Vinesh Bhimani’s Kimoha Entrepreneurs Limited, Dubai, UAE is a shining star amongst label
printing
companies run by Indians in Middle East Asia or for that matter by anyone
outside their homeland. His persistence and commitment to succeed has enabled
him to bounce back to success from extremely adverse circumstances. With over
two decades of relentless effort and dedication, he created his label brand
“Xel-lent”. He achieved perfection by creating labels and print packaging
products that would stand out in the market place. During my visit to his
facility, I was overwhelmed by the way he accorded a welcome (which I gathered
is a customary practice whenever any of the company’s stakeholders or important
guests visited); All the TV monitors in the company (there were quite a few),
had a welcome message for me apart from announcing various awards received by
them. Chairman Kiran Asher has been honoured by the President of India at
the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (A day for Indians living abroad) at Jaipur in
January 2012. Carrying the hospitality further, my picture
(commemorating my visit) was taken and gifted to me in an elegant folder along
with customized gifts. He has experienced success and rejoices the fruits of
bringing excellence to “Xel-lent” and also to all the businesses and operations
at Kimoha.
Whilst Vinesh Bhimani’s grandfather
lived in Africa working for a private bank in Zanzibar,
his father
preferred to return to India and set up shop in a free and independent India in
1947-48. Nizamabad in (AP) India became the family’s base and in
partnership with his uncle bought a rice mill. They did not meet
with success and lost all that they invested, in a year’s time. However they
were persistent and restarted a small floor mill (Atta Chakki, as they call it
in India). This venture, by virtue of their hard work prospered to become a
successful rice mill! In 1962 Sanjiva Reddy, the then Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh and later the President of India, conferred upon this mill an award for
safety. 1970-71 saw Vinesh’s father parting ways with his uncle and in
conjunction with his own brothers (whose responsibility became his after the
demise of Vinesh’s grandfather) taking over the management of the rice mill.
Vinesh then still young and attending school during the day would spend his
evening and nights in the rice mill.
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| The very first telex roll machine |
Vinesh graduated in
Commerce from Nizamabad, and his father crafted different plans for him. He did
not want him to join the rice mill, instead wished that he would take up the
offer of RRL Jorhat, (Regional Research Laboratory) to use their technology to
manufacture carbonless paper. The seed for his involvement with
Paper was sown and necessary equipments ordered from Kolkotta by the family. Meanwhile
Vinesh was sent to Mumbai for a one month management course. He was to stay
with his uncle (mother’s brother). The uncle was the fifth generation from a
family that was heading the 146 year old large and respected trading firm
Khimji Ramdas, based in Oman. Vinesh’s uncle made him an offer to come to Oman
but his family was ready to start the carbonless paper unit in Nizamabad.
Unfortunately the equipment failed to perform and they lost all the money they
invested into this project.
At this point of time
Vinesh was sent to Oman to get a “feel” of things before returning to Nizamabad
and start something else there. That was 40 years ago and he never returned to
settle down in India. Vinesh had joined Khimji Ramdas as a trainee and left at
the post of a General Manager in 1988. From Oman he came to Dubai and with the
experience gained in Oman he, with his brother in law Kiran Asher, started a
trading company. They made their first deal of importing Turmeric from
Hyderabad, India and exporting to an Iranian customer against a post dated
cheque. The cheque bounced and they lost most of the money invested! Whatever
stock of turmeric was left with them was brought by them and stored in a Jebel
Ali warehouse. As luck would have it, that night, a water pipe in the shed
burst and they lost all that remained. Vinesh Bhimani was a devastated and
embarrassed man. He blamed himself for his brother in law and partner Kiran
having lost money. He offered to sell his house in Mumbai to repay Kiran.
Perhaps God had other plans for Vinesh. Kiran asked him to stay on and wait to
let things settle down, they decided to stay together. It was now time to start
“Kimoha”. Briefly they started packing food items but soon shifted
to manufacturing telex and fax rolls. It
was a humble beginning with a machine made by his uncle in Nizamabad.
Nostalgically Vinesh reminiscences that they participated in an exhibition and
Sheikh Mohamed, the current ruler of Dubai, visited their stand and asked them
if they manufactured these rolls in Dubai. He then advised a big stationer
accompanying him to buy from them. For many years this stationer remained one
of Kimoha’s biggest customers. Business began to grow with exports to many
countries and Vinesh started to travel extensively. During his
travels he would be fascinated by the baggage tags, each time he would check in
at the airlines counter. He would study the tag at length and vowed to produce
it one day. He went to Japan to visit suppliers of thermal paper as also to
learn about the product. It was a matter of time now, his mind was made, “he
would manufacture the baggage tags and self adhesive labels”.
