History of Indian Label Industry Part 2B

History of Indian Label Industry Part 2B

In 2006, I wrote the “History of Indian Label Industry” I have now written the 2nd part. This a brief report, I plan to write a book on the subject with a lot more expanded information in the near future. In a large country with industry spread over such a vast area and a huge population, it is difficult to chronicle all in few words. Being a long article, the part 2 of History of the Indian Label Industry is being posted on this blog in a series of four articles. The below is part 2B of the series the earlier ones can be accessed in this blog by clicking the links below;

“History of the Indian Label Industry” part-1:  lnkd.in/eDpGUPM

“History of the Indian Label Industry part 2A:https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/07/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2a.html

While the printed decorated and converted product label industry was evolving, in parallel, without making much noise another segment of the self-adhesive labels was growing steadily. These were the variable information labels, plain labels and intelligent labels.

This segment was initially the mainstay of smaller label printers with lower capital investments in printing equipment. As demand grew, this segment started galloping by leaps and bounds to eventually surpass the prime label or product label segment in the number of square meters of labelstock used, though turnover wise it remained much lower due to low value addition. In the self-adhesive label industry, it became “the bigger segment”.

Initiation of variable information labels in India happened in early 1980s due to indulgence by P C
Jain of Great Eastern Impex. He brought to India price marking labellers and labels from Pitney Bowes USA and later started producing labels himself.

Gun labels, as they subsequently came to be called because of the labellers which dispensed these labels look somewhat like guns, started to grow at a rapid pace. They were primarily used to dispense and affix price labels at point of purchase in retail stores and later also used for markings in garment manufacturing. Employees, associates and distributors of Great Eastern saw the market of these labels growing due to the nascent stage, the higher margins provided them enough temptation to breakaway and start their own label producing ventures. More so because the initial investment in equipment was not too high. Vinayak Sud of Liddles had also invested in this segment. With consumer protection laws becoming rigid, price marking labels were banned because prices were required to be printed on the packages or on the product labels affixed on them, this led to a slowdown in demand in this segment. By the onset of new millennium barcode usage had firmly commenced and in 2005 with establishment of GS1 standards, the market for plain labels transformed yet again to grow with introduction of barcodes. When inkjet and laser desktop printers started becoming affordable, important and necessary part of every home, office and factory, demand arose for self-adhesive labels in A4 format as well. These found usage in mailing, logistics and package identification. The variable label and plain label segment became identifiable and growing at a pace quicker than the overall industry rate.   With the advent of CDs becoming popular another segment of plain labels for CDs came around. People could create their own CDs, print labels created on home computers-printers and affix on the CDs. New Delhi based Rational Business Corporation and Mumbai headquartered Technova became major players in this segment. Without much change in their existing equipment their product offerings increased, and they could offer a range that included gun labels, barcode labels and plain labels. From just Great Eastern and Liddles at one time, others who initially involved themselves into this segment were Better labels in Chennai, Interlabels, Super Labels and Tayabi Tags in Mumbai. These were followed by Prakash labels Noida, Shipra Ghaziabad, Rachna Overseas Gurgaon, Dynamic Marking Delhi and a host of traders who not only setup label converting machines but also started to produce labelstocks themselves. After this the market grew phenomenally and hundreds of converters across the country jumped into this industry. This growth brought with it end user demands for innovative and technically advanced labels. Increased government regulations also brought in demand for statutory information with track and trace capabilities. The volumes these converters were converting became huge, with the likes of Prakash Labels alone converting close to a million square meters each month. Margins receded due to intense competition. To remain profitable most of these label producers also traded in accessories like Barcode printers, scanners, ribbons, ink rolls etc. needed for variable information label printing and dispensing at point of purchase. With modern day retail growing, demand for these labels escalated at close to 30% per annum.

Label industry segmentation changed, became more defined and closer to international estimates of market shares. The total market of self-adhesive labels (printed and plain in roll and sheet) in India between 2005 to 2019 seemed to reach close to or more than a billion square meter mark.

The share of different segments in the overall Indian Label industry in the author’s opinion and estimation is as below:Variable Information Labels

Inkjet/Laser label                                        20%

Barcode TTR labels                                    17%

Direct Thermal product Labels                   10%

Dot Matrix or contact printed labels             5%

Prime Labels                                                40%

Others                                                            8%


Most of the plain labels were being converted on Indian made narrow web label presses. Notable amongst these press manufacturers are Multitec, Jandu, Webtech, RK, etc. The variable label segment undoubtedly brought growth even to these press suppliers who improved their equipment to be able to produce printed product labels of acceptable quality. This label segment that at one time was the lower end became voluminous. In terms of volume of labelstock usage, it became the “bigger segment”.

Around 2008 the Annunciation family owned Janus International had made a pioneering move into the world of digitally printed labels in India by investing in an HP Indigo label press.

Though the initial days with this technology were extremely challenging due to high costs of equipment and consumables, yet it was agreed that the digital printing technology will persist and grow. Europe and USA were already witnessing the move from conventional to digital. Labelexpo 2009 was a perfect indicator towards a digital future for labels. 

Amar Chhajed of Webtech Labels set the example by investing in a Xeikon digital label press even though it appeared to be an investment made ahead of its time.

By 2015 I had interviewed a lot of printers and came to conclusion, that digital will still have to wait some more, yet Amar Chhajed predicted that in another 2 or 3 years, digital printing in labels will start growing. His prediction was correct as in 2018 I wrote “The journey in digital has begun”. 22 high-end digital label presses had been installed in India and number started growing. A year on, the interest in digital printing of labels is gradually becoming an indulgence that is attracting increased investment at all levels.

During this period Indian label printers grew in size and numbers, they started spreading into interiors of India. An industry that originated in Mumbai and spread in the Metro cities in the 1990s and it was in the first decade of a new millennium that a lot started

happening and industry started growing with installations of new presses in larger Tier 1 cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Kolkata a slow entrant also reported installations of Orthotecs. Later Debashish Sarkar of Classic Image Offset Kolkata lead the growth of labels in the eastern sector by installing Gallus label presses. Others who set up label manufacturing in the Eastern and north Eastern sector include Huhtamaki, Sai Com Codes, Holoflex, NAP printers, Insight Graphics, etc. Closer towards the second half of the 2000-2010 the label printers surfaced in the Tier 2 cities and the smaller Tier 3 cities, the trend carried on and labels were being produced in cities like Nagpur, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, Nasik, Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Tirupur, Sivakasi, Madurai, Salem, Coimbatore, Manipal, Guwahati, Sikkim, Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur, Delhi NCR, Chandigarh, Baddi, Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Jammu, Pathankot, etc. By end of the decade label printers were present across the length and breadth of India. At this time international press installations also started picking up in numbers. Indian agents of international press manufacturers saw the opportunity and shifted gears to sell aggressively and increase the international label press population. The most active seen were Sameer Patkar of Gallus, Gourav Roy of FIG for Mark Andy, Amit Sheth of Label Planet for Orthotec and Weigang, Pawandeep Sahni of Weldon for OMET, Manish Mehta of Reifenhauser for Bobst, Amitabh Luthra for Edale, Ranesh Bajaj of Vinsak for Lombardy, Vijay Pareek of Genius for MPS, Manish Kapoor led sales team of Nilpeter India and many others.

Though it is difficult to list all, yet some of the printers across the nation who invested in multiple high-end European and American Label presses mentioned above included Ajanta Packaging Baddi and Daman, J K Fine prints Mumbai, Zircon Dehradun, Update Prints Delhi,

Jain Transfer NOIDA, Holostik NOIDA, Pragati Pack Hyderabad, Mudrika Mumbai, Total Print Mumbai, Uflex NOIDA, Webtech Mumbai, Narain Offset Nagpur, Wintek Bangalore, Manipal Technologies Manipal, Syndicate Labels Delhi, Printmann Mumbai, Interlabels Mumbai, SelJegat Sivakasi, Sai Packaging Faridabad and Bangalore, Sai Comcodes Delhi, Renault Paper Products Palghar, Letra Graphix Ahmedabad, Kumar Labels Noida, Any Graphics Noida, Global Printing Packaging Bangalore, Uflex Noida, Barcom Mumbai and a lot of more printers who are single press owners. This period also saw established offset, package printing and flexible packaging printers also move into labels and some like Pragati Pack acquired wider presses like Omet Varyflex to also have capabilities for producing folding cartons on these flexo combination web presses. Others from the Offset printing segment who invested in narrow web label printing include Narain Offset in Nagpur, Printmann in Mumbai, Manohar Packaging Goa, Rajhans Bangalore Global Printing Packaging Bangalore, Arunodhaya in Hyderabad, Manipal Technologies Manipal, Noble printing Mumbai, Unipack New Delhi, Printrays in Jalandhar, Packtime Pune, Sonic Labels Mumbai and so many others.

