsource printing form other printing companies like Delhi Press, Zodiac Printers etc. In 1964 M K Bhargava started his maiden venture Kumar Printers with a leased single colour Dominant press, from a 200-300 square foot factory in Doriwalan in Karol Bagh Delhi. The second brother N C Bhargava and Anuj’s father; the youngest of the siblings, S K Bharagava who was pursuing studies at Allahabad Print College, joined Kumar Printers soon after. In 1970 all three brothers joined in Kumar Printers to take the business forward. M K Bhargava had gained knowledge from having worked with established printers during his stint as a freelance printer and it helped them establish and grow their maiden venture. With deep commitment to human values, quality, integrity and hard work, the family grew their business. Their mantra for themselves as also to their generation next was that each one had to work his way up in life and nothing would come to them served on a platter. They encouraged their second generation to set up their own ventures. M K Bhargava ‘s son Sandeep is an alumni of IIT Chennai, Sanjeev son of N C Bhargava is an MBA and Anuj has been described in the opening paragraph of this article. Sandeep inherited the reigns of Kumar Printers while his father still continues to be with him at work at an age of 83 years, Sanjeev set up his venture Premier Paper Packaging and S K Bhargava‘s only son Anuj set up his maiden venture Kumar labels. Interesting to note that the elder Bhargava brothers continue to be together as directors at Kumar Printers while their second generation, have set up new businesses separately. All three ventures are successful and continue to grow. The family businesses do not compete amongst themselves.
 
When destiny appeared to have lead him to labels, AnujBhargava on return from the Ipex trip in 2006 decided to evaluate a life in labels. In the process he did a feasibility study, met prospective customers and wrote a business plan. He spoke to many label printers and was surprised that most people suggested that he invest in a Mark Andy rotary flexo press, a very popular brand those days. Anuj was not impulsively indulgent, the as he researched, he came to the conclusion that major end user customers had now started to demand short runs on a regular basis. He saw the gap in that segment and decided to go for an intermittent Letterpress label machine instead of a rotary press that was suited for larger volumes as he saw a demand for short runs growing and smaller run supplies from rotary flexo printers coming hesitantly. Before investing in a press, he ordered a plate making machine. With negatives and plates he left for Korea and Taiwan. Using the same plates he got samples printed on various presses that included Iwasaki, Shiki, Bangsung, STR, Dolphin, Mida and Orthotec to do a decision analysis. While in Corning glass, he had learnt about Kepener Tregoe problem solving and decision making tool. This tool is used by all aerospace companies. Since he had been trained to use this tool he used it to make comparison and evaluation of the printed samples. On completion of analysis, Bangsung won with the highest numbers and the decision was made. The order was finally placed with Bangsung. As luck would have Anuj got a nod from PNB for machine loan based on which he placed order for the machine. However at the very last moment PNB declined and within 15 days Anuj obtained funding from SIDBI (Small Industries Bank of India).
 
It all started in 2007 with the arrival of his first label press, an intermittent Bangsung at a 
The die cutting machine developed by Anuj
1740 square feet rented factory in Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi. Two years later in 2009, Anuj bought another identical Bangsung press and the shop floor space in Okhla fell short. In 2011 he shifted his factory to an 18000 square feet rented factory in Sector 83 NOIDA, on the outskirts of Delhi. He also added an inspection machine and a screen printing equipment. With space at his disposal and business growing, the outgoing entrepreneur in Anuj became unstoppable. In 2012 he added two Multitecflexo rotary label presses. One was installed in January 2012 and another in June 2012. In the same year Anuj started his own captive machine division to build semi rotary intermittent registered die cutting machine. He showcased this equipment initially at Labelexpo India 2012 and later at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels in 2013 and 2015. Till date he has sold 16 machines and all are working well. He is proud to say repeat orders came from export markets of Poland and Korea. In 2013 Anuj decided to integrate backwards and started to produce silicon release papers and self adhesive labelstocks for his captive consumption. 
 
The Gallus at Kumar Labels
By this time in 2013 not only was the space in the factory getting crowded but the lease was expiring and the landlord also was not willing to renew. Anuj, took the bold step of buying a plot of land admeasuring 1750 square Meters in Greater Noida. In 2014 he started construction, finished it in a record time of 48 days due to pressure of vacating the previous premises and moved into the new 25000 square foot factory in September 2014. Once operational in their owned new factory, Anuj bought another screen printing machine, a Gallus label press, and many ancillary equipment. For his label sock manufacturing he added equipment to produce label materials with special effects and textures. In the same year he filed two patents. A year on in 2015 Anuj bought the adjacent 1800 square Meters of land for further expansion.
 
Kumar labels is Anuj Bhargava ‘s sole proprietorship company, reminiscing his earliest days
Anuj Bhargava with Harveer Sahni
 when he started printing labels he mentions his first customer that was his big  break, was Bausch & Laumb. They gave him a complicated label with a very tight registration to print. However much they tried they were not getting it right. That night he himself stood on the machine and kept on trying and finally got it right at 3am in the morning. He took the materials in his car and supplied to the customer some 80 Kms away and returned home at 5.30 am. Anuj has active support from his wife Somya, a Bangalore girl he married after his first year in labels. They have two children a daughter aged 6 and a son aged 4. Somya is an engineer with MBA and looks after Finance, procurement and HR and comes to work Mondays to Fridays. Kumar labels, is presently working with 9 label presses, 105 employees and a shop floor 25000 square feet in size. They have additional land next door for expansion. Anuj believes in continuously training employees so that they are not left stranded when some employees quit. He proudly states that he has trained over 300 persons in label conversion but is not comfortable with the fact that in this industry skilled employee retention is a problem. This so, at a time when competition is getting to be intense and reverse auctions making life very uneasy. He plans to shortly start a special technical training program under the aegis of Government of India SkillDevelopment Program.
 
As for future Anuj wishes to concentrate on art of print and create innovations in labels. He wishes his enterprise to be a front runner in decoration of labels for leading brands where quality and innovation will matter and not just volumes. He wants and is committed to make his business grow 15% per annum not just in top line but in the bottom lines so that with added profitability he can invest more in creativity. Digital printing does catch his interest and the indulgence may happen soon when his plans and ideas for it fall into place. He is also in the process of developing a process to reduce waste in self adhesive labels by almost 50% but for that he says, “I will divulge later when ready”.
 
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director,Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India May 2017
 
The article was first printed in Printweek India.

History of Indian Label Industry part 2D

History of Indian Label Industry part 2D

This is the final part of History of Indian Label Industry” up to third quarter of 2019 written by the author. The history would look incomplete if mention was not made of those who started their label journey from scratch or very humble beginning and then rose to a pinnacle achieving success not only in the home market but also internationally and continue with their journey to greater heights.

From the start of new Millennium in 2000 until the time of writing this part of the history, enormous changes have come about in the Indian label industry. Label printing companies who started from virtually nothing, grew and spread to multiple locations. Some of the bigger ones on the way, decided to sell out to or partnered with foreign companies who were entering the Indian market for label manufacturing. Label, being a miniscule portion of the total packaging cost of a product, does not deliver very large turnover as compared to that of package printing or flexible packaging companies.

