Innovative, sustainable and intelligent labelling solutions

Innovative, sustainable and intelligent labelling solutions
Avery Dennison

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Prakash Labels: His Karma! The sons labeled it…as success!

Charanjeet Lal Mahajan worked as Superintendent Engineer in DESU (Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking) until his retirement in 1997. He is a modest smiling man, totally dedicated to his family and a friend to all who know him. While still in service himself, he dreamt and wished his three sons to grow up and start a successful industrial enterprise. He used his resources to give good education to his sons and worked hard towards his dream. When his eldest son Rakesh completed his graduation and then Post graduation in Marketing and sales in 1986, Mahajan took him to his friend Vinayak Sud of Liddles for employment and soon Rakesh was selling labels. Liddles were pioneers in self adhesive labels and were riding a boom those days. Rakesh soon saw the huge profits this industry generated. Meanwhile in the same year Dinesh the second son, had acquired his degree in mechanical engineering and had joined Thermax, Pune. In 1989 when Neeraj, his youngest son graduated with a degree in commerce, Mahajan decided, it was time to initiate his sons into business.
By now Rakesh had acquired in-depth knowledge about self adhesive labels more so gun labels. Rakesh quit his job and Neeraj joined him to start their trading venture from an office in Asaf Ali Road. In less the four years in 1993 senior Mahajan was sure his two sons had enough business acumen and Dinesh working at Thermax had acquired enough skills in management and systems necessary for running an efficient enterprise. It was time to move to the final step of fulfilling his dream. Dinesh resigned from his job, Rakesh and Neeraj wound up their trading operations and they were ready to launch their manufacturing venture. New or used branded label presses were expensive and beyond their reach. Charanjeet Lal Mahajan’s vision saw in his long time friend Baldev Singh Jandu, the potential and capability of building an indigenous label press.  Jandu, the optimist as he is, accepted the challenge and soon left for USA, to study the Mark Andy press. On his return he came back and started to put together the first Jandu fully rotary flexo Label Press for Mahajans. Meanwhile the Mahajans had got a loan sanctioned by UPSIDC to fund their startup manufacturing venture. Unfortunately their loan got cancelled due to a complaint from one of their suppliers in their trading business. The Mahajan brothers, that day were a worried lot. They had closed their running business, left their jobs and bet all on this. They were devastated and in that awful mood they walked to their home in trans-Yamuna area of Delhi, from the UPSIDC office in Connaught Place. It must have been over one hour of walking! Tired and dejected, they reached home and told the story to their father. The senior Mahajan was smiling! He was not giving up, he had faith in his sons. He sold his house to fund the start of Prakash Labels Pvt.Ltd. and the entry of the Mahajans in to the manufacturing of self adhesive labels! Charanjeet Lal Mahajan was happy because what he had done was his Karma!
The senior Mahajan has never indulged in the operations of the company and left everything from start to this day to his sons. There has been no looking back. Dinesh Mahajan heads the team and overseas overall management and marketing, Rakesh heads the manufacturing operations and Neeraj collects all the money, he heads the Finance. The brothers fondly remember that for their first customers Uncle Chips and Castrol they stayed three days in the factory trying to print a label correctly! Again when the weights and measure department banned the use of price marking labels on consumer packs, it was a nightmare for them. They changed focus and repositioned themselves to grow in business. Their biggest growth came when they started to produce sequential labels for the garment industry. They have come a long way since then.  They are leaders in labels for hand held labelers and barcode labels. They have a very strong association with Open data of Italy.
Prakash labels as of today has four factories, three factories in NOIDA, One of which is an EOU(Export Oriented Unit) in the export processing zone and one factory in Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. They have their own offices in six cities across India and one office in UAE. They have 12 label presses and one more is awaited. Out of these they have one Mark Andy 2200 with turret rewinder, an Italian press also with turret rewinder, Two Orthotecs, eight Jandu presses (One yet to be delivered) and one more local press.  The young Mahajans proudly mention that Baldev singh Jandu who was their father’s friend is now the dear friend of this second generation. Consuming over half a million square meters of labelstocks, they are one of the largest buyers of labelstocks in India. With a 160 strong workforce they plan to move further ahead and make investments in RFID and other VIP labels (Variable Information Printing).
The Mahajans continue to grow at a steady pace and feel their father has been the driving force in their success. He has instilled in them family values that bond them all together. Charanjeet Lal Mahajan had a vision, he was committed to it, he did his KARMA! His sons delivered, they labeled it…as SUCCESS!

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

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