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| Mike Fairley and Vinesh Bhimani |
Purnima Bhimani married
Vinesh in 1978, she was by his side in business that day and she is still there
in office daily supporting him actively. She takes care of finance and planning
of the interiors at Kimoha. She has given her best to the growth of this
enterprise. Their only son Jay is 21 years old and studying. Jay may join the
family business one day but the parents feel it is too soon to say as young
people are quite unpredictable. He may want to do something else. After all the
family has a history of drifting in diverse fields. The great grandfather was a
banker and the following generations drifted to Rice mill, Floor mill,
International trading, Food packaging and on to Labels, Printing and
Packagings. Kiran Asher, Vinesh’s brother in law and partner who has been his
staunch support, is the Chairman of Kimoha. Vinesh’s brother Rajesh has also
been with Kimoha for almost two decades. He is responsible for besides other
things the house keeping at Kimoha. His work shows! The facility is amazingly
clean. Vinesh Bhimani works hard and his team is like his family. He tirelessly
communicates with them to instill family values. His staff sometime receives
emails from him that were written at 3am in the morning. He took 267 people one
day to visit Burj Khalifa, in an effort to deliver his message of aiming high
and having higher virtues in life and to understand how one feels when one “At
The Top”. Each day starts with the entire Kimoha family (the workforce) joining
in morning prayers. At lunch they are served a high-end restaurant catered meal
and are allowed some extra time to play indoor games before returning to
production. Education of employee’s children, medical expenses, insurance,
etc., is areas where the company supports its employees.
Kimoha has been
honoured as one of the top 100 SMEs in Dubai in the first ever ranking initiative
in 2011 and then again in 2013.
In 2011;
In 2011;
- They were in 38th rank in the overall top 100 SME companies in Dubai
- 3rd in the top 10 SME in the INNOVATION category
- 10th in the top 10 SME in the GLOBAL ORIENTATION (EXPORT)
- 6th in human capital development
In 2013,
- They were in 27th overall rank
- 5th in innovation
- 4th in human capital development
- 15th in growth performance
- 26th in international orientation
- 34th in corporate governance
Kimoha has also been
fortunate enough to be conferred with:
- CSR Label from Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (3 consecutive years)
- Leed Gold Certification from United States Green Building Council for Kimoha’s new state of the art office-cum-factory-cum-warehouse building.
- Many international awards for printing excellence from FINAT, FTA (FlexographicTechnical Association, USA) etc.
Additionally they have the following attributes;
- They are an ISO 9001 - 2008 certified company
- 24 / 7 Air Conditioned Factory and Warehouse
- In-house Flexo and Digital Pre-press Facility – CTP
- Laser labels produced from recycled label stock and packed in recyclable boxes when demanded so by buyers.
- Converting photopolymer plates from 1.7mm to 1.14mm, thus reducing Carbon footprint by 17%
- Ensuring that the new Premises meets the rigid green standards set by USGBA and EHS, viz. among other things, Over 900 tons Air Conditioning with aid of 410 A Refrigerant. Minimal CFC emissions
- Occupation and Movement sensors
- Recycling 95% of plate-making solvent
- Installation of LED light in office and factory
- Ongoing project to install solar to run factory and office using 100% solar energy
When asked about his
vision on what his venture will be in future, Vinesh Bhimani is pensive in his
thoughts. He firmly believes that whatsoever is done and will be done in future,
will only be according to the "Will of God". He says, “We are like robots
operated by this Master sitting above all of us with controls”.
Vinesh Bhimani is non-committal
on what Kimoha will be. He firmly believes that he has to be doing something
different and specialized. Kimoha will continue to expand and diversify. He
wishes that his entire Kimoha family remains bonded together and involved in
creating something special. Size is not what matters. The goal is, to be unique
and achieve a status where the entire team has contributed, to bring excellence
to Xel-lent and beyond and be the part of a global network! “This is what we pray in a morning-prayer that
we make with all our employees at our premises on all working days”, Bhimani
concluded.
Written by Harveer
Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi exclusively for Label and Narrow Web Magazine USA
(LNW) in July 2016.
Printing magazines may
reproduce the story by giving credit to the author and to Label and
Narrow Web USA.