However, it does generate relatively higher profit margins than that of high turnover package printing industry. For this reason, we did not see any label companies in the earlier part of the new Millennium who could reach a coveted target of Rupees 100 Crore or a Billion Rupees as annual sales turnover. However, some packaging companies or multinationals who invested in labels as well, were above this figure. It was incredible that at least three Indian startup companies who started their business purely with stickers that later evolved as labels, grew to cross Rupees 100 Crores turnover or more in 2018-2019.

First among them is Manish Desai led Mudrika Labels. Sandeep Desai working at a greeting cards company started trading in stickers that he outsourced in 1975 and a year later he started screen printing them at home. His 10-year-old cousin, Manish was always excited to see stickers being made. In 1977 Sandeep moved his sticker manufacturing to a 500 square feet factory in Malad.

In 1985 they started outsourcing pregummed sheets and get them printed on offset to finally finish them to be stickers at their factory. They grew and expanded into packaging, making cartons and corrugated boxes. Sandeep eventually moved into packaging and the young Manish who had labels in his heart, in 1996 expanded into labels with Kopack label presses and later many Gallus presses. He further expanded integrating backwards to produce self-adhesive labelstocks and collaborated with a Korean company to produce heat transfer labels. By 2019 Mudrika labels were working out of 100,000 square foot shop floor, 550 workforce to achieve a Rupees 160 Crore (1.60 Billion Rupees) annual sales turnover.

The second person to achieve this Kuldip Goel of Any Graphics started from very humble beginnings. At a tender age of 14 years he started making stickers by screen printing manually himself to earn some money while still in school. He did this in his one room home. Despite extreme hardships in life he remained honest and focussed on providing the best in quality and indulging in innovation. In 1989 he started his maiden venture Stickline in Noida. By start of the millennium Kuldip’s company Any Graphics was recognised as one of the best label manufacturers in quality and one that never cut prices to get orders but prove their innovative capabilities to convince customers. From mere screen printing he went on to add dome labels and letterpress printed labels in his portfolio. In 2009 he moved to a 100,000 square feet clean sanitized dust free factory adding, Heidelberg Offset Presses, Orthotecs and a fully loaded Omet flexo and screen combination label press. He also became one of the largest makers of rigid boxes.

By 2019 he had crossed the Rupees 100Crore sale without compromising profit margins and becoming one of the most awarded companies in India. In 2019 he commenced construction of a certified green factory spread over 15000 square meter plot size and 250,000 square feet shop floor.

 The third printer who grew in similar pattern, a stout follower of Lord Shiva who greets people with, “Jai Bhole Ki” (Victory to Lord Shiva, lovingly referred to as Bhole) Sanjeev Sondhi, started his career as a medical Representative and carried on in the profession switching jobs until 2005 when he decided to trade in Barcode labels, printers and accessories.

He was looking for bigger things in life! Two years later in 2006 he launched his maiden start-up venture Zircon Technologies India Limited with a Mark Andy 2200 Label press in Dehradun. Being a salesperson himself he drove the company in fast mode expansion and in a few years added multiple Mark Andy and Omet label presses which include the high-end combination Omet Vary flex 430mm. In just 15 years of inception Zircon crossed the Rupees 100 Crore reaching 120 Crores annual turnover mark coming purely from label manufacturing, “a record in itself”! While other successful label companies at this stage would look for foreign suitors, Zircon in 2019 was the first totally indigenous label manufacturing company planning to go public to raise capital for future expansion. They got the approval from SEBI in November 2018 with plans to open a 90-100 Crores public issue. Waiting for an appropriate time to launch their public issue Zircon continued to grow and invest in expansion. Sanjeev hoped to invest 80 percent of the receipts in expanding labels business while the rest in other allied products. Sanjeev was even looking at inorganic growth by indulging in Mergers and Acquisitions. With 3 factories in Dehradun and one in Chennai Sanjeev Sondhi aims to grow multi-fold with blessing of Bhole (Lord Shiva).

Having achieved such success through sheer commitment and hard work it is natural for companies like the three mentioned above to look at other avenues in synergy with their business to achieve a faster growth. All the above, while they continued to be proud of their beginnings and aware of the evolution, started to study or invest in new technologies. 

 We had reached a time when multiple labelling technologies surfaced, and future had many surprises in store. From the primitive times when a label had to be either tied to a product or riveted on to it or affixed with a wheat flour paste, we believed to have reached a pinnacle when self-adhesive or pressure sensitive adhesive labels that were developed and grew to establish as a predominant labelling technology. Initially it was the manually applied wet glue adhesive paper labels that were in use. With development of starch and dextrin-based glues and availability of automatic wet glue labelling equipment, wet glue labels became the most widely used method of labelling. Most of the organised industry employed packaging lines incorporating wet glue labelling. It was used in all segments like pharmaceuticals, Liquor, cosmetics, oils and in fact most of the products that were packed in glass bottles or metal cans. When plastics, mostly HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), started to evolve as a preferred packaging material for glass bottles and cans due to ease of manufacturing, reduction of freight due to lighter weight per can, possibility to produce in different shapes and colours, labelling with starch or dextrin based adhesive became a challenge. This change was taking place during the 1970s and 1980s. Since HDPE is a low energy material, paper labels with water-based adhesives made from various gums, starches and dextrins would not anchor on to the containers or would fall off in transit. Labels with pressure sensitive adhesives or stickers had already started being made initially by screen printing methods and later by offset printing, these labels would stick well just by application of pressure. They did not have to wait for drying and could be packed instantly after labelling while the wet glue labels would have adhesives oozing out on the sides and attracting dust and shifting in packing process, adversely affecting the aesthetics. More and more companies were opting for these stickers.

Towards the end of last century self-adhesive labels evolved in roll form and the automatic labelling equipment for pressure sensitive adhesive labels became available. Many companies did resist shifting from wet glue to self-adhesive due to the high cost of label applicator replacements.

This is a big challenge that the likes of printers mentioned above faced and yet with their firm resolve they became a part of the change that brought them success. As the retail became dependent on customer choices and there was need for better decorated labels, self-adhesive labels became the preferred labelling technology and grew at fast pace. In between screen printing on containers also started but a slow process that did not have much decoration as compared to printed labels, it did not grow as a preferred process. Self-adhesive grew so much that it became almost 50% of all the labels produced in India. As we entered the new millennium and started looking also into future the thought process for future of labels is becoming extremely diverse and evolving in different tangents. Shrink sleeves came in to take away a big market share given the possibility of 360 degrees visibility. Wrap around labels also became extensively used in the beverage segment. Heat transfer label technology that had originated as Therimage Label technology developed by Dennison Manufacturing company in USA in the 1990s did not flourish then because Avery, who acquired Dennison, did not promote it as it was not in sync with their core business of self-adhesive labels. Once the patents expired, the Heat Transfer Labels or HTL reappeared in the second decade of new millennium and started growing. In mould labels is another labelling technology that had found usage in many segments and started registering growth in large volume usage. At this time, I try and link the changes to the three above who understood the need to expand the scope of labels in their business portfolio. While Mudrika as I mentioned invested in heat transfer labels, Any Graphics into innovative labels and rigid boxes and Zircon also started moving into brand security and innovative packaging including spiral wound containers.

Around this time environmental concerns also impacted the self-adhesive label industry as almost 50% of the converted product is waste going to landfills. Much work was being done on this to reduce the liner tonnage by opting for thinner filmic liners that can be recycled and by developing linerless labels.