“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, the talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age” These words came from the famous Italian actress Sophia Loren.

So very true! As parents, when people witness their offsprings unfold the talents and creativity they have acquired as they grew up, there is a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. Every parent strives hard in the given means to provide the best education and professional training to their children, so that they can stand up to the challenges of modern-day competitive living. In our Indian business society, the fathers or for that matter even mothers are natural mentors who guide the youth to eventually grow up to inherit the businesses that they painstakingly set up. It is a pleasure to see the children join you as trainees, gradually transform into managers, become business owners and eventually business leaders. Our label industry which originated in the seventies of the twentieth century, was witnessing a handing over of the baton to the next generation during the first two decades of new millennium. The way this generation moved out of the shadows of their mentors to evolve into professional managers who modernize, expand, systemize and lead the companies successfully to new arenas, is commendable.

Leading the group of generation next and taking over from his father Satish Pai was Gautham Pai, Managing Director of Manipal Press Limited later renamed Manipal Technologies Limited.

Manipal Press was started with a single letterpress machine in 1941 and by 2010 had spread to over 600000 square feet with over 2000 employees and state of art machines. While Manipal Press was a predominantly a security and offset printing company yet Gautham lead the company’s foray into self-adhesive labels. They took into their fold Chennai based UPSL, set up label production also in Manipal and in Nigeria. In Sivakasi, Raveendran and his brothers at Seljegat started handing over the decision making to their sons Prashant, Mukundan and Sivanesh.  Gururaj Ballarwad of Wintek at Bangalore toiled hard to achieve a position of leadership for his company. Before Wintek being acquired by ITW he had somewhat handed over decision making to his sons Gopi and Girish both of whom later set up their venture Itekpak also in Bangalore. Vijay Raghavan of Sai Security Printers entrusted his business to elder son in law Arvind in the South and to his younger daughter Priyata in the North. Pramodh at Global Printing and Mahaveer at Mahaveer labels were other youthful leaders at Bangalore, designated to lead the label businesses of their companies. At Hyderabad, Pragati Offset has been a highly successful and celebrated offset printer who has invested extensively into self-adhesive labels. The charismatic Narendra Paruchuri has transformed the label business to levels comparable to the best in the industry. The shots are now called by his sons Hemanth and Harsha.

In Mumbai The Kapoors of Jaikaushal Industries and R K Papers fame Surendra Kapur and Jatinder Kapur had mentored their generation next comprising of Himanshu, Karan and Rahul to promote and take their new venture J K Fine prints to success.  The Khannas of Ajanta Printarts had let their scion Chandan Khanna to lead their journey into labels as Ajanta Packaging. Jagdish Zaveri of Total Print left it all to his soft-spoken son Sandeep Zaveri. 

Joe Annunciation at Janus International after three Gallus presses and an HP Indigo press almost retired as his sons Denver and Janus started delivering success.  The young brother and sister team of Santosh and Sandhya Shetty surprised all in the industry when they bought the brand new Nilpeter to announce their entry into self-adhesive labels in 2008. 

Rohit Mehta son of Ajay Mehta of SMI Coated papers mentioned earlier herein, was leading the company to global standards. In Aurangabad the feisty Ramesh Deshpande found time for social and industry issues because his son Hrishikesh was holding fort. In Ahmedabad it was Meet Pandya son of Bakul Pandya of NP Label, Nirav Shah nephew of Kamlesh Shah at Letragrafix.  Heading North, the author would not like to miss out on the own handing over the charge to sons Pawandeep and Kanwardeep. Pawan has been instrumental in changing the company from being a mere labelstocks producer to a total solution provider for the label printers. Jain Transfer and Monarch Graphics at Noida experienced the change with Rishabh, Parshav and Bhrigav; sons of brothers Sudhir Jain and Pavail taking charge of their respective businesses after separating amicably. Anuj Bhargav of Kumar Printers has gone it alone and maintained the trust of his mentors from day one. Kuldip Goel of Any Graphics has always had a passion to attain the ultimate in quality in labels, they moved into a brand new 100,000 square foot factory in 2009. He proudly says that most of the decisions have originated from ideas given by his son Naveen, including the further expansion to start building an even larger factory over a 15000 square Metres plot in 2019. Others who passed the baton to their next generation include P C Jain of Great Eastern to Shakti Jain, Prem Khanna of Rachna Overseas to Karan Khanna (a young son and entrepreneur who unfortunately passed away untimely), Ashok Nerkar of Unique Photo Offset to sons Gautam and Humbeer and many more such cases. The list of these youngsters is exhaustive. These young managers were like an aromatic fresh breeze blowing over the Indian Label Industry!
To be continued…
Previous parts of the article can be accessed at;“History of the Indian Label Industry” part-1:  lnkd.in/eDpGUPM“History of the Indian Label Industry part 2A:https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/07/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2a.html

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July 2019Note: No one is authorised to reproduce, copy or reprint this article until permitted by the author in writing. 

LMAI Conference Kochi- knowledge, bonding, and celebrations par excellence!

LMAI Conference Kochi- knowledge, bonding, and celebrations par excellence!
LMAI Board of directors


The 3-day LMAI label conference from 25th-27th July 2019 was an event that was efficiently organized and delivered the promise of comradeship, entertainment and knowledge sharing. From the time of landing at Kochi to the time of departures on 28th, it was all done with clockwork precision. It was a gigantic task of hosting over 550-600 delegates from all over India and various parts of the world attending this biennial event. They were put up in 317 rooms spread across 3 hotels The Bolgatty Grand Hyatt, The Marriot and The Taj. The event was held at Grand Hyatt, perched on 26 acres of plush green land on the serene Bolgatty Island, Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty is a waterfront urban resort overlooking the backwaters of Vembanad Lake.

After a smooth check-in and registrations, the delegates reassembled for start of conference. 

It all started with traditional lighting of the lamp.

Welcome address by Kuldeep Goel President LMAI followed next.

Pankaj Bhardwaj Senior Director and General Manager Avery Dennison delivered the thought-provoking keynote address, setting the tone of the conference. Pankaj, while referring to the growing Indian market mentioned, “Diminishing divide between urban-rural population in India and an aspiring middle class means a growing demand of consumer products and also label”.

Due to a delayed flight, special guest Lisa Milburn Managing Director Labelexpo Group UK could not reach in time to deliver her address and in her absence, Pradeep Saroha country manager Labelexpo spoke to update the audience about the forthcoming Labelexpo Europe in Brussels, it being the 40th anniversary of Labelexpo additional features included will be on sustainability, flexible packaging, digital printing and a host of other technologies.

Manish Desai Conference chairman spoke on the flow of events at the conference.

Shahidi Ainain Director SIES School of packaging who was moderator for the event gave the guidelines to be followed while making presentations and advised speakers on the need for time management.

The audience dispersed to re-assemble again later for welcome dinner with Thallaavia theme.

L to R: Ajay Mehta, Amit Sheth, Dinesh Mahajan, Raveendran, Harveer Sahni
Pankaj Bhardway-Avery, Kuldip Goel, Rajesh Nema, Sandeep Zaveri,
Vivek Kapoor, Ramesh Deshpande and Amar Chhajed

The conference being held in Kerala, it was an imperative to give it a local theme on the very first evening. All the Board of Directors of LMAI and Committee members dressed up in the local Malayali traditional dress, giving the evening a local celebratory touch. After felicitation of sponsors by committee members and their walk on the ramp there was Carnatic band playing, networking and dinner.

A surprise announcement was made for bestowing upon Amit Sheth of Label Planet and Intergraphic a lifetime award for contribution to the Indian Label Industry! After an emotional thank you speech, Amit walked the ramp with wife Rupa and their two daughters.

Next day after breakfast the audience reassembled for a busy day full of presentations by eminent sponsors and of very high standards. Past President Vivek Kapoor’s welcome address was followed by presentation by Manoj KM and Parag Bagade of Avery Dennison. While Manoj spoke on futuristic labelstock offerings, Parag spoke on the sustainability endeavours by Avery including collection and recycling of liner and self-adhesive waste.

