Divergent Labeling technologies

Various dictionaries or even Wikipedia describe label as a piece of paper, plastic or another substrate affixed to a product giving information about it. The label has now attained a broader perspective. It has become the bridge between the end user and the producer. It can be embellished such that it becomes the sales enhancer, reaching out and tempting the end users to lift it off the shelf. It also has features that communicate with the cashiers in retail, the finance persons for accounting, the logistics department, the purchase department to fix reorder levels, facilitate ecommerce and much more. The label is also the guard for consumers, providing information of authenticity to them as also aiding the track and trace process to put a check on counterfeiting. Surely the label is a very important and  sensitive part of any product, without it the products have no value, no recognition and no safety. In earlier times it was just a piece of paper with a simple letter press printing and affixed with the help of glue to the product. Printing technologies have evolved and become advanced, moving into different tangents providing a plethora of printing options ranging from the lithography in earlier times to screen printing, offset printing, Rotogravure printing, flexo graphic printing, several types of digital printing and so on. Similarly diverse labeling technologies to affix the labels on to products have been developed, moving away from the glue applied or wet glue labels mentioned above.

The labeling technologies in use now include;

•  Pressure Sensitive Labels or Self-adhesive labels
• Wet glue or glue applied labels
• Shrink Sleeves
• In-mold labels
• Heat transfer labels
• Direct printing on product labels
• Others

Market size: The total global label market size has been estimated by various evaluators and market research companies to be around 45 to 55 billion square meters and estimated to reach 65 to 70 billion square meters by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 4-5%. Asia Pacific remains the region registering biggest growth. Pressure Sensitive Labels have emerged as the most widely used segment of the labels at 50 to 60% of all the labels used. This is followed by around 25-30% of Wet glue labels, less than 15% for Shrink Sleeves and less than 4% of IML. The constant growth in the demand for labels is fueled by the innovations in printing, converting and application technologies some of which are driven by the need for environmental concerns and sustainability imperatives.

Pressure Sensitive adhesive labels: If we look back into history of label usage in India, until the mid-1960s it was just the wet glue labels that were in use and registering continual growth in the quantum of labels in use. All labels were applied by starch or other natural gums-based adhesives. When automatic label applicators started being used to label, due to warping and slow drying issues, high solids dextrin based adhesive and synthetic resin adhesives started being used. With advent of development pressure sensitive adhesive labels in the late 1960s as stickers in sheet format the journey of these PSA labels began but it was not until the mid-1970s that the stickers started being produced as labels in roll form to be dispensed in high-speed label applicators in automated packaging lines. The ease of use, options to also use other than paper substrates, better aesthetics and ongoing developments in printing, converting and decorating technologies inline in a single pass, brought rapid growth to PSA labels usage. The continual growth has taken the market size of PSA labels way past the 50% mark of the quantity of total usage of labels. At the onset of a new millennium there was talk of the impact of the liner and label matrix waste going to landfills and at this time alternative technologies started evolving. By the second decade the environmental and sustainability became a necessity to implement and indulge in alternative labelling technologies. Linerless labels has made some headway, but it remains a PSA label technology that still has to evolve to reach acceptability by end users.

Wet glue labels: Traditionally this was the predominantly employed labelling technology but with the advent of PSA labelling, it lost a lot of ground to it. Unlike PSA labels that are applied by contact and pressure, in wet glue labels the glue is mechanically applied before application and left to dry on the moving packaging belt before going into final cartons. The need for clean room requirements and safety standards implementation in production areas of pharma and food companies, made end-users and brand owners of pharma and fmcg companies move away from wet glue labelling which required the continuous cleaning of applicators and production shop floors due to dripping adhesives attracting dust and bacteria. The growth in wet glue even though positive but is being slower than that of other technologies, it is losing the eventual market share. Presently when there is growing awareness of liner and matrix waste going to landfills impacting the environment adversely, wet glue labels application technology may undergo technical changes towards ease of use, be sustainable, cost effective without the liner and become a preferred technology. However, it is a little premature to expect a substantial change in this labelling. Major users of wet glue labeling are beer, liquor and wine producers.

Shrink Sleeves: These labels are printed on a flexible shrink film that reduces in size on application of heat and conforms tightly to the shape of the container or product, creating a colorful label with 360-degree coverage. These though originated in the mid-1930s as a cap seal for milk bottles, but it was between 1961 and 1980 due to pioneering work done by Fujiseal that the shrink sleeves attained full size labels shape for commercial usage. In 1991 Mumbai Headquartered, Paper Products Limited  which is now Huhtamaki India Ltd., under license from Fuji Seal for shrink sleeves started manufacturing these in India. Heat shrinkable specially formulated PVC has been the most used polymer but now due to toxicity issues linked to PVC, usage of PE and PET have increased. The global market size for shrink sleeves estimated by many market research companies is more than 11 billion US Dollars growing at a CAGR 0f 6.5%, but the author’s opinion is that in India it is growing at over 10%. Earlier all the shrink sleeves were printed on rotogravure printing equipment which means only very large print runs were needed because the cost of heavy and wide rotogravure printing cylinders needed long setup times. All that has changed, now shrink sleeves are also printed on Flexo and digital presses making very short runs possible thereby providing an impetus to the demand of shrink sleeve labeling.