Digital printing on to the products is another technology that may replace some of the usage of self-adhesive labels. All said and done, the sheer market size in India and the inertia, brings business to all label technologies and for this reason the self-adhesive labels market continued to grow at double digit rates. The industry will keep evolving both in terms of quality and innovation as also taking environmental concerns in its stride.

In over a year, as another decade ends, the author will update the history on the outcome of such endeavours. The total History as chronicled by the author until now is now available on this blog on links as below:
Part 1: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-indian-label-industry.htmlPart 2A: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/07/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2a.htmlPart 2B: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/search?q=History+part+2bPart 2C: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/08/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2c.htmlPart 2 D: Above
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July/September 2019
Note: No one is authorised to reproduce, copy or reprint this article until permitted by the author in writing. 

Label industry in UAE: Intense competition, still growing!

Label industry in UAE: Intense competition, still growing!
Sheikh Zayed Road Dubai
UAE (United Arab Emirates), a federation of seven countries has a population of just about 9 million out of which over 85% are expatriates, yet there is a label industry that is growing steadily and is attracting interest from global suppliers all the time. At the start of this millennium the number of label printers in UAE worth the mention was less than 10. The number of label companies has been rapidly growing ever since. Those were the days when Industrial growth started seeing an upswing in UAE. The number of companies from India who started to set up shop in the UAE was also growing. Indian label printers who were ambitious to go global started to make efforts to use UAE as a gateway to the world of international business. The then Finance minister (later Prime Minister) Dr. Manmohan Singh’s economic liberalization programs had become the catalyst in aiding the Indian entrepreneurs’ aspiration to be called a multinational!
 
Dubai has always been the face of UAE even though in terms of area it is just less than 5% of the of the total of 83,600 km² area of UAE (The whole of UAE in terms of area is smaller than the small state of Meghalaya in East India). The largest emirate (or country) in UAE is Abu Dhabi at 67,340 square kilometers, yet it is Dubai that is recognized as the face of UAE. Dubai has a population of 2.7 million that, if not already there, is inching towards a figure twice that of the population in Abu Dhabi. Surprisingly the percentage of women in Dubai is just 31 % and men 69 % according to data available as of 2014. This is largely due to expatriate population who, leave their families back home and travel to UAE for gainful employment. The gender mismatch is also similar in other emirates. UAE is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on December 2, 1971. 
 
 
 
The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi (which serves as the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. UAE is a major international tourist and business hub. It has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world at nearly $25,000 USD.  UAE has approximately 10% of the world's total known oil reserves, 90% of these oil reserves are in Abu Dhabi and only about 10% of these are in Dubai. UAE is not anymore solely reliant on oil and gas revenues. The oil sector contributes about 30% of the country's GDP.  Lead by Dubai the trade, tourism, real estate and construction are large contributors to UAE economy. Sometimes one wonders how a country with population and area less than most big cities in India, continues to attract such fervor for tourism and investment. Indians form over 25 % of UAE population. With the country being home to between 50,000 and 60,000 Indian companies, today India is UAE's largest trading partner.
 
The label industry in UAE is facing a more or less similar situation as in India. The market keeps growing and the number of printers also keeps on increasing, thereby translating into intense competition and lower margins. Being a federation of emirates or countries with low population, it is actually the exports that are driving growth in labels. From being a trading distribution centre, UAE has transformed to be a manufacturing hub selling globally. The immediate access to Middle-Eastern and African markets is the starting point for all label companies and as they step up their capabilities, from here they venture into Europe and beyond as well. The glitter, liberal life style, cosmopolitan character and excellent infrastructure of Dubai and the rest of UAE, has always tempted the ambitious investors to establish presence here. According to recent Smithers Pira report, total printing revenues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region) were $17.6 billion in 2012, and are forecast to grow 7.2% per annum reaching $26 billion by 2018. On trying to reach an approximate market size in the region; considering labels to be 20% of the total print industry, the size of label industry in this region in 2018 is estimated at $5.2 Billion. Pressure sensitive labels being a little over 40% of the total labels industry one can estimate the market size of pressure sensitive labels in the MENA region in 2018 to reach approximately $2.08 Billion.
 
 
UAE Label industry is largely, either owned, run or managed by Indian expatriates. This
Kimoha Factory in Dubai
 market is divided into 3 distinct segments; (A) the top end that has 5-6 very big players. (B) The big players that are the middle segment and (C) The not so big players who are either testing their luck or are the offshoots, ex employees of A & B trying to emulate their ex-employers. As is always, the middle segment suffers the most as they are continuously held back by the competition from the smaller players making it difficult for them to invest so as to get into the top segment due to lower margins and unviable return on investment. The niche or top segment has the least competition but delivering to customer’s expectations and retention is in itself a big challenge that the top players keep attending to so as to meet the demands of their high end customers. Therefore the increase in number of printing companies, affects largely within the segments they operate in. The established top players in UAE include; Emirates Printing Forms in Abu Dhabi, Kimoha in Jebel Ali-Dubai, Pacman CCL in Alquoz-Dubai, Futurepack in Sharjah and GulfAdhesive Label Factory in Ajman. In recent times established Indian companies who have invested in UAE include Gulfscan, Prakash Labels and Ajanta packaging.
 
Vinesh Bhimani Managing Director Kimoha
The rough estimate of the total market size in terms of labelstock usage in UAE alone is approximately 50 million square meters per year. This maybe off the mark, but after interaction with leading printers, this estimation has been arrived at. We cannot really translate this in terms of per capita usage as about 80 % of the labelstock is exported either as converted labels or as a part of manufactured end products. UAE appears to be a bigger market then Saudi Arabia for production of labels because of better infrastructure and liberal policies aided by no tax regime for sales within the GCC countries. According to Nimeesh Lilani at PacmanCCL, “The reason for this is the ease of doing business in UAE, easy availability of funds and it being a logistic hub with ease of making clearances and shipments”. According to Vinesh Bhimani heading Kimoha, “from the just a handful of label companies,there are now in excess of 45 label companies. 
 
 
Gopalan Nair & Chinnadurai at Future Pack
The market is getting crowded”. Chinnadurai at Future Pack says, “New entrants are just one part of the story affecting margins, online auctions have started to surface in UAE also, this will be another headache!” he further added, “We are trying to replace old machines with new technologically advanced equipment to produce cost effectively.” Sachin Arya at Ajanta packaging says, “Prices have become challenging and payments are delayed making it difficult for us to operate. More and more Indians are wishing to locate outside India and to succeed; they are under compulsion to sell by undercutting prices”. Chinnadurai feels that if the trend goes on like this it will not be long before we see some people exiting this business. 
 