Presentations made were as follows;
Avery Dennison India, Manoj KM and Parag Bagade, “Emerging Technology & Sustainability”Pulisi Technology, Olive Liu, “Relationship between Technology and Life”SMI Coated Products: Ajay Mehta and Rohit Mehta, “Technical Aspects of Applications of Label Stock Solutions”Domino Printech India: David Ellen, “Advantages of HYBRID systems for labels and Packaging converters”Vinsak India: Ranesh Bajaj, “Future Based Solutions”Retail Solution and Technologies: T. R. Ravishankar, “Trends in Barcoding and Enterprise Mobility”WEIGANG: Spring Xu, “Features enhancing to choose a good flexo machine”Luster LightTech Group: Carrie Duan, “Mining your potential”Nilpeter India: Manish Kapoor, Indian Label Indusrty – “The question of Scale and Scalability”Insight Print Communications: Ajay Aggarwal, “Transition to Digital – Now and for Future”Loparex: Manish Jain, “Future Sustainability”Heidelberg and Gallus: Samir Patkar, “The Power of 2 – when conventional meets digital (hybrid technology)”DuPont Advanced Printing: Shyamal Desai, “End user benefits”Flint Group India: Shailesh Kumar Sharma, “New Gen Color Management”HP India Sales: Appadurai, “Future is Now”BOBST Firenze SRL: Ludovico Frati, “Connectivity”Dragon Foils – Inter Films India: Raymond Lu, “Innovation and frontier of cold foil technology”

Two interactive and knowledge imparting Panel Discussions moderated by LMAI Board member Harveer Sahni of Weldon Celloplast were held after lunch. The first one was with printers where the topic was, “Creating the future vs embracing the future”.

Panelists included Priyata Raghavan Sai Security Printers, Tejas Tanna of Printmann, Aaditya Kashyap of Marksfine, Mahendra Shah of Renault Paper, Shakti Jain of Great Eastern IDTech, Yudhviram Solanki of Sicon Packs and Anurag Mohan of Interact.

The second Panel discussion was with industry suppliers as panelists and titled, “Evolving trends in Labels manufacturing!” Eminent suppliers who were in the panel and gave thought provoking inputs included;

Bhupinder Singh of Avery Dennison, Samir Patkar of Heidelberg Gallus, Appa Durai of HP, Ranesh Bajaj of Vinsak, Pawandeep Sahni of Omet, Manish Kapoor of Nilpeter, Prasenjit Das of Dupont and Sreenivas Goud of Flint. Time being a constraint the audience wished there was more time for these engaging discussions but since the schedule for the conference was so packed that there was no room for extension

After the day’s presentations ended, there was an excellent talk sponsored by SMI and Pulisi on “Secrets of Impactful Success” by motivational Guru, Gaur Gopal Das which left a full packed hall of almost 600 people spellbound and in awe of what he delivered. 

The evening ended with yet another program sponsored by SMI and Pulisi, a musical performance by the visually impaired performers from the National Organisation of Disabled Artists. They sang old Bollywood songs so well that it left the audience full of awe and at that moment, compassion turned into joy, watching their special abilities to deliver so well to a large audience.

The label printing fraternity was up on its feet and on to the dance floor enjoying the renderings of this awesome group. Towards the end, the President LMAI on behalf of his team announced an additional sum of Rupees one lakh over and above what they had contracted for.

This was followed by many in the audience committing large sums to support the social cause of encouraging disabled artists.

On the final day after a welcome address more presentations as mentioned below followed;

Apex Asia Pacific: Carl Brock, “Nothing short of revolution in flexographic printing”Flexo Image Graphics: Ian Pollock, “Future of Printing Technology”ROGLER International Sàrl: Hannes Rogler, “Future based solution”Multitec Aids: Amit Ahuja, “Life beyond labels”RotoMetrics: Cain Harper, “It’s about more than the die”Brotech Digital Graphics: Ramon Lee, “The future of hybrid printing and finishing”GEW: Marcus Greenbrook, “Upcoming Technology”Numex Blocks: Supachai Theravithayangkura, “Innovative Flexo Plate Solutions for Narrow Web Printing”JN Arora presentation

A panel discussion jointly hosted and moderated by Ajay Mehta of SMI Coated papers and Amit Sheth of Pulisi Technology was conducted with young panelists that included Hemanth Paruchuri of Pragati Pack, Vidur Agarwal of Veekay Industries,

Krishh Chhatwal of Kwality Offset, Denver Annunvciation of Janus International and Naveen Goel of Any Graphics titled “Young printer’s perception on future of label industry”

After the presentations concluded that afternoon it was time for a “Sadhya” typical of that area. Sadhya in local language Malyalam is a feast of Hindu origin and of importance to Hindu Malayalis, consisting of a variety of traditional vegetarian dishes usually served on a banana leaf in Kerala, India.

Sadhya means banquet in Malayalam. It is a vegetarian feast prepared by both men and women, especially when needed in large quantities, for weddings and other special events. Sadhya is typically served as a traditional dish for Onam, the state festival of Kerala. It was a feast for the eyes to see, a diverse gathering Indians and foreigners relishing the local cuisine and eating with bare hands.

Past president Sandeep Zaveri updated the audience about the next program of Round tables, the interaction between sponsors and Printers.

“Round tables” program with all sponsors attending to a rotating groups of label printers was a much-appreciated part of this conference. 

It gave the sponsors opportunity to interact with existing and prospective customers. This program was highly appreciated by the sponsors.

The final evening sponsored by Avery Dennison was themed “The Great Gatsby!”. 

American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island’s North Shore—began planning the novel in 1923,

desiring to produce, in his words, “something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.” In the novel the character Gatsby throws very extravagant, excessive parties with hundreds of guests, all for the purpose to attract a lady’s attention. The evening had the settings of the 1920s.

The evening began with a vote of thanks by LMAI treasurer Dinesh Mahajan of Prakash Labels.

It was then time for SMI Managing Director Ajay Mehta’s talented daughter Nikita Mehta who trained in the USA and is all set to go professional in the Indian singing arena, to go on stage and give a melodious heartwarming singing performance.

Finally, while people enjoyed photo ops and networking over drinks.

Bollywood singer Nakash Aziz took the stage while the LMAI conference delegates hit the dance floor and enjoyed the fun until late in the night.

Credit goes to Hemal Bhagwat who heads the event management company Mercury Integrated along with her husband and a dedicated team. “Thank you Hemal for making this a memorable event, memories will linger on till it is time to plan yet another better and bigger LMAI CONFERENCE”

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July 2019

Magazines are free to reproduce by giving credit to author.

History of Indian Label Industry Part-2A

History of Indian Label Industry Part-2A

At the last, Indian label industry event, “LMAI  Conference” in 2017 at Jaipur I promised to write the 2nd part of my first article titled  “History of the Indian Label Industry” which I wrote in 2006. It is available in this blog at https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-indian-label-industry.html
I have now written the 2nd part. This is brief reporting so I plan to complete a book on the subject with a lot more expanded information in the near future. In a large country with industry spread over such a vast area and a huge population, it is difficult to chronicle all in few words. Being a long article, the part 2 of History of the Indian Label Industry will be posted on my blog in a series of four articles. The first part of series numbered  2A is as below;

The first decade of new millennium was very eventful for the Indian label industry. After 2006 a global economic recession surfaced and kept growing, affecting businesses across the world.

It even impacted many industries in India where we saw companies reducing manpower, which in turn affected spending in all segments of retail. Surprisingly while printers in India as well, were complaining of recessionary trends and difficulty in operations, yet the Indian label industry overall, continued to grow steadily. Capacity enhancement kept on being made, though it was a little reduced. The Indians became indulgent not only as label printers but also as diverse product and equipment suppliers to label printing companies. For the first time an Indian company Precise Graphics, later renamed PGI Technologies in 2005 produced a magnetic cylinder that worked on a label press. Dhiresh Ghosalia led Jesons, manufacturers of emulsion pressure sensitive adhesives for the label industry at their large factory in Daman, expanded and moved northwards in India and setup an additional manufacturing capacity at a 100,000 square feet facility in Roorkee. Kaygee Papers was promoted by Pranay Godha in 1997 to produce silicone coated release papers. In 2001 they made a Joint Venture, Kaygee Loparex Pvt. Ltd. with Loparex, a member of UPM group and world’s largest commercial Siliconiser. They continued to grow and became an important part of the Indian label industry in the first decade. In 2015 Loparex assumed 100% of the company and rechristened it as Loparex India Pvt. Ltd. In August 2007 Diehard Dies, based in Guntur Andhra Pradesh, started operations to become an indigenous manufacturer of flexible dies for the printing, packaging and label industry. By middle of 2019 Acme Rolltech a company led by 3 young entrepreneurs Parag Patel, Sandeep Sharma and Parag Koradiya started the first Indian facility manufacturing Ceramic Anilox Rolls. Sandeep, came to the partnership with 15 years of experience having worked with Avery Dennison, Kurz India and Domino Printech, Parag Patel and Parag Koradiya came from entrepreneurial background of manufacturing Gravure Cylinders. 

