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| Rajesh Shah |
Rajesh Shah heading the Ahmedabad based Maharshi Group with a
conspicuous presence in the label industry, manufacturing label applicators and
labels, is a deeply religious man with strong family values. Son of an eminent
lawyer, Rajesh finished his mechanical engineering in 1976 and left for Germany
to work for a contractor company having office in Germany and sites in North
Africa. In 1978 while still in Germany, he was summoned by his family to return
to India due to his mother’s serious illness. Being the eldest of the four
siblings, they are three brothers and one sister; he felt that it was his
responsibility to be home by his mother’s side in this hour of need. In 1979,
Rajesh returned to India and soon thereafter got married and decided to settle
down in Ahmedabad. His wife came from a business family, who was involved into
textile machinery. While Rajesh was contemplating the way forward, he was
suggested by his in-laws to try and get into engineering industry. He accepted
the suggestion and started a business of manufacturing Stainless Steel Vessels,
Process equipment and other needs of the pharmaceuticals, Cosmetic and
chemical industry fabricated in a small set up and supplying. The small size of the operation
and slow progress soon made him restless and he started to look around for
something that was bigger and more innovative with quicker turn around. Some
friends suggested him to make conveyors, the idea appealed to him. At this point of time he set up his maiden
industrial startup venture Gopinath Engineering Company for fabrication of
stainless steel vessels and conveyor systems. This brought him in touch with more
pharmaceutical companies and he being a sharp observer was looking around for
synergies that would support his venture. In the early 1980s he saw the
opportunity come his way that would shape the way for his future growth. Ahmedabad
based Core Pharmaceuticals wanted to install automatic Self adhesive Label applicators
on their packaging lines but found the imported equipment way too expensive. Rajesh
knew from the word go that this was his chance and he grabbed the opportunity.
He offered to develop the label dispensers and applicators for them. To
understand the product intricately, Rajesh left for Germany and visited Guhl
and Scheibler AG, a company manufacturing automatic labelers. He also visited
other similar European manufacturers to understand their technology.
On
visiting different manufacturers, he understood the technology in detail and
concentrated on the best available. On return to India Rajesh developed his
first label applicator and once it was successfully installed, there was no looking
back!
The Labeling systems manufacturing facility is now a part of
the Maharshi group and known as Maharshi Udyog. It is perhaps the largest labeling
systems and applicators manufacturing company in India. This part of the group
is operating in a factory with 100 employees on a plot area of 100,000 square feet
and built up shop floor of 60,000 square feet. Another 90,000 square feet of
land has been acquired adjacent to the factory for further expansion. Rajesh’s
other brothers, Bhagwat Shah and Hiren Shah also joined in to manage the
growing group. While Rajesh looks after overall activities as a Group Chairman.
Bhagwat, a commercial person, looks after finance, administration and personnel
and Hiren, a Mechanical engineer, looks after design and manufacturing at
Maharshi. Hiren’s brother in law, Jigesh
Dani takes care of sales and marketing under the guidance of Rajesh. The next
generation is already in business. Rajesh’s son, Harshit, a mechatronics
engineer, is already actively involved in the group activities taking care of
automation systems, sales and marketing. Bhagwat’s son, Dhrumil has completed
his MBA from Nirma and is under training in sales and marketing.
Maharshi Udyog’s sprawling shop floor is a sight to witness.
It has a huge number of machines in various stages of completion. The variety
of equipment is so diverse that one remains in awe at the possibilities they
have created for themselves. The range of products they offer is from simple
label applicators to print and apply systems for variable data labels,
incorporating barcode inspection, missing label detection, bottle neck
inspection and automatic segregation. It is an amazing array of equipment that
they produce. They are also entering into production of packaging machines that
include machines for automatic filling, capping, labeling, carton erection,
product insertion and whole gambit of automatic packaging. The unit is complete
with design, electronics and quality control departments. The spare part
storage is all meticulously systemized with computer support and it is easy to
trace the spares instantly when a customer is in need. The whole process of
customer service support is planned at the manufacturing stage itself. Since
they cater to the food and chemical industry, most of the fabrication is done
with recommended grades of stainless steel. The shopfloor is clean and
systemized with workers widely spread out and working on the equipments
allotted to them. All equipment on completion undergoes strenuous tests before
the customer is called in for the FAT (Factory Acceptance Test).
It is obvious that on entering a new industry one has to
ensure that proper raw materials are available.