Assad Antonios heading Abu Dhabi based Emirates Printing Forms says, “Cost of living in
Assad Antonios of Emirates Printing Forms Abu Dhabi
 UAE has gone up and with new printing companies coming up in Africa the market place is shrinking bringing pressure on smaller players to exist” Increasing number of printing companies, bring with it the need for more operators whose demands become difficult to meet as they wish to bring their families to UAE as well. It is becoming very expensive to hire operators. One wonders how the new entrants with just one machine and that too of a lower end can survive in an economy where per capita income is one of the highest in the world and the market appears to be almost saturated. However still, most big printers have said that there is definite growth in the market. The UAE market as mentioned earlier in this report is dominated by a few large printing companies. Dubai based Pacman CCL Is headed by John Dawson and has been in the news for their recent takeover of Mumbai based Super labels. The company is a joint venture between the Albwardy group and Geoffrey Martin lead CCL Label, the world’s largest label company. They have units in Dubai, Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and now India. Jebel Ali headquartered Kimoha headed by Vinesh Bhimani has been a front runner and always striving to excel. Abu Dhabi located Emirates Printing Forms has been another success story. They have grown from just being a computer forms manufacturer to a huge enterprise manufacturing Continuous forms, Self adhesive labels, document security printing, wrap around labels on wide web machines, EDP products, Shrink Sleeves, IML, Cut & Stack Labels, etc. Assad Antonios of Lebanese descent has been heading the company for last 26 years. He is proud to mention that this company, growing at a steady rate of 10% per annum, now operates out of over 100,000 square feet shop floor space with 140 employees. He is happy that due to respect given to all employees and creation of a family like atmosphere, the company has very low employee turnover. Sharjah based Future Pack is a part of the Saudi Arabian ENPI group which in turn is a part of the Saudi Printing and packaging Co. (a public listed company in Saudi Arabia). The company produces a diverse range of paper and plastic packaging. Chinnadurai as their Vice President Operations at Sharjah has lead the company from just labels to even production of specialized labelstocks and innovative label products. 
 
The Label industry in UAE started from Dubai then spread to other emirates like Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman. With real estate prices escalating and cost of living in Dubai becoming unaffordable, label printing started to come up in other Emirates like Ras Al Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah. Today the label printers are spread over in all emirates. However it is pertinent to note that it is not the domestic sale or locational advantage that makes them locate their units in far off emirates rather than in Dubai. It is actually the need to produce cost effectively with lower overheads that takes them to other emirates. The growing market at this manufacturing hub has made Tarsus the organizers of Labelexpo series of events around the world to invest in Gulf Print and Pack Dubai. The show has become a premier event in Middle East Asia and printers from all countries in the region make it a point to visit the show. This year’s edition, as per their official website has over 200 exhibitors. Registering a 26.7% increase, 11918 visitors from 110 countries visited the last edition of the show. The interesting part of UAE is that the local governments recognize the need for exporting and increasing their share of global trade rather than relying on the limited and fast depleting oil reserves. They have transformed the UAE economy from oil revenue based one to one based on global trading, manufacturing, tourism and real estate development. It is evident that mindset of rulers of the country will make manufacturing to prosper and with that, the market of labels in UAE will surely grow.
 
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-India February 2017
 
The article maybe published with the permission of Narrow WebTech Germany giving credit to them and to the author

For advertising enquiries please email to; harveersahni@gmail.com

Digital label printing in India, the journey has begun!

Digital label printing in India, the journey has begun!
In May 2015 I wrote on this blog that the verdict from the Indian label industry, after I had interviewed some leading printers was, “Digital for labels has to wait”. In the concluding part of my article I mentioned, “The time frame before digital printing becomes largely visible and used in label printing in India varies between three to five years.” 



 
Amar Chhajed Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech
I must here appreciate and commend Amar Chhajed of Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech labels for his foresight when he said digital printing in labels will become evident in 2-3 years. He said this in May 2015 and two years hence as we enter the third year since then, we note that some big time investments are being made in digital printing in labels. Digital printing in labels has been registering continuous growth in Europe, followed by that in North America. 


 
I and Adrian Tippenhauer MD Rako Etiketten
In my reporting on the last DRUPA, I had quoted Adrian Tippenhauer Managing Director of Rako Etiketten Germany. According to him the last 36 label presses acquired by them out of the 100s that they have, are all digital presses. If the Labelexpo-Europe and Drupa are indicators, the visitors to these shows can very well imagine the way forward. Digital was the most predominantly exhibited technology at these events. HP became the biggest exhibitor at DRUPA with an almost 5000 square meter hall showcasing their digital offerings.  Other leading suppliers of digital label presses were all there. The writing was on the wall that it would not be long before the trend starts to flourish in India. Indian label printers have been very cautious towards investing in digital printing of labels. However as they say, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come. When I researched and estimated the size of digital label market in India, the findings became interesting. By latest count the population of leading brands of digital label presses in India has reached 22 in number. This is besides the small low value small printers that some companies may have acquired. Now this is a fairly impressive figure when just a year back we had the industry largely saying that digital has to wait. Estimating the size of the digital label market I made some assumptions. The average width of the press was taken as 330mm (as widths vary from 250 mm to 370 mm), printing speed is calculated at an average of 30 running meters per minute, because it varies from 20 to 50 meters per minute for different brands and working hours assumed at 12 hours per day. This amounts to a total consumption in the industry for digitally printed labels of over 52 million square meters in a year. Self adhesive labels form the largest part of total label market which include besides self adhesive labels, shrink sleeves, wrap around labels, wet glue labels, in mould labels, etc. In October 2016 I had estimated the total Indian label industry size (mostly conventional) at almost 900 million square meters per annum. This translates into to almost 5.8 % of the total self adhesive labels in India to be printed digitally; conservatively we can assume the figure to be 5%.  This surely indicates that for digital label printing in India, the journey has begun!
 
In the last edition of LMAI’s magazine Label Legacy, Gautham Pai Managing Director of Manipal
Gautham Pai MD Manipal Technologies
 Technologies said, ““Digital printing offers a plethora of opportunities for both the suppliers and the clients. With the Indian market trending towards more customized products, a large number of brands, shorter TATs (Turnaround Times) and more ecologically sustainable solutions, Digital printing would prove to be one hallmark technology for the Label Industry.” Manipal Technologies has an HP Indigo installed at its subsidiary UPSL in Chennai. The deterrent so far for the label industry to invest in digital printing equipment has been the high cost of consumables and the end price to consumer including margins, as not being acceptable. However the evolving retail selling patterns and consumables becoming more affordable, the technology is now more relevant. As run lengths continue to shrink, short runs being more in demand and customization or personalization needs become imperative to modern day marketing; it is driving printers to think digital. Added requirement for variable data on the labels that helps companies to track and trace their products, brings about the compelling need to complement their analogue printing with digital printing. In words of Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Pack Hyderabad who have installed an HP Indigo 6800, ““One of things that all of us must understand and appreciate is that both digital and analog will co-exist. Digital’s greatest advantage is variable data printing. Short runs are cheaper. So the areas are clearly ear marked.” Digital printing of packaging and labels is growing at an enormous pace in the western world. We have touched the tip of an iceberg; it will not be long before the trend picks up in India as well.
 