In 2007 the largest indigenous labelstock producer Ajay Mehta’s SMI Coated Products initiated an expansion program that would eventually place SMI as an undisputed leader in labelstock production by a wholly Indian owned company, not only in India but also in many international markets.

They procured a 6540 square meter plot in MIDC, Ambernath near Mumbai, constructed 2200 square meter shed, shifted all plant and machinery from Daman to Ambernath, added two silicon coating machines and one Acrylic Coating machine. In 2014 they increased the production area by another 3000 square meters and installed a Hot Melt coating line, following it up by installing yet another hotmelt adhesive coater later.  

In 2017 they purchased the adjoining plot admeasuring 9820 Square meters, constructed 1000 square meters to install Schaeffer moving racks for better handling of an increasing volume of goods in their expanding stores.

In 2019 they completed construction of another 3000 square meters shed and moved all coating machines to new premises along with a new emulsion adhesive coating tandem machine to do inline siliconizing and adhesive coating in a single pass, 1350 mm wide to run at a speed of 150 meters per minute, reaching an installed capacity of 19 million square meters per month. They celebrated their 25 years in grand style by hosting over 200 guests to visit their works besides take part in the celebrations. Other indigenous labelstock manufacturers also grew in their own respective regions. Stayon Papers and Sticon in Hyderabad, Million papers and NG papers in Chennai, Capri Coating Solutions in Mumbai, Shree Arihant, STP Paper, Gj Industries and many more in Delhi were some of the active and visible manufacturers. Some of the earlier leaders in the Labelstock manufacturing segment pulled back or shifted focus in view of depleting margins, intense competition and unviable credit terms.

Indian label press manufacturers transformed in this period to produce label presses that were comparable to international products and made their mark not only in India but internationally as well.

Amit Ahuja led Multitec is the front runner who had exhibited their first modular rotary flexo label press in partnership with Abhay Datta of Datta Press Delhi at the first India Label show in 2002 at Nehru Centre Mumbai. The association of Multitec with Datta came to an end around 2008. Multitec redesigned their label press as a competitive product with all basic features. After renaming the press, “Ecoflex” they relaunched it. Two year hence they launched yet another version of their label press and continued to upgrade their offerings and grow phenomenally. By the end of 2018 they had achieved outstanding success producing label presses from a quality accredited design and a fully integrated manufacturing facility spread over 26,000 square meters. At the time of writing this article their website reports having sold over 300 Label presses to over 25 countries through a team of agents spread across the world. Other Indian press manufacturers who also made their mark are mostly from Faridabad, south of Delhi, the same city as Multitec. They are Alliance Printech, Webtech Engineering, NBG Printographic Machinery Co. Pvt. Ltd., M Tech Industries, etc. Other than these, Ahmedabad based RK label machines claimed to have sold 150 rotary plus 600 flatbed label presses and Noida based Jandu Engineers had sold about 135 rotary flexo presses. Jandu is also a leading manufacturer of coating and laminating machines and has a large presence amongst local labelstock manufacturers and according to Baldev Singh Jandu, they have till date sold over 150 coaters.

The Indian label market was growing at a steady double-digit growth rate and interest of international label fraternity in India also kept on growing with it. Avery Dennison who had found success in the country had in 2007 invested in land admeasuring 22 acres at Ranjangaon near Pune for expansion.

In 2008 the facility was with a one-meter wide hotmelt coater having capability to run at 500 meters per minute with inline silicon coating, this compared to the first one-meter coater at Gurgaon that could run at 250 meters per minute. The then global CEO and President of Avery Dennison Corporation Dean Scarborough specially flew in to inaugurate the facility. In 2010 Raj Srinivasan who had established Avery’s foothold in India returned to USA handing over reigns of the Indian operations to Anil Sharma. New wave of professionalism descended in the working of Avery; more expansion followed with installation of a 1.5 meters hot melt coater in 2011 at Pune. In the same year a slitting facility was commissioned in Bangalore in 2011 to serve the southern customers effectively. To help the cause of a limited number of trained press operators in India in face of a growing label press population,  Avery Dennison Knowledge Centre was also set up in Bangalore to train people for becoming press operators, but later in 2018 the centre was moved to Pune, next to their research and development centre. In 2014 an emulsion coater of 1.5meter width was added at the Pune facility. In 2015 Anil Sharma was elevated for bigger responsibilities and handed over charge to his teammate Pankaj Bhardwaj. Amongst international Labelstocks companies UPM Raflatac had established a substantial foothold with their slitting facilities in India while Lintec, Ritrama, flexcon and a few others sold through agents or directly.

Increase in number of visitors to labelexpo Europe in Brussels was a positive indicator of a growing label market in India and the interests of printers to invest in globally acknowledged label presses. In 2005 Weldon Celloplast Ltd. was the lone Indian exhibitor and by 2011 edition of the show, the number of Indian exhibitors had swelled to fourteen, up from four in the previous show in 2009.

At Labelexpo Europe 2009 there were 338 Indian visitors and this figure had swelled to 429 in 2011. The number just went on increasing, there were more Indians then before at successive labelexpos.

In 2007 at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels Tarsus announced their acquisition of India Label show, a show that was set up by Anil Arora and his wife Neetu Arora.

The next edition of India Label show 2008 in New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan was held in the aftermath of terrorist attack in Mumbai and in the middle of a huge recession, yet the show stood its ground proving the strength of growing Indian label market. In 2010 the show was rechristened as Labelexpo India. The show owners Tarsus UK made a strategic alliance with Indian Label association LMAI for the event and to have an awards night and a gala dinner organised by Tarsus at every Labelexpo India. LMAI was to conduct the LMAI label awards which became a regular feature thereafter. In 2009 under the leadership of Vivek Kapoor, the longest serving president of LMAI who completed 3 terms of 2 years each, it was also planned to hold biennial LMAI conference in alternate years, the trend has carried on till date. The first LMAI conference was held in Hotel park Hyatt Goa in 2011 and the event grew to be held again in 2013 at Grand Hyatt Goa and at Hotel Jaypee Palace in Agra in 2017. 

In 2010 leading global associations came together under the aegis of FINAT and formed the federation of global associations called L8. Later with one more association joining it was renamed L9, the confederation of nine leading international label associations.

The alliance consisted of LMAI (India), JFLP (Japan), FINAT (Europe), TLMI (North America, LATMA (Australia), PEIAC (China), AMETIQ (Mexico), ABIEA (Brazil) and SALMA (New Zealand). Sandeep Zaveri of Total Prints took over the presidentship of LMAI in 2015 and handed over the charge to Kuldip Goel of Any Graphics in 2017.  At the 2017 conference in Agra 550 delegates attended making it the largest gathering of label printers at a single conference. A proud moment for me at the Agra conference in 2017 came when I was announced as the first and only recipient till then of a lifetime award for support to the Indian Label industry.  

In 2016 Labelexpo was moved to the Expo Mart in Greater Noida outside Delhi, a part of Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) due to non-availability of dates at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.

In 2018 also it was held at the Expo Mart as the venue, Pragati Maidan in Delhi, was under redevelopment. In 2018 for the first time LMAI hosted a very successful L9 meet in India on the sidelines of Labelexpo India.

The evolution of label industry in India has been a continuous process, from the earliest days of screen-printed labels in sheeted format in the 1970s to roll form labels to be converted on very narrow width flatbed Japanese presses and then over to rotary flexographic printing label presses in the early 1990s.

Until the end of 1990s the flexo printing process used water-based inks with hot air drying.