In the 1980s Indian labelstock
manufacturing was still in its infancy. Availability of labelstock in roll form
was still scarce and not of the quality as desired. For this reasons the label
rolls produced from them were also not as desired. The web when running on
these label applicators would break due to improper punching or the matrix
would keep breaking due to uneven release values. Most of the conversion of
stock to labels was done on slow flat bed Japanese label presses. The release
base paper availability those days was difficult and what was available had
caliper variations causing erroneous die punching. Where the release paper was
thin the die would not punch and the label would lift with the matrix and where
the release paper was thick there would be a through cut causing web break increasing
downtime and wastages. If the release was too tight, it was another nightmare
with matrix breaking and its removal was a cumbersome exercise. Silicone chemistry that time was still the
old, which is now outdated, the tin catalyst curing system with post curing
process. This always resulted in uneven release values causing problems in
label dispensing on applicators. When Maharshi faced these problems in the late
1980s, they developed vendors who could understand their need for labels that
would work on their applicators. It initially appeared to work but then due to
reasons mentioned, while this problem was being attended yet another cropped
up. The market for labelers grew and with it grew the demand for labels in roll
form. Their preferred vendors could not deliver the desired quality in time. So
that the applicator business does not suffer, a decision to integrate forward
was taken at Maharshi to produce labels themselves. It was time to set up
Maharshi Labels.
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| Jigesh Dani and Rajubhai |
In 1995 the Shah family invested along with investments from
Bhagwat Shah’s friend Rajendra Gandhi (fondly called Rajubhai) and Jigesh Dani
to initiate the enterprise Maharshi Labels. Rajubhai was to look after production
and Jigesh would take responsibility of marketing of not just the labels
division but the entire Maharshi Group. From setting up shop in 1995 to 1997
they invested in 3-4 presses. These were the flat bed Onda and Changi presses.
In those three years, as the population of their labelers grew, the Maharshi
team realized that these slow flat bed machines will not support the growth in
demand for labels. In 1997 they added a ten inch rotary flexo Acquaflex label
press to augment their label production capacity. The decade of nineties and
later, saw a sea change and growth in the label industry in India. Flexo printing, plate making, inks and
pre-press was evolving. Usage of self adhesive labels in India was on the rise.
Automation in the packaging industry became not just a process but an
imperative need to meet deadlines. Growth bug hit Maharshi. Between 1997 and 2012
they bought a label press every alternate year. They were a Mark Andy customer
and when the MA-LP-3000 was launched, they bought it within months. Then the
change of heart! They sold all the Mark Andy presses and one by one replaced
them with Gidue’s. Today they operate with 5 Gidue (Now Bobst) 370mm label
presses. They still use the old flatbed machines for the real short runs and as
the duo of Jigesh and Raju says, we enjoy using them.
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| Lord Ganesha |
It is traditional and almost all label printers, when they
commission a new press, the first label they print is a religious label. Mostly
it is picture of the God that they worship. This is to seek HIS blessings for
the new equipment. At Maharshi they
follow this even today, each time they buy a new press, they print the picture
of a deity. When I asked Jigesh if they had any nightmares, the answer was quite
simple, “we are deeply into machine building and know how to troubleshoot. So we
had no real nightmares!” One of the
earliest labels they printed was that of Vasmol, a popular brand. The most
challenging and satisfying job till date remains the Signature whiskey label
that needed to have micro embossing, foiling with three different foils and
printing with special pantone shades. The job became extremely challenging
because the customer, who was using their labelers, did not give any artwork.
They just handed over a few labels to copy and produce identical. Accepting the
challenge the Maharshi team developed a special multi-foiling machine in-house
and imported the blocks from UK. The challenge was successfully met and brought
immense satisfaction. Rajubhai and Jigesh continue to efficiently run the label
enterprise with active support of the Shah family. Rajubhai’s son is a
qualified chartered accountant and planning for some expansion in related products.
Jigesh’s only son, Yash has no interest in the
father’s activity, he is deeply into music. He is a fine Tabla player (Indian
drums), who has entered the Guiness book of records for the longest Tabla
playing performance.
At the moment Maharshi’s expansion plans are under wraps.
They have the space and resources to expand.
Maharshi Labels has the scope to expand and they have access to the market
but the intense competition and shrinking margins makes them cautious. However
still, the growing market size does confuse them, tempting them to consider producing
to economies of scale and cutting down on wastages and increasing volumes.
Their label unit operates from a land are of 50,000 square feet and a shop
floor of 30,000 square feet with 70 employees. The total group turnover of the
Maharshi is around 15 Million US Dollars. They have their hands full at this
moment and it is a matter of time before they will divulge their plans for next
expansion. As for their intention to foray into packaging, Jigesh says, “The
day we can convert it on a web press in-line cost effectively, we will also be
into packaging.”
Written by Harveer
Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India August 2016 exclusively
for Narrow Web Tech Germany.
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