Sai Packaging team announcing Epson Surepress Purchase
The ease of use and consistency in print reached in this technology makes it interesting for established printers to indulge. Pravin Savla of J P Printers Mumbai is ecstatic that he invested in an Epson Surepress. He says, “I can print good quality on a variety of substrates using the computer to print capability. He caters to his customer base that demands short runs with so many design changes and is still profitable.” He further adds that reduced need of manpower helps him manage well with ample time on his hands. He says conventional flexo and letterpress technologies are time consuming and have hidden costs. Yet another Epson customer Arvind Shekhar of Sai Packaging Bangalore says, “We have had good experience for short run jobs defined as less than 20,000 labels for bigger size and 50,000 for smaller pharma labels and we have never had colour consistency issues with Epson.” Adding to the views of Narendra Paruchuri Arvind states, “I don’t' see it as a standalone ROI (Return on investment). When you see increased sales on Flexo plus plate costs saved; then the ROI makes sense.” Denver Annunciation from Janus International, perhaps the very first label printer to install an HP Indigo label press says, “Yes the technology has evolved a lot and we are seeing the crossover point shift higher”. While those in the process of acquiring capabilities in digital remain tightlipped yet others like Raveendran of Sel Jegat Sivakasi, Manjunath of Global Printing Bangalore and Rajesh Nema of Pragati Graphics Indore say they are studying the technology and will invest in the near future.
 
 
While calculating the number of digital label presses in India, I have not taken into account the
presses that are not operational. Out of the 22 presses, the bulk of the share goes to HP Indigos that employ Electro Photography as a process to print, which is similar to offset printing using liquid inks. Electro photography and inkjet are both improving in quality and speed, there evolution and further developments are challenging the dominance of other printing processes like offset, wide-web flexo and gravure. 13 presses amounting to 59% of the total digital label press installations in India are HP indigo. This is followed by 5 Epson SurePress L-4033AW that use water-based inks and is suitable for segments such as pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food, amongst others. The press uses a seventh white ink to print the transparent no-label look, as well as metallic labels. The opaque white printing on materials, such as clear film and metallic substrates, has the flexibility of printing white first or last. Epson accounts for almost 23 % of the installations, 2 Xeikons account for 9% and one each of durst and EFI accounting for 4.5% each.
 
59% of all the digital label presses installed are in the West Zone, 23% in South and 18% in North. Out of the 13 HP Indigo label presses working in India, 7 are installed in the west zone. One at Janus International Mumbai, 1 at Diadeis Alia (formerly Alia Creative Consultants) Mumbai, 2 at Astron Packaging Ahmedabad, 1 at Essel Propack Mumbai, 1 at Trigon Digital Mumbai and 1 at Skanem Interlabels Mumbai. 4 HP Indigos are installed in South, 1 at Pragati Pack Hyderabad, 1 at Pravesha Hyderabad, 1 with Huhtamaki (SGRE Labels) Bangalore and 1 at Manipal Technologies (UPSL) Chennai. 2 of the HP Indigos are in North. 1 at Hora Art Centre NOIDA and 1 at Moser Baer Noida (working). Out of the 5 Epson Surepress preses 1 is installed in South at Sai Packaging Bangalore others are in the West zone with 1 at Trigon Digital Mumbai, 1 at J P Printers Mumbai, 1 at Syndicate Printers Goa and 1 with a customer in Pune. Of the 2 Xeikons installed, one is with Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech Labels in Mumbai and one with Kwality Offset New Delhi. The only EFI Jetrion installed is with Reynders in Chopanki in the North and the only Durst is with Astron Packaging in Ahmedabad. I have accounted for most of the recognized brands of digital label presses in India.
 
Hemanth Paruchuri of Pragati Pack





On further evaluation of data compiled by me 9 out of 20 i.e. 45% of the companies who indulged in digital label printing are either multinationals or corporates and the rest 11 are family owned businesses. It is interesting to note that at least 7 out of the 11 companies have the young generation-next either in command or actively involved in day to day affairs of the company. So evidently it is the corporate mindset or the youth that is driving the march into digital printing of labels in India.
 






Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India May 2017 email: harveersahni@gmail.com

Retired from labels to pursue passions!

Retired from labels to pursue passions!

Most successful people in life have yearnings of pursuing their passions that are completely unconnected to their successful careers. Silently they nurture the hope and wish, that one day they can retire and indulge in what they wish to do in time which becomes their own. However the mad rush for being one up in life, pressures of modern day business and family needs takes one to a point of time where either the health gives in or one is too old with no energy to indulge. Rarely do you find a person achieve the fulfilment of pursuing his or her heart’s desires. “Life is too short”, time just moves on and before we know, it is too late in life do what one wished to do.  I am reminded of a dear friend Mohan Kini, who was like a father to me. He had an illustrious career as a professional working for large business houses.

Being extremely fond of vocal Indian classical music, he would turn on his music system each evening and listen to maestros of their times. He, at times would hum along and somewhere deep within him, he carried a strong desire to learn the raga’s (Indian Classical music) and sing. Then came the day when he retired. Within weeks of his retirement he started to take lessons and enjoy doing what he had wanted to do for long years, “sing by self and not hum long”. I was amazed to see how quickly he picked up and was singing extremely well. I was sure he will soon start giving performances. However God has his ways, tragedy struck and my friend suffered a massive heart attack and could not even reach the hospital.  

Personally I have always wanted to pursue my passion for cooking and writing, I have been fortunate that now my sons are taking up the bulk of the business responsibilities I have more time on my hand and so can write. This blog is a result of pursuing my heart’s desire to write and express myself and then spending time in Kitchen gives me the satisfaction of creating new dishes. In my younger days I used to spend hours in laboratory creating diverse products like inks, adhesive, cosmetics, label and coated products. I find a striking similarity between a laboratory and a kitchen with the kitchen slab and the spices lined up like chemicals in the laboratory making your imagination run wildly towards creativity. Adding a little spice to this article, I reproduce pictures of a dish made by me recently.

 There are nights when I get up in the middle of the night and start thinking what I have to write or what new dish to create. This is the reason that my family says, I can make a different egg dish 365 days a year. The following day starting with the morning is always the nearest time to try out a new dish imagined in the preceding night. In my time spent in the label industry I have come across some amazing personalities who even in retirement continue to excel and deliver value to the society and also draw pleasure. They are inspirational and watching them makes you to realise that life does not end at retirement but starts all over in a more pleasurable direction if you pursue your passions.

Helmut Schreiner retired as Chairman of Germany’s leading label company Schreiner Group a few years ago handing over the reigns of the group to his son Ronald Schreiner. I wrote about him on this blog: http://harveersahni.blogspot.in/2013/05/helmut-schreiner-adversity-to.html. In the closing paragraph I wrote, “Having more time on his hands, Helmut founded a new company “Schreiner Innovation GmbH & Co. KG”. Here he is interested in developing partnerships with other companies as well as dealing real estate. He is also now devoting a substantial part of his time to social activities and charities. He lives his philosophy, to be honest, true to himself and to his people and this has evolved from personal experiences in his life. His philosophy for his company and his people has been clear and value oriented. The values were innovation, quality, performance and joy! This clear positioning was always the bases for his personal happiness and business success.”  A year later I was surprised to note that Helmut had started to pursue yet another passion of his life and that is poetry. I found it an extremely pleasurable expression of time being spent in retirement. So I decided to share this with the print fraternity, it is available at ;

http://harveersahni.blogspot.in/2014/07/helmut-schreiner-from-labels-to-poetry.html . This January he sent to me a beautiful new year’s greeting card along with an amazing book titled, “Reflections, Recognition Rhyme” a compilation of his poetry that is deliverance of his passionate expression! He continues with his social works towards community service and draw pleasure in finding a wonder outlet for his emotions through poetry.