The polymer plate making technology was also evolving. The process was evolving but it had shortcomings. It was faster than the flat bed machines but lacked consistency due to drying and viscosity changing issues. Better prepress and improvements in platemaking technologies brought flexo printing to almost at par in quality to offset printing. This led the rapid growth in flexographic label printing. As demand escalated, investments in equipment also witnessed increase with printers demanding wider presses for increased productivity and reduced wastages. By end of the last century UV curable inks became available and changed the way flexo printing grew. Originally, UV technology was introduced to the world in the 1960s. The drying effect for water-based inks is brought about by evaporation of volatile components. The required energy is supplied via IR-radiation and/or hot air. A loss in the dried coating thickness will appear depending on the amount of the evaporated components. The volatile components must be removed by an extraction. However, in case of the UV inks, the drying effect is due to polymerization, i.e. on cross-linking of long molecular chains. The energy required for cross-linking is supplied via UV radiation. For 100 % solid body systems the thickness of the dry coating corresponds to the thickness of the wet coating. There are no losses due to evaporation. By 2010 new UV inks came with enhanced ink transfer properties as well as faster reactivity to UV curing, meaning speeds over 200 meters/min. were achievable. Towards end of 2009 the conventional UV started to evolve to low power consuming LED UV with longer life lamps that had surfaced internationally, though the system had yet to be widely accepted in India due to non-availability of parts and inks, but it was being investigated and expected to grow substantially in demand or replaced on existing presses.  Some of the international equipment manufacturers had already introduced alternatives such as LED UV and even Electron Beam curing technology as an alternative. From the middle of first decade of 21st century onwards there grew a demand for high end hybrid presses with increased features like automatic registration, multiple printing processes for combination printing and decoration capabilities. As sustainability and environmental concerns became an imperative; waste reduction, and waste management became a necessity when an investment in equipment was being made.End of Part 2A, To be continued…
The remaining parts will be posted in gaps of 7-10 days 
Note: No one is authorised to reproduce, copy or reprint this article until permitted by the author in writing. 
Written by Harveer Sahni Managing Director Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July 2019

Future-Next: Brand owners’ perception of Labels

Future-Next: Brand owners’ perception of Labels

In effort to provide a platform for interaction between Brand Owners and label printers; leading to evolution, creativity in labels, understand the needs of buyers, discuss statutory requirements and evaluate sustainability in labels, the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) has been organising events. Senior packaging development professionals from leading brands in different segments like Pharma, Cosmetics, Liquor, Food, FMCG, etc. are invited to address India’s top label companies and to interact with them in panel discussions and network in a relaxed atmosphere. Printers from all categories and get to meet the people who drive the evolution and set trends for the future of labels. The 3rd such event titled, “Future-Next: Brand owners’ perception of Labels” was held on 29th June 2019 at Hotel “The Park, New Delhi”. The event was also intended to be a precursor for the LMAI conference slated to be held at Kochi in a little over three weeks. Though the LMAI Brand Owners event is restricted to only label printers yet this time all the sponsors of the forthcoming conference at Kochi, Kerala were given the option to attend and many leading suppliers to the label industry were seen together with printers and brand owners. Over 100 delegates and media persons attended a very successful event.

The evening was moderated by past LMAI President and Managing Director of Mumbai based Creative Labels, Vivek Kapoor. Other LMAI board members who flew in from Mumbai specially for the event include Ajay Mehta Managing Director SMI Coated Papers, Amit Sheth of Label Planet and LMAI Kochi Conference Chairman and past President LMAI, Manish Desai.  

After a brief welcome speech by President LMAI, Kuldip Goel, Pavankumar Chougule Associate Director, packaging development, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories made the first presentation.

He informed the audience about the expectations of the pharmaceuticals industry with emphasis on Regulatory compliance and Patient Safety, Smart Packaging, Secure Supply Chain, Data Security, Personalization, New Developments and Sustainability.

Santanu Chowdhury, Senior general manager, global packaging development, Sun Pharmaceutical spoke on interactive labels which he asserted is the future next for labels. Explaining the nuances of creation of embedded code on the labels and how the technology works, he dwelled on possibility of data management with integration on the servers of an organisation.

He also stressed that interactive solutions create brand loyalty. Technology offers great opportunities to digitally connect your physical products with your consumers, tailored to business goals. The consumer experience is converted into data business intelligence.

Soumyanath Mishra, head packaging development at Mankind Research Centre a part of Mankind Pharmaceuticals spoke on the requirements for pharmaceutical labelling, especially for exports. He also mentioned that Packaging & Labelling have a significant role to play as it provides the first point of contact with the patients or customers.

It provides important communication and help to build a credible brand as well. Proper Labelling helps in creating a good first impression of your product on the customers since the customer is procuring through on-line.

“Today we are a part of Generation X” said Naveen Stuart, packaging development manager, Reckitt Benckiser, he also mentioned that there is a demographic and cultural shift which is witnessed in today’s world. The generation is now moving towards a digital world. 

There is an imperative need to look beyond decoration of labels, Label needs to play an extensive role in package design process and convey the whole brand story. As regards digitalization he said; behavior of consumer is paramount to brand owner’s decision, error free smart label process, quick turn-around time and consistent quality. Also, digitilization in pre-press process aids error free production.

A very interesting presentation was made by Tamal Ghosh, strategic packaging development leader, corporate packaging development, Dabur India whereby he spoke on Brand Owner’s perspective, on labeling trends and their expectation and requirements that they need from converters.

These expectations include need for thinner filmic release liners contributing to sustainability as they can be recycled and lower tonnage of liner waste, flexible filmic label substrates for contoured shapely containers and label decoration capabilities.

The last presentation was made impromptu by none other than Somnath Chatterjee GM procurement in Pernod-Ricard India, he spoke on the imperative decorative and brand security needs of liquor industry. He asserted, it was an imperative to deliver genuine and safe products to consumer customers who trust them.

A panel discussion followed, moderated by the author, Harveer Sahni of Weldon Celloplast. A very interactive session that dwelled on various aspects of label industry. Barun Banerjee, Head of Packaging Nestle, gave very important inputs as regards government regulations and sustainability.

All speakers and guests on the panel enlightened the audience. Final comments of Kuldip Goel President LMAI and Managing Director Any Graphics were “We need to mentor our generation next for the label industry to move on”

All sponsors to Kochi conference were invitees and many like Avery, SMI, Label Planet, Vinsak, Reifenhauser, Weldon, etc. attended. Leading printers besides those in LMAI management  from various locations in India included, Manish Desai-Mudrika Labels Mumbai, Sanjeev Sondhi-Zircon Dehradun, Priyata Raghavan-Sai Security Faridabad, Yoga Murthy Chromaprint Coimbatore, Mohit-Encana Baddi, Ankit Kapoor-Printrays Jalandhar, Parshav and Rishab Jain, Jain Transfer-Noda, Aditya Chadha-Update Prints Gurgaon, Gurpreet Dilawari-Printwell Haridwar and so many more.

Networking

The evening ended looking forward to getting together again at KOCHI!
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July 2019
 Print publications are free to reproduce this article by giving credit to author

Indian Label Industry: LMAI Conference 2019, KOCHI, Kerala

Indian Label Industry: LMAI Conference 2019, KOCHI, Kerala

Grand Hyatt Kochi
India’s label association LMAI’s 5th biennial conference is planned to be the biggest and most successful event of Indian label industry. The event is scheduled to be held at recently opened property, HOTEL GRAND HYATT, KOCHI, BOLGATTI from 25th – 28th July, 2019. Perched on 26 acres of plush green land on the serene Bolgatty Island, Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty is a waterfront urban resort overlooking the backwaters of Vembanad Lake.


Grand Hyatt Waterfront




Leading label printing companies and suppliers will meet to discuss, evaluate opportunities, learn and strike business partnerships that shape the future of their businesses in relaxing ambience and surroundings. LMAI conference has been growing in strength and numbers over the years.







2017 LMAI Conference at Agra





The last conference was held at Agra with 550 delegates. The LMAI leadership is expecting the attendance to jump up to 600 delegates. An elaborate knowledge sharing, entertainment and technical program is being put in place to deliver value to the LMAI members coming from all over India.






About the city Kochi: Kochi (formerly known as Cochin) is a city in southwest India's coastal Kerala state, fondly referred to as “God’s own country”. It has been a port since 1341, when a flood carved out its harbour and opened it to Arab, Chinese and European merchants. Sites reflecting those influences include Fort Kochi, a settlement with tiled colonial bungalows and diverse houses of worship. Cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, typical of Kochi, have been in use for centuries.



St.Francis Church Kochi
St. Francis Church was the original site of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s burial when he died in Kochi in 1524. Santa Cruz Basilica is known for its pastel interior, including an imitation by Fra Antonio Moscheni of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Paradesi Synagogue, founded in 1568, features imported Chinese blue-and-white ceramic floor tiles. The surrounding quarter, once home to a large Jewish community, is now filled with antique shops and old spice warehouses. Mattancherry Palace, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century and later renovated by the Dutch, showcases vivid Hindu murals.

 

Label Manufacturers Association of India, LMAI has a strong support of the label industry suppliers as sponsors which has been growing steadily, making their conference, the most important label event in India. 