In-Mold labels (IML): Paper or film printed labels (mostly filmic) are placed inside the molds during the blow or injection molding process. After placing the label, molten plastic is injected or blown into the mold. On cooling the label is fused with the resin, takes the shape of the so molded container and becomes an integral part of it. This needs no affixing and no use of any applicators providing an extreme ease of use for the end user of products like Lube oils, Paints, Ice creams, Butter, Cooking oil, Food products, etc. These labels that debuted sometime in the late 1970s can be printed by diverse printing methods but in recent times there has been extensive use of flexographic printing for IML. The IML segment is environment friendly and sustainable. As no adhesive or release liner is in use. In fact, if the polymer of the label and the container is same family, recyclability is possible leaving no adverse impact on the environment. The growth of this segment in India again appears to be much in excess of the global estimation of 5.5%. Many container manufacturing plastic molding companies in India have started to produce their own in-mold labels in-house for captive consumption and use robotics to place the labels in the molds before the molding. Hyderabad head quartered Moldtek and Kapcones, Delhi are some of the prominent IML containers and in-mold label manufacturers in India.

Heat Transfer Labels: Heat transfer is a labelling technology originally branded as Therimage, was developed in the 1960s by Dennison manufacturing Company USA, in which only the reverse printed label  on film or paper are transferred on to containers, using heat and pressure. Only the printed image without any substrate is transferred. Dennison manufacturing Company was later acquired by Avery International Corporation and the company was renamed Avery Dennison. These labels are printed by rotogravure printing process and transferred with help of Therimage heat transfer applicators. Evolution may soon see adaption of this technology by flexo and digital label printers. Once applied, the labels are permanently adhered to the container, they are sustainable as the containers can be recycled without removing the labels. Pens and other small radius containers use this technology because a decorated image is transferred without the problem of edge lifting of label face 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. In the early days of the new Millennium, Dabur’s Chyawanprash containers were printed with this technology, at that time licensed by Avery Dennison who later sold the division to MCC (Multi-Color Corporation) the global producer of labels.

Direct printing labels on product: This direct printing on products appears to soon become a disruptive technology, when evolved and ready for widespread usage it would do away with all substrates and adhesives while printing multicolor images digitally and variably directly on the packages or products. There are multiple technologies that can do the direct printing. Some of these that already exist include screen printing which has been extensively used earlier on flat surfaces and even on plastic containers but with development and need for highly decorated labels the screen printing had to take a back seat. Pad printing that uses a silicone pad to lift inked images from an etched plate and transfer them to the products is also in use but being a slow and simple printing technology, it’s use is limited to simple images. Contact printing using polymer type faces on a roller printing on cartons was in use for long but the use of  monochrome inkjet printers did not let this technology expand more. The most disruptive development that is being seen and when fully developed to find extensive usage is multi-color digital printing and embellishing directly on containers, packages and cartons. The shortcoming at this time is the cost of consumables which with increasing volumes are expected to recede. It will not be very long before we start seeing this happening extensively doing away with face papers, release papers and adhesives to a great extent.

Surely, despite these technologies appearing to be disruptive yet one can safely express that all these divergent technologies will still co-exist, and some may be complementary to each other.

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi. October 2021

LMAI Webinar: Label printers' woes, price increases and shortage of inputs

Frequent increase in paper prices have been adversely impacting the printing and packaging industry in recent times. The print industry has been at the receiving end not just because of the price rise but also due to shortages of paper and that too at a time when demand is rising. The printers have suffered because of long lockdowns due to Covid-19 pandemic; they had hardly heaved a sigh of relief as the situation started to improve when prices began their upward movement followed by shortages or unavailability of critical inputs, adding to their operational problems. The self-adhesive label printing and converting industry is an extension of the sheetfed or unsupported web printing industry. Unfortunately, the impact of the present situation on label printers is more severe, given the complex nature of their major raw materials, the self-adhesive or pressure sensitive adhesive labelstock. Unlike the single layer substrate that paper or board is, the labelstock is a laminate with many inputs. The face materials vary from various kinds of paper substrates, films, foils, etc., then there is a range of pressure sensitive adhesives like emulsion and hotmelts in variants like permanent, removable, for low and high temperature applications that are formulated with various polymers, plasticizers, emulsifiers, and other chemicals. Lastly the release base papers and silicone formulations. All these inputs are facing price increases. Realizing the impact and seriousness of the situation, LMAI (The Label Manufacturers Association of India) initiated by the current President Rajesh Nema, organized a webinar titled "Knowledge - Accelerating Growth" on 30^th October 2021. The panelists included Saurabh Agarwal-Avery Dennison, Ajay Mehta- SMI Coated Products, Prashanth Raveendran- Seljegat Printers and Manish Desai- Mudrika labels. The webinar was moderated by Jaideep Singh Secretary LMAI and coordinated by Anurag Mohan Management committee member.