Sandeep Lal: I wrote about him on this blog many times since 2009, he and his family migrated from Allahabad in India to Toronto, Canada in 1972. He set up a very successful Metro label and eventually sold it to Tapp Labels to pursue life in other avenues. For his parents this would be their second migration, the first one being from western Punjab (now in Pakistan) to India post partition of India in 1947. They had moved with their family to Canada to provide a better life for future generations. Sandeep’s children as they grew up chose to pursue interests outside the business.

Sandeep realized that he no longer had the passion for business that he had worked in for most of his life and it was best to find an ownership that had the required energy and a new focus. In July 2015 Sandeep sold Metro Label’s assets to Tapp Label. Tapp was approximately half the size of Metro Label, but had deep pockets and were a financially sound private investor. 

Funny how things work! Sandeep’s parents took the family to Canada for a better life, the one they found in spades. When success was in there in full measure, in 2003 Sandeep’s youngest sibling Raideep left Metro Label to seek his own dream and relocated to Boquete, Panama.  Boquete is 1000 metres above sea level in the mountains near Costa Rica and about 75km from the Pacific Ocean. Raideep acquired a large parcel of land to build a golf course with a residential development around it. Sandeep and Metro Label subsequently invested in this development. Raideep’s early demise at the young age of 44 in 2010 left the leadership of the golf course in Sandeep’s hands.

So what does one do after retiring from 43 years of hard work in a very successful label business? Enjoy life a little more, have more time for family, grand children and maybe even travel. Sometimes all of those! However Sandeep accepted the challenge of managing and growing Lucero Homes and Lucero Golf and Country Club (www.Lucero.com.pa ) in the country of Panama. He commutes between Toronto where he lives and Boquete, Panama.  His work included completing the last 9 holes of the Golf Course, revising the development Master plan to add more density and planting almost 400,000 coffee plants on their land to become the third largest Coffee grower in Panama. Lucero Golf and Country Club was recently ranked the Best Golf Course in Panama. He is contemplating building a luxury hotel and Spa which will be supported by fruits and vegetable from their land. He talks about how different life is. He is running a development which includes “Seasons” a 110 cover restaurant, hotel rooms, home and condominium apartment construction, coffee plants and fruits trees a large nursery to grow vegetable and flowering plants for the development,  along with the golf course and tennis courts. Sandeep said that he was surprised to discover that many skills which he acquired in running Metro Label are coming in handy. He said that the business is still about managing people, implementing financial controls and reporting protocols, creating and implementing policies and procedure. Having clear goals and expectations and communicating them to the team and ensuring they are motivated to perform. He is using all these skills which he acquired in his career at Metro Label to run Lucero and hoping very soon to have a lot more leisure time with family and friends.

Kurt Walker, past president of FINAT, after graduating from university, entered the printing industry where he held various positions in sales and marketing. In 1988 he joined the label industry. He continued to be in the industry until his retirement in 2012, as chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesa Bandfix in Switzerland. He became a member of the FINAT board in 1999 and also served as vice-president of membership committee and treasurer. FINAT is the worldwide association for the self-adhesive labeling industry. Kurt became the President of FINAT in 2011.  During his tenure he supported and edeavoured to bring the global label fraternity together by supporting L7 now known as L9, an alliance of label associations in different countries. He was also instrumental in furthering the success of Young Managers Club in FINAT. Now retired, Kurt expresses himself as below;

“After 25 years as the CEO of tesa-Bandfix in Switzerland I retired in 2012. My expectations of retirement were quite different from the reality. I and my wife have become extensive travellers and spend somewhat like 50% of our time away from home. During the cold winter period we usually stay in the south of Africa, which has virtually become our second home. I am still involved in FINAT as president emeritus in the executive board and the organizing committee for the annual European Label Forum. This keeps me in the label family, from which I benefited so much in my life. In my free time I play tennis and golf with friends and visit art exhibitions and music events. Keeping in touch with all the friends in the whole world will be one of my challenges for the future and I hope to maintain all these wonderful contacts.”

Honey Vazirani: A wonderful person, I met Honey the first time in 1989 while she was working at Paper Products Limited (Now Huhtamaki-PPL), Thane (Mumbai). That was the beginning of this girl’s journey into the world of labels. From being a management trainee in 1989, she rose to be the head of the labelling division of the company that specialises in flexible packaging. Vazirani‘s has been a decorative, colourful journey. Since then, she had been at the forefront of PPL’s foray into the production of labels which began in 1991. Her job involved client servicing, marketing, product development and leading the labels team at PPL.

She handled customers who are the who’s who of the FMCG sector. This included key customers like Unilever and Dabur and bringing to them the most premium and modern labelling technologies. In the words of Torsten Jung Lenz, who in those days worked for Jacstadt Germany, “Honey Vazirani is married to labels!” Having spent over 20 years in the industry, she took a sabbatical in 2009. She spent a whole year rejuvenating herself by travelling, reading, spending time with friends and relatives and enjoying good food. Yes, she is a self confessed foodie! This is something she and I have in common, love for labels and indulgence in food. In 2010 she returned to Huhtamaki-PPL to head the company’s HR department. A couple of years later she again quit the job to pursue her passions. She says, “I had an exciting 20yrs with PPL, nurturing the Labelling business and being nurtured for leadership roles within the group. When I finally decided to venture out of PPL, it was to find something even more meaningful and fulfilling in a more basic sense. I hope to get back to something that I would feel wonderful doing; it could well be something totally different like running a small dhaba (Roadside food shack) in the Himalayas or it could be back to Labelling again!

Suzanne Zaccone based in Illinois USA, is a cancer survivor two times over! In 1985 she and her brother Bob Zaccone, founded GSI Technologies to produce prime labels, anti-counterfeit labels and polycarbonate overlays. GSI is now recognized as a world leader in emerging technology, producing advanced functional printed products including strips to measure glucose for diabetics, electroluminescent lamps, smart card displays, sensors and automotive circuits. She served as TLMI’s first female chairman/president from 1998 to 2000.  In an eventful life and career she has set example for other women in the label industry. She helps young people in the medical field and other business areas. Suzanne has been president of the board of directors to the DiTrolio Flexographic Institute since 2000. After beating breast cancer in 2009 she published her book in the year 2010, “A Random Interruption: Surviving Breast Cancer with Laughter, Vodka, Smoothies and an Attitude” She is the first female recipient of R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award which was conferred to her in 2014 as a part of Label industry GlobalAwards. 