The following leading industry suppliers from across the world have registered as sponsors and there are still a few more on the waiting list;

SR. NO

NAME OF SPONSORS

CATEGORY

1

AVERY DENNISON INDIA P LTD

PLATINUM

2

SMI COATED PRODUCTS PVT. LTD 

DIAMOND

3

PULISI INTERGRAPHIC

DIAMOND

4

GALLUS

GOLD

5

VINSAK INDIA PVT. LTD.    

GOLD

6

HEWLETT-PACKARD INDIA SALES PVT LTD.

GOLD

7

DOMINO PRINTECH INDIA LLP

GOLD

8

MACDERMID

GOLD

9

PERFORMANCE SPECIALTY PRODUCTS (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED

GOLD

10

J N ARORA & CO. PVT LTD

SILVER

11

NUMEX BLOCKS INDIA PVT.LTD.

SILVER

12

APEX ASIA PACIFIC PVT LTD

SILVER

13

FLINT GROUP INDIA PVT LTD

SILVER

14

MULTITEC AIDS PVT LTD

SILVER

15

LOPAREX INDIA PVT LTD.

SILVER

16

INTER FILMS INDIA PVT LTD ( DRAGON FOILS)

SILVER

17

FLEXO IMAGE GRAPHICS PVT. LTD.

SILVER

18

BALDWIN VISION SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.

SILVER

19

INSIGHT PRINT COMMUNICATIONS PVT LTD

SILVER

20

GEW

SILVER

21

BOBST FIRENZE SRL

SILVER

22

ROTOMETRICS INDIA PVT LTD

SILVER

23

NILPETER INDIA PVT. LTD

SILVER

24

ZHEJIANG WEIGANG MACHINERY CO.,LTD.

SILVER

25

WELDON CELLOPLAST LTD ( LUSTER)

SILVER

26

WELDON CELLOPLAST LTD ( BROTECH)

SILVER

27

ROGLER

SILVER

28

WELDON CELLOPLAST LTD ( MARTIN AUTOMATIC)

BRONZE

29

COSMO FILMS LIMITED

BRONZE

30

LINTEC INDIA PVT LTD

BRONZE

31

ACME ROLLTECH PRIVATE LIMITED

BRONZE

32

HUBERGROUP INDIA PVT LTD

BRONZE

33

MONOTECH SYSTESM LTD

BRONZE

34

REPRO GRAPHICS PRIVATE LIMITED

BRONZE

The LMAI leadership will soon be closing the registration of sponsorship for this, three nights four days event.

Kuldip Goel





LMAI President Kuldip Goel says, “Unlike exhibitions, the LMAI conference intends to bring together the Indian label fraternity at one venue for four consecutive days. The suppliers get a chance to spend full time with their prospective customers in a relaxing atmosphere” he further adds, “Since many delegates come with family, it brings about a unique bonding within the industry, creating the feel of belonging to a large entity, the Indian Label Family!”.  








Marriott Kochi




The conference registration process has started from 1st April 2019. In the first phase registration has been opened for LMAI ordinary or printer members so as to give them the first option for accommodation in the main event venue i.e. Hotel GRAND HYATT, KOCHI, BOLGATTI. Registration will be on first come first basis. Registration for Associate or supplier members will begin a little later. Once the main hotel venue is full, additional delegates will be accommodated in another property i.e. MARRIOTT, KOCHI a short distance from the main event venue. Adequate arrangements are being made to transport delegates to and fro, between the two hotels.






Manish Desai
LMAI Conference Chairman Manish Desai says, “We have already held the previous conferences at Goa in western India, Jaipur and Agra in North India and this time we moved it to South delivering value to our members. LMAI being a pan national association is committed to bringing value and fellowship amongst the Indian label community spread across the length and breadth of India”.  He also mentioned that the south India based members who found it inconvenient travelling long distances to north will also be able to attend conveniently and bond with their peers around the country.

Only members in good standing who have paid their membership fees are allowed to register. Non-members can only register by first becoming members of LMAI. This conference is slated to be better and bigger than ever before.

It is time yet again for the vibrant colourful world of labels to congregate in Kochi to experience the friendship and fellowship with global suppliers and competitors.

Contact for conference registration;
Event Organizers – Mercury Integrated
Contact Person – Felicia Lobo
Mob No – 9152326871/ 022-26115502
Emai Id – lmaiconferencekochi2019@gmail.com

Contact for membership registration:
Manish M. Panchal
(Admin Secretary)
Label Manufacturers Association of India
A-418, Mayuresh Trade Center,
Plot no: 04, sector-19, Vashi Turbhe Road,
Vashi, Navi mumbai: 400 703
Ph No : 8097333995

 Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India April 2019

Changing world of labelling technologies

Changing world of labelling technologies

Labels in today’s time have become the face of a product and gained immense importance being the first point of contact between the manufacturer of a product and its end user. It maybe a piece of paper, film, cloth, metal or another sheet of material on which information about the product is written, printed etched or embossed and the label so created is affixed to the package or the product. At times, information is printed or engraved directly on the product to perform as a label. Systematic and conscious writing started in the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. and with it started a demand for improved writing materials. 

 

The first written words are found etched on stone, later the Egyptians invented papyrus or parchment from which the name paper is derived. Papyrus was an early nonwoven fabric. Reeds 12 to 20 feet high and 3 inches in diameter were cut in thin slices, laid side by side, and beaten with a mallet, after these were brushed with a floor paste, fresh slices were placed at right angles and the beating was repeated, the finished papyrus, was luminous brown. Before the invention of paper in A.D. 105 by Tsai-lun, a minister of agriculture in the court of Ho Ti, the Chinese wrote on silk and thin fibres of wood and grass. Woodblock printing, which is a technique for printing text, images or patterns on paper, originated in China around 200 CE (Common Era, a modern alternative for AD). It is process by which blocks of wood are chiselled to create images that are inked and pressed on to paper to transfer an image of text. The earliest use of paper as packaging was in Egypt during 1035 when it was observed that vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper while selling. In middle of 15th century a German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg assembled the first mechanical printing press that would apply ink on a block and press it on paper or cloth to transfer the image. The earliest labels designed in Europe were simply small pieces of parchment tied with a string to the neck of wine bottles, even though the Egyptians had started using gum Arabic from Accacia trees, or resins from trees for various decorative uses including pasting labels on to products. By 1700, labels started being designed by engraving on stone, ink applied on it and a roller was used to transfer the image on to paper. By 1798 Lithography had been invented and labels started being made in large quantities evolving further to be produced in colour with flat bed printing. This was the initiation of what is today known as wet glue labels. The wet glue labels have been used till the beginning of 20th century after which other forms of label production surfaced. Various printing technologies to print are employed, these include letterpress, offset, Rotogravure, Flexo, Screen Printing, Digital printing, etc. This article does not intend to dwell on the technology of these processes but on the changes that came about in evolution and usage of diverse label technologies.
 
Wet Glue Labels
 
wet glue Label applicator
For hundreds of years paper labels printed with different printing process like lithography, letterpress, screen, offset, etc. have been in use by affixing with a variety of adhesives. These varied from floor pastes, to fish glues, gum Arabic, animal glue, etc. This was majorly for manual labelling applications. With the development of starches and dextrin-based adhesives, these started being extensively used for labelling. As volumes started to grow steadily, need was felt for automatic high-speed wet glue labelling where fast drying was a challenge. At this time, high solids dextrin based quick drying adhesives were successfully developed. The automatic label applicator industry developed and prospered. Till date many wet glue beer and liquor labels are still applied with dextrin-based adhesives. These do have a shortcoming of shifting on high speed applicators while packing when still wet, shrinking or warping in presence of moisture or falling off when chilled. Synthetic adhesives with over 50% solid content have also been developed to overcome these issues but accurate placement and the labels shifting due to being packed while still wet is not aesthetically approved in modern retail. These adhesives still contain 50% water to dry. Also, the need for clean room production facilities needed, has now made wet glue labels a deterrent.
 
Self-Adhesive Labels:
 
R Stanton Avery
A story that led to a development of self-adhesive or pressure sensitive labels given below, changed the way labels would be known eventually:
Living in a rented chicken co-operative, a young American poverty-stricken man in his early 20s worked as a night clerk to fund his education. He stopped school and went to live for a year in China, where he gained experience working with a printing press. He returned to USA after the year, graduated and desperately tried his hands at various business options, he even sold smoked bananas! He then took on a morning job at a flower shop and later in the day started to experiment on various small things in a 100 square foot place nearby. He came up with the idea of making self-sticking labels. With the printing press experience behind him he saw the vision to start his new venture. With no money of his own, he borrowed 100$ from his fiancée, Dorothy Durfee, who later became his wife, to invest in his start-up business. Using a washing machine motor, parts of a sewing machine and a saber saw, he developed the world’s first self-adhesive label cutting machine. In 1935 he started his maiden venture Kum-Kleen Adhesive Products Company which would be the mother enterprise of the world’s largest labelstocks company Avery Dennison Corporation and this poor man was "Ray Stanton Avery!".
 