Ajay Mehta

Ajay Mehta spoke on the gravity of the situation due to rise in prices with price increases being announced by paper mills frequently despite not getting their full requirements of materials. Forward contracts are made with paper mills but those are for quantities required and mills in general, charge prices prevailing at the time of dispatch. However still, the increasing international freight rates, reduced availability of raw stocks with mills and the upswing in demand impacts adversely. While the mills give a date whereafter new enhanced prices will be applicable, but the adhesive suppliers do not even give time for price increase and announce the new price with immediate effect. Paper mills supplying release base papers are either facing shortages of pulp so have lesser materials to offer or they to recover the losses incurred during lockdowns are directing their materials to markets where the get higher value for their products. He cautioned that by modest estimates, the label industry will stand to lose over Rupees 250 Crores annually and there is no way this loss can be absorbed, they have no alternative but to pass on the price increase to the printers. They do get resistance from some quarters but there is no way to compromise on this if one has to survive and keep the company in sound health.

Manish Desai

Manish Desai of Mudrika Labels mentioned that print buyers strongly resist the price increases by expressing that there are other printers ready to supply at lower rates, however according to him they must be persistent as there is no other option. The possibility to downscale the product specification by lowering substrate grammages and adhesive coat weights to keep the prices stagnant is not the right step and will lead to inferior quality and rejections at the customer’s quality control. Moreover, since many print buyers are now mentioning the standard brand labelstock usage in labels supplied to them, printers do  not have the option to consider alternate suppliers. He suggested to the labelstock manufacturers that since they interact with print buyers to get their materials approved, they should in turn also impress upon to approve price increases in tune with raw material price escalations. It would also be prudent for labelstock manufacturers to make forward contracts with raw material suppliers such that they in turn can give some breathing time for printers to settle down with new prices. Price rise is an ongoing process in growing economies and eventually the industry settles down with it in 3-4 months, unfortunately now it is at a challenging time and too frequent. He further added that amongst their customers, with privately owned companies it is easy to get price approvals as one can deal directly with senior management and justify the need for higher prices. Contrary to this, it takes 3 to 6 months to get approval from multinational companies as they have multiple layers of management and the price approval is a long-drawn process and by the time the approval comes, the prices may already have increased some more.

Saurabh Agarwal

Saurabh Agarwal of Avery Dennison mentioned “'The significant increase in demand post the improvement in pandemic impact, especially in the large economies of the world, while the supply environment continuing to remain constrained has been the single biggest reason for the serious inflationary pressures. The rising oil and energy prices and the prevailing ocean freight crisis intensifies the impact and is now impacting almost every region. At Avery Dennison, all our efforts are geared to continue serving our customers in the best possible way during these volatile times, while at the same time keeping them informed of the prevailing situation.”

Prashanth Raveendran of Seljegat Printers was more focused stating that they have reached a level of success by continuously investing in the finest equipment to manufacture labels to international standards and creating innovative products. He said, not getting the appropriate and remunerative price for their products will hamper their growth and not justify their huge investments. He stressed that if some print buyers do not understand the situation and do not agree to give the right prices, unfortunately and sadly we will have to forego such orders. After all, we have to service our financial commitments.

Priyank Vasa

To get a wider view on the topic the author interacted with some more industry constituents. Priyank Vasa of Ahmedabad based Unick Fix-a-Form says, “The recent price hikes and inflation in raw materials has got us wondering how long we can sustain a healthy margin while continuing to offer the best rates and quality to our customers. Production efficiency has been impacted in the past two years because of the pandemic. Looking at the current situation, it is tough to offset increasing cost of raw materials with an improved efficiency. Labels have become a commodity, unlike older days where one could reap the benefits of developing a product for years altogether. Product  diversification could be the key which could offer a good balance between profitability and volume. Current market conditions do not offer many niche segments where business could thrive. Sustainability of the margins will take the driving seat vs the volumes. Expansion models must be feather light as nature of our industry needs repetitive investments that come with an interest burden.