In her response to me on her retirement she says, “Retirement, for me has been quite busy. Some time is spent volunteering at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, sitting on three boards, reading as much as possible, relaxing at our lake house which is next door to Bob’s lake house and catching up with friends and family. I also was visited by breast cancer, twice, a combined total of five years, and the first bout resulted in a book; A Random Interruption Surviving Breast Cancer with Laughter, Vodka, Smoothies and an Attitude. One hundred percent of all sales benefit The University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation where we sponsor a fellow for one year of schooling in that facility. After the book was published I found myself speaking to women and their families as they navigate through the process back to health. It has been extremely rewarding and in some cases terribly sad. Last year our family foundation opened up a cancer centre in the name of my surgeon and a holistic centre in the name of our family. The universe presents all of us with complete surprises and awesome possibilities and the wheel is always turning even if we wish it to remain still. Each day for me is different – much like when we ran our business. So I get out of bed and work very hard to engage with that day’s plot line. I make an effort to eat healthy, balance my emotions through meditation or maybe for me it is better called daydreaming, I quit smoking cigarettes, continue to attend endless meetings at hospital boards, a nap sometimes finds its way into a day here and there and 5:00 cocktails! I make sure to add a few goals that add meaning to my life and activities that provide pleasure. In this way, I affirm life and pray that my body gets the message. I want to surprise myself by not only surviving, but discovering new ways to enjoy the fact that I did survive. I’ve yet to find the joy of exercise but I am working on that. I continue to bite off more than I can chew, and I still chew it! And finally, I miss all of you in label land.”  An interesting line in her signature in her emails reads “I spent the first 50 years of my life seeking success and I will now spend the next 50 years seeking significance. – Suzanne Zaccone”
Three of the persons covered by me in this article are recipients of the R Stanton Life Time Achievement Award. It is interesting that instead of becoming recluse in retirement all of those covered by me are vibrant and active. They continue to give back to the society while still making life more significant for them self. They draw satisfaction in their work in retirement and set example for others to enjoy life in pursuing their passions!
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India January 2017Publications and magazines are free to reproduce this article by giving credit to author.

An edited version of this article was published on line by Printweek India 
http://www.printweek.in/features/retired-labels-pursue-passions-24076 
For advertising on this blog email harveersahni@gmail.com

Focused visitors lend success to Labelexpo India!

Focused visitors lend success to Labelexpo India!
Successful international exhibitions have long been linked to venues that have time and again brought in visitors, added to the brand value and image of the show. Show organisers are normally hesitant to shift the show unless the circumstances become compelling. Hannover Industrial fair at Hannover, Drupa at Dusseldorf, Labelexpo Europe at Brussels, Labelexpo Americas at Chicago, Interplast at Birmingham, Auto Mechanika at Frankfurt, etc. are some of the shows that have stuck to their time tested venues and continue to repeatedly attract visitors and exhibitors from around the world. Successful business men who visit exhibitions for exhibiting, buying or acquiring knowledge on new developments have an inherent desire to visit new destinations so as to be able to mix business with pleasure in their free time at the show. However the aspirations and needs of show organizers always remain in repeating the success and improving upon the previous showing. For the last 6 years we have been hearing that a certain section of exhibitors at Labelexpo Brussels have wanted a shift of this premier show to some other location in Europe but the show continues to be held at Brussels for reasons of stability and positive growth of the show reported over the years.
Labelexpo India 2016 was held at ExpoMart, Greater Noida, UP, India in November 2016. Tarsus,
the organizers of the show took a bold decision of moving the show from its traditional venue, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. They must have had very compelling reasons for this decision. There were doubts in the Indian label industry about the success at this venue. The major reason for these doubts coming up was that the venue was far from the earlier venue which was in the centre of New Delhi and connected by all modes of public transport including the Delhi Metro. Greater Noida means another one hour of driving by car, bus or taxi. There is no Metro as yet but being under construction it maybe ready in another 2-3 years. In 1981 I was involved in plastic moulding and had decided to visit Interplast at Birmingham. The show venue at Birmingham NewStreet was between London and Birmingham City. I had to take a train daily from London’s Paddington station and reach the show in one hour forty five minutes. It was an extremely well attended show and had exhibitors and visitors from around the globe. Looking back, I felt this change of venue may really work for the Labelexpo India show to be a more focused event. Only visitors having real interest in Labels would make the effort to travel the distance. The infrastructure at Expo Mart is far better than the one at Pragati Maidan which is a very old venue with huge land holding but surely needs redevelopment. We hear that the renovation is likely to start soon. Meanwhile Labelexpo India made a smart maiden showing at the new venue, dispelling doubts of both visitors and exhibitors.
 
The show was inaugurated by Sandeep Zaveri-President LMAI (Label Manufacturers Association of India), Sunil Jain- President Delhi Printers Association, Rajesh Nema -Honorary Secretary LMAI and Lisa Milburn-Managing Director Labelexpo Group in a short ceremony before the exhibition was thrown open to public.  With over 200 exhibitors and 8045 visitors, as reported by Tarsus, this becomes the biggest edition of this exhibition in its 14 year history. According to Jade Grace show Director for Labelexpo Group, “50% of the space for the next Labelexpo in 2018 at the same venue is already booked “. If the signs are positive and the Metro Line is extended to Greater Noida by the time of the next show in 2018, Labelexpo India may be here to stay at this venue for a long time.
After a very slow first day the event became quite busy and vibrant on the second day bringing smiles on the faces of exhibitors. Jakob Landsberg of Nilpeter said the show was good but the volume of visitors is not as they expected it to be, this maybe because of the distance from Pragati Maidan which has historic value. This venue he felt was good with great atmosphere but the Capital equipment buying prospects were few. He emphasized that India was an important market for them and they will exhibit wherever the Label Show is held.
Even though some important international exhibitors like Gallus and Mark Andy were not present yet the mix of exhibitors was quite balanced catering to all segments of the industry. Most other global supplier’s presence confirmed the importance of India being a market that grows steadily and is just not a temporary burst in demand. The increasing number Indian exhibitors for both, capital equipment and accessories, shows the local industry is coming of age. Despite the organiser’s claim that number of visitors have increased, many exhibitors did mention a decreased footfall in an otherwise successful and satisfying show. Press manufacturers Nilpeter, who have manufacturing facility in South India and are now planning expansion, will soon move to a bigger premises. They announced sale of two FB-3300S label presses to Sai Com Codes and one to Homemade Bakers, both companies are head quartered in Delhi NCR (National Capital Region).
Speaking about his take on the show Pankaj Bhardwaj, Commercial Director, Avery Dennison said, “The feedback is encouraging!” he further added, “The right audience came to witness the right technologies showcased.” He was all praise for the venue and felt it was fantastic infrastructure of high standard, however logistics was a challenge. They received a high quality of visitors. The theme of the Avery Dennison pavilion was “Power Up,” focusing on helping converters to drive business growth through innovative and creative label and packaging offerings, featuring seven zones aimed at addressing specific solution requirements. Dow’s Padmadas Nair heading their technical team communicated that overall it was a good event for them as they met new customers. They were happy that the tourist visitors were absent.
Marco Calcagni, Sales Director of Italian Press manufacturers OMET and their Area Sales Manager
Paolo Grasso were beaming as they were able to announce the sale of their new first time displayed in India Omet iFlex 10 colour label press to the prestigious Huhtamaki PPL-Webtech Labels on the very first day of the show through their exclusive agent Weldon Celloplast Ltd. On day two they announced yet another sale of iFlex to Kolkata based Insight Graphics. The company informs that the iFLEX label press is simple to use and quick at set-up. The machine has all the impression rollers on Direct Drive with obvious benefits on the print quality and in waste savings. Commenting on the venue Paolo Grasso said “We found the venue of international standard and the visitor profile was what we should have at such events. It adds value and satisfaction to participation”. Amit Singh Arora of Amritsar Printing Press and a visitor at the show confirmed he was happy at the location and that he was seeing a lot of committed printers. Dinesh Dedia, another visitor from Mumbai expressed that the venue was too far and travel arrangements need improvement and adequate advertisement.
Leading Indian press manufacturer Multitec has been in news for all good reasons. They had displayed two label presses at the show. The Ecosmart servo was sold to Hyderabad based Team Labels and the VSI Servo2 to a Zambian customer. Amit Ahuja from Multitec said he was surprised at the focused turnout. He would still prefer the Delhi venue any day due to logistic reasons. Amit Sheth of Intergraphics representing Weigang informed sale of their inspection system to Gurgaon based A & A Labels. He further stated that Weigang had launched their modular flexo press which was well received. Xeikon 3030 plus digital label press displayed at the Xeikon booth was sold to Kwality Offset label printers based in New Delhi, the press has a web width of 330mm. It prints 1,200 DPI at a top speed of 15m/min. Compared to the Xeikon 3030, the ‘Plus’ version offers a higher top speed and handles larger production volumes. Xeikon also informed that they had signed up with Sanjeev Sondhi lead Zircon technologies to supply two Xeikon digital presses. Lombardi Synchroline 430 displayed at the Vinsak stand was sold to Bengaluru based Mangalam Creations.
 