This pioneering development made by him, evolved over the years with need of labels to be made in roll form to dispense automatically on faster packaging lines as PSA labels make an instant bond on application and do not need drying time. Initially the label face used was only paper, but the release liners needed to be developed further to provide for easy release and dispensing. Over the ensuing years, silicone coating and their chemistries were worked upon to reach perfection in dispensing the labels on high speed packaging lines. Adhesive technology also advanced to adhere to various substrates, withstand varied application or service temperatures and diverse weather conditions. The face material also has now a wider variety with many filmic and non-conventional face materials like cork, fabric, and foil being used. The printing and converting over the years have also undergone a sea change from simple flat bed printing to now advanced flexographic printing in combination with multiple printing processes and decoration processes like lamination, varnishing, cold foiling, hot foiling, embossing etc. All these processes, inline in a single pass. The pressure sensitive labels have evolved in different tangents to produce barcode labels, RFID labels, Security labels, removable labels, etc.
 
Screen printed labels and containers;
 
Though types of labels and not printing technologies is the point of discussion in this article yet screen printing gains importance as it evolved to be used as a stand-alone label on products without any carrying substrates. For this reason, the origin of screen printing is dwelled upon. The idea of screen printing originated from stencilling used in Japan when designs were cut in banana leaves and ink was pushed through the holes to transfer images to substrates. In the start of 20th century when silk screen became available the screen printing evolved further. Later as the process developed, Nylon or Polyester bolting cloth of different mesh was used to make printing screens on wooden or Aluminium frames. As chemical evolution took place Chromates like Potassium Bichromate were dissolved in a PVA solution and coated on the screen, dried in dark and then placing the negative or Positive of the design on the screen was exposed to UV lights. Earlier the exposure was done in Sun light, but later high intensity lamps were used. The screen was then washed so that the parts that were exposed became insoluble and the rest of the design opened. Using a squeegee or a blade the ink is pushed on to the substrate forming a perfect image. Later photo sensitive films became available eliminating the need for the bichromate chemicals. For more colours, multiple screens are used. Screen printing directly on products eliminated the imperative use of paper as substrate as machines were developed for printing directly on round containers. This enabled 360 degrees print visibility on the products. For short runs of paper labels screen printing was also used. With increasing demand for attractive labels and development of increased decoration capabilities available on flexo label presses and alternate printing technologies, screen printing on containers lost the market substantially in product labelling segment.
 
Wrap around Labels
 
Wrap around labels
Once the idea of 360 degrees print visibility, people started to use offset printed paper labels to manually label round bottles using starch-based adhesives. The size of the labels was kept such that the label went all the way around the bottle. These labels worked well on glass bottles but when it came to HDPE plastic bottles, being a low energy surface, the adhesive would not anchor on and with time the labels tend to fall off. This problem was initially over come by increasing the length of the label such that there was an overlap after wrapping around of the label and the bond was between paper to paper. Label printing evolved to be produced on flexo presses with capabilities to decorate them in line both in paper and films. With filmic labels being made available in roll form it enabled their usage on automated packaging lines and label applicators for wrap around labels as well. The label applicators for wrap around labels are fitted with hotmelt adhesive dispensers to glue and form instant bonds at label ends in high speed packaging lines. Wrap around labels are now being extensively used for beverage bottle labelling.
 
Heat transfer labels
 
Heat transfer is a labelling technology branded as Therimage, was developed in the 1960s by Dennison manufacturing company based in Framingham USA, in which reverse printed labels on film or paper are transferred off on to a container using heat and pressure. These labels are printed by rotogravure printing process and transferred with help of Therimage heat transfer applicators. Once applied, the labels are permanently adhered to the container. Dennison Manufacturing begun in 1844 by Aaron Dennison, a Boston jeweller, it grew into a large enterprise offering from graphics and packaging, to variable imprinting and automotive, to home and office products. In 1990 Dennison manufacturing was merged into Avery and the new entity came to be known as Avery Dennison Corporation. The stationary and graphic business became the stationery division of the new entity but the Therimage division was sold to MCC (Multicolour Corporation) It is believed that this division was not grown further as it was in contrary to the vision of Stan Avery, the man who invented pressure sensitive labels. In recent time we see this labelling technology being adopted by some companies as it does away with the release liners and the label can be recycled along with the plastic container. Pens and other small radius containers use this technology because a decorated image is transferred without the problem of edge lifting as in self-adhesive labels on tightly curved containers or products. The technology provides a seamless, aesthetic, “no-label” look and offers 360 degrees print visibility.
 
Shrink sleeves
 
Shrink sleeves surfaced many years ago but they started being used as 360 degrees visible labels due to pioneering development done by Fuji Seal of Japan in 1965. Shrink labels are printed on a specially formulated film with unique characteristic, that shrinks on application of heat to form and fit to the special shape and contours of the product, container or a package. Each design is unique in creation as a special software helps create the prepress to account for distortions and make the label, legible, attractive and in symmetry with the shape of the package. Since the printing is done on the reverse, it remains protected under the film. The shrink sleeve market started to grow at a faster pace only in the 1980s. In USA its growth from 75 million dollars in the year 2000 to 700 million dollars in 2014 is proof of this technology’s success. According to market report by “marketsandmarkets” the global market size is projected to reach USD 13.20 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2015 to 2020. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest share in terms of value, followed by Europe and North America in 2014. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has progressed significantly in the shrink sleeve & stretch sleeve labels market, which primarily includes emerging economies such as India and China
 
In Mold Labels
 

 

 

 

Paper or film printed labels (mostly filmic) are placed inside the moulds during the molding process. After placing the label, molten plastic is injected into the mould. On cooling the label is fused with the resin, takes the shape of the so molded container and becomes an integral part of it. The labels referred to as IML can be printed and decorated by any of the processes i.e. Offset, Flexo Gravure or digital. The end result is a highly decorated container. These IML applied containers are used for Ice cream, butter, paints, food packaging, etc. According to research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global in-mold label (IML) market is projected to grow from $2.58 Billion in 2015 to $3.23 Billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 4.54%. It is the fastest growing segment amongst the various label segments.

 

 

 

Digital printed labels
 
The history of digital printing is rather short. Xerox introduced photo copying in 1960 but it remained a document managing equipment company for long. In 1977 Benny Landa known as father of digital printing setup his company Indigo to produce faster photocopying machines. He soon realised that the ink used in photocopying machines could be used in printers. Developing the idea further he launched the world’s first digital colour printer to make computer to print possible. Digital printing captures images from a matrix of dots, called pixels in a process called digitising. These digitised images are then used to control the deposition of ink, toner or exposure to electromagnetic energy to reproduce the data. In 2001 Benny Landa’s company Indigo was acquired by Hewlett Packard Company (HP). The digital printing market according to Smithers Pira has been growing steadily ever since to reach a figure of 120.9 billion US Dollars in 2012 and estimated to reach a whopping 387 billion by 2024. Digital printing is broadly categorised in two processes i.e. electrophotography or dry toner-based technology and Inkjet printing using liquid inks. Also, as per Smithers Pira report, Electrophotography is the major contributor to the digital market. However, inkjet is the sector which is growing more rapidly. Inkjet is forecast to overtake electrophotography after 2019 and by 2024 inkjet will account for 56% of the value and 53% of the digital print volume. The digital printing technology will spread to fields of labels and packaging. Cartons, rigid packaging, flexibles, metal and corrugated are sectors that will largely take up digital production method.
 
Helmut Schreiner
Digital printing is now recognised the most disruptive technology in the field of printing. According to Vandagraph report about its impact on labels industry, “Digitally printed labels is a market seen as already mainstream, although with plenty more scope for growth. Narrow web inkjet presses are already used for labels and packaging options including small folding cartons, flexible packaging, pouches and sachets, form-fill-seal and blister packaging. European Label Industry Association Finat has also revealed that European digital label press installations overtook conventional press sales for the first time in 2017. Digital printing is the future, with continuous growth it is already registering a faster CAGR than other technologies in many geographical zones around the world. In 2013, the author while interviewing Helmut Schreiner, former Chairman of Schreiner Group had asked him about the new label technologies impacting PS labels, his reply was, “All technologies will coexist. The customer today is very knowledgeable and knows about the increasing number of options available. Labels are a necessary decoration for any product, innovation is the need of the hour. For example, one can design a label such that if you touch a label, it plays music.” He added, “I am a fan of innovation. If everyone sells tomatoes, I would like to sell peaches!” Adding a word of caution, “Printing directly on products is dangerous, it reduces cost and could decrease the demand of labels”. He was hinting at Digital printing directly on products.
 
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India April 2019  

 

LMAI Brand owners’ event, a roaring success!

LMAI Brand owners’ event, a roaring success!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: Sustainability, Environmental protection and Circular economy !

Labels: Sustainability, Environmental protection and Circular economy !

Almost forty years ago, when Iwas just a commercial siliconiser, people at large did not understand what release paper or silicon paper was. I would jokingly explain it was a product, a protective paper behind a sticker, that would eventually go into wastepaper basket. In real terms the release liner, would be disposed-off in landfills or burnt adding smoke and gasses to the environment impacting it adversely.

Time has changed, concern for environment is a necessity and cannot be taken lightly as a joke. We are responsible for leaving behind a legacy of a cleaner and liveable environment for generations that follow us.
We need to make our manufacturing programs, sustainable. Sustainability means giving back to mother earth what we take from it or reduce drawing the resources that we cannot replenish forthwith cut down generation of industrial waste. Unfortunately, 50% of all that self-adhesive label industry produces goes as waste in terms of waste matrix and release liners. While globally many endeavours are being adopted to reduce liner waste yet in India a lot needs to be done. Switching over to liner less labels where-ever possible, helps but not much work is done in this direction. Using thinner filmic liners does result in reduced tonnage of liners and their recyclability. During this period many a top-end printer has started using clear on clear filmic label materials aiding sustainability to some extent. Global leaders in Labelstocks Avery Dennison has initiated a program to collect and recycle silicone release liners in India, it is a step in the right direction. But given the size of the country and geographical spread of label units, it is a gigantic task. Other than this some printers have adopted waste management by shredding waste and compacting it for use as fuel in boilers and other applications, this is only a miniscule portion of the Industry. Largely, the waste is still sent to landfills or is incinerated. In times to come legislation will come to make sustainability and environment safety an imperative. It is time that the label and print fraternity at large must understand that not only the need but also the larger implications terms sustainability, recyclability, circular economy, environmental protection, etc.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership.

They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go together with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The Sustainable Development Goal number 12 states; worldwide material consumption has expanded rapidly, as has material footprint per capita, seriously jeopardizing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Urgent action is needed to ensure that current material needs do not lead to the over extraction of resources or to the degradation of environmental resources, and should include policies that improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and mainstream sustainability practices across all sectors of the economy. In our labels and packaging industry this is an imperative that needs to be attended to because the percentage of waste generated is high, going to landfills. Some companies do incinerate or send the waste generated as matrix or side trim to kilns for use as fuel. This may look good management but in the longer run we are putting gasses into the air from the different materials going into the manufacture of labelstocks viz.; paper, film, primer coats, silicone, adhesive etc. Each component will produce different type of emissions that have in unison no single solution to treat them. Thus, there is a need for reducing the waste generated, use recyclable materials, reduce the energy consumption etc. to become more sustainable.

The label industry globally has been looking at the possibility of recyclability and reusability of the waste matrix or that of the different components of labelstocks. Since release paper is one item that has its usability only until the label is dispensed to be applied on to the product, after that it ends up as waste. Over the years there have been many solutions tried to reduce the impact of this liner waste on the environment. The used liner would either go to landfills or incinerated and in both cases it its impact was adverse. Due to the silicone coating on the paper biodegradability in landfills was an issue as silicone after crosslinking becomes inert.

For the same reason paper mills would not buy this waste for re-pulping and making fresh paper. Initial steps taken in reducing the liner waste were replacing the paper liners with thinner filmic liners thereby reducing the tonnage of paper and moreover the waste liner can be remoulded. This was a positive sign, but large-scale shift has not happened in a long time because of additional increased investment in equipment and tooling. There have been efforts to go linerless in producing labels but the inability to do custom shapes die-cutting and high-speed label dispensing on automatic packaging lines have not produced a lasting solution. Efforts and development in this direction are going on and we hope one day the industry can shift to self-adhesive labels without having release liners to dispose off, becomes a reality. At Labelexpo Europe 2019, four companies Ritrama, Omet, Spilker and ILTI came together to offer their “Core Linerless Solutions”, other companies like Catchpoint are also making strong efforts in this direction, only time will tell how many brand owners move in this direction and prompt their label vendors to offer the linerless label solutions. Some paper mills in Europe have now devised process of de-siliconising release paper and then re-pulping it to make fresh paper but the collection and delivery to the mills from the printing companies widely spread over large geographical locations is a logistic challenge. However still substantial volumes have started to be reprocessed. In India in recent times as mentioned above Avery Dennison has initiated support to a program in which collection of release liners is outsourced to a vendor and then sent to a mill who have devised a process to re-pulp and convert to paperboard. These are positive steps.

The menace of waste is gigantic and it has become an absolute emergency to counter it. Governments have woken up to act against generation of materials going to landfills. It is preferred that whatever waste is generated in industrial process should be gainfully recycled for usability to achieve the benefits as described in circular economy.

As per a report published in thehindubusinessline.com of 19th September 2019, leading consumer products companies such as Coca-Cola India, PepsiCo India and Bisleri among others have decided to come together to launch a first-of-its-kind packaging waste management venture in the country. The venture, which is called Karo Sambhav, will focus on creating a formal eco-system for collection of post-consumer packaging and optimising material recycling processes. Commenting on the endeavour, T Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and South-West Asia added, “Through our vision, World Without Waste, we want to ensure that all our packaging material goes for recycling and not to landfills.” Another report appearing in Live Mint 2nd October 2019 states; The government may soon roll out stringent norms and impose heavy fines on corporates, including hospitality industry, mobile manufacturers and packaging industry, for failing to stop use of plastic. Under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which the government plans to implement effectively, manufacturers, brand owners, and importers of products should realise and bear responsibility for environmental impact of their products through the product life-cycle. Many of the large FMCG companies have started adopting the requirements of EPR. These are other positive steps taken to eradicate waste to landfills to a great extent.

Besides the liner there is the waste matrix which has the adhesive and various kinds of face materials that include uncoated, coated, metallised, coloured, metallised papers, laminates or films with metallisation or topcoats. Side trims are also generated at some label converting units and most labelstock manufacturing units. With increasing prices of real estate besides an environmental issue, the side trims and matrix call for large amount of space to store until disposed off, putting additional pressure on resources. For this reason, larger label companies are shredding and compacting the waste to sell as fuel for boilers, furnaces and cement kilns.

There are some innovative entrepreneurs who convert this waste into pallets, floor tiles, wall panelling and some small furniture items. It is interesting to see such endeavours.

Circular economy packaging is another buzzword when we talk of sustainability and environmental protection. A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste, continual use and recycling of resources to re-engineer products that are preferably not downgraded. It is contrary to the earlier system “traditional linear economy” according to which the aim was ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production to achieve increased usage of all inputs.

Labels are the face of any product and in time of growing organised retail and in view of stringent consumer protection laws labels provide the much-needed statutory information, besides becoming the marketing tool for any product. In such a scenario we need to design labels in manner that they are able, to be a part of recycling process of the package. For instance, on a PE (polyethylene) container we should have a PE label only so that the whole package is mono-polymer and can be effectively reprocessed and recycled. Multi-polymer plastics are neither recyclable nor biodegradable. It is normal in India that we see ragpickers collect the mono polymer milk pouches but leave behind the fancy multi-layered pouches of instant foods and snacks littered around. This is because the monolayer plastics are resaleable for convenient recycling. Similarly, a paperboard carton should have a paper label.

Sustainability or circular economy must be in the conscience of all manufacturers, it does not advocate compromising safety or user experience of any product. It also does not mean increased cost of inputs. It is a mindset to create products that make life sustainable and do not deplete resources available to humans. There is need to replenish what we extract from our environment and establish a legacy for generations that follow for staying committed to the cause. It is a cause that is impacting humanity across the globe and all efforts to make public of all races and countries aware of the situation and need to contribute towards this issue in unison are necessary.
Written By Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India February 2020

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

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

 

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

Trigon Digital Solutions, successful in digital printing of labels

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman WeldonCelloplast Limited New Delhi December 2018