HP India showcased the HP Indigo WS6800 digital press including the recent labels and packaging
advancements; including advanced automated color management tools, new HP Indigo ElectroInks, upgrade packages, software enhancements for mass customization amongst others. These new innovations allow more customers to capitalize on the growing digital opportunity in a market which is achieving double digit percent page growth year over year. HP also announced the installation of HP Indigo WS6800 digital press at Skanem Interlabels India, at their Mumbai facility. A. Appadurai, Country Manager, Indigo and Inkjet Web Press, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Inc., stated that even though the visitors who came were very focused and knowledgeable yet due to the distance there were very few brand managers who are very important for growth of Digital label printing technologies.
 
With market evolving towards the LED UV, Flint group was displaying and promoting their LED inks. According to Srinivas Goud of Flint, “We met whoever we were looking for!” Brotech from China had strategically located themselves across the HP stand for whom they are approved partners for digital finishing equipment. They displayed their CDF Digital finishing machine and also a slitter rewinder. Aurangabad India based PGI Tech is ecstatic in announcing that they sold five of their 2-4 colour flexo presses as displayed at the show and 3 high speed die-cutting machines with turret rewinder. They also displayed their slitter, rewinder and inspection machine. Alphasonics UK has confirmed the sale of a Melanie Duo ultrasonic cleaning system to Anygraphics through their agent Weldon Celloplast. The system features dual frequency ultrasonics, along with the patented Betasound technology. The system also includes a second patented technology known as Active Cavitation, which has been designed to greatly speed up the cleaning process. Martin Automatic another exhibitor signed a two-machine order at Labelexpo India 2016 with Kap Cones, based in New Delhi, with an MBS automatic butt splicer and LRD automatic transfer rewinder to ship in 2017. R K Label of Ahmedabad had a range of machines displayed at their stand and it is credible that they announced that all the machines were sold out. This included a modular flexo press displayed which was sold to Delhi based Aar Pee Industries.
UPM Raflatac made an elegant display from a large and well done up stand that attracted most of the established label printers. They also arranged a fashion show on their stand that turned their label materials into gorgeous fashion pieces. “The show was the talk of the exhibition” says Praveen Gupta country Manger UPM. UPM also organized a very impressive dinner and entertainment evening for their customers. The evening was packed and printers hit the dance floor towards the end of the evening. Other prominent exhibitors at Labelexpo included SMI CoatedPapers, Bobst, Loparex, Henkel, DuPont, GEW, HB Fuller, Konica Minolta, Manroland, BST, Vetaphone, Lartec, Monotech Systems, SPGPrints, Webtech Engineering, UVGraphics, Reifenhauser, Kodak and Zonten besides so many more.
On the second day evening, LMAI awards night was held at a well setup banquet on the upper floors
of the exhibition. It was extremely convenient! One just had to take the elevators after the show closed for the day and we were there for the fun evening which included presentations, entertainment, awards distribution, cocktails and dinner. The chaos of awards nights at previous shows was missing. The house was packed with an impressive industry leadership. Lisa Milburn, Managing Director Labelexpo group welcomed the guests and dwelled on the importance of India being a fast growing and evoving market for all to deliver value and prosper. 
 
Sandeep Zaveri President LMAI made an emotional presentation that left the audience in awe! He listed the work done by his team and his plans. The most touching part was when he ran a video clip that demonstrated his will to deliver both to the label industry and to the society, in one go. He has initiated a program whereby young destitute boys from rural background who are deprived of opportunities in the urban industrial scenario are recruited to be trained as label press operators as the label industry is facing a shortage of trained workers. The project is supported by Avery Dennison. The video presentation and the expectation of what it will deliver to the industry and the society is laudable. 
 
Anil Sharma, Managing Director Asia Pacific, Avery Dennison took the stage next and assured the
industry of Avery’s commitment to the Indian Label industry. Interspaced with interesting entertainment, the awards ceremony progressed, celebrating the printers whose work during the preceding years had won the honours. The awards were judged this year by Dr Rajendrakumar Anayath, Kiran P Prayagi and Rajiv Dhar, all of whom have long-standing involvement in education and training in the print industry. 
 
 
 
 

Sponsors for the awards were Avery Dennison, Omet, UPM Raflatac, Orthotec, Iwasaki and Nilpeter. The winners were as follows:
Flexo Line, Webtech; Flexo Line & Screen Tone, Mudrika Labels; Flexo Color Process, Kwality Offset Printers; Flexo Wine & Spirit, joint winners Kumar Labels/Ajanta Packaging; Letterpress Line, Webtech Labels; Letterpress Line & Screen, Webtech Labels; Letterpress color process, Sicon Packs; Letterpress Wine and Spirits, Kumar Labels; Offset Line, Update Prints; Offset Line & Screen Tone, Update Prints; Offset Color Process, Seljegat Printers; Offset Wine & Spirits, Update Prints; Combination Line, Universal Print Systems; Combination Line and Screen Tone, Kumar Labels; Combination Printing Color: joint winners Any Graphics/Kumar Labels; Combination Wine & Spirits, Pragati Pack/RP; Digital Printing, Any Graphics; Digital Printing Wine & Spirits, Pragati Pack; Screen Printing, Wine & Spirits, Any Graphics; Rotogravure, Mudrika Labels; Booklets & Coupons, joint winners LetraGraphix and Unick Fix-A-Form.
 
The Innovation Award went to Mudrika Labels and the special Jury Award to Any Graphics.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The four day show ended on a positive note with exhibitors and also visitors departing with satisfaction looking forward to return to the show in 2018. Exhibitors unanimously declared their resolve to be at the show in the next edition but as Tapan Patel of BST said, “They have to re-strategise and market it well”. In absence of the unfocussed inquisitive visitors who visit shows to evaluate new investment and diversification, exhibitors felt these new expected customers for capital equipment were few. Yet in words of Manish Desai past president LMAI, “It was a good show and quality of exhibitors and visitors was excellent”. The most interesting comment I got was from Josep Roca of Bobst “The distance from downtown or city centre is challenging since international visitors prefer to explore the city in free time” he added “Inspite of Modi working! Which is for a good cause, the show was worthwhile and delivered value”
 
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India. December 2016  exclusively for Narrow Web Tech Germany. 
 
 

The article maybe published with the permission of Narrow WebTech Germany giving credit to them and to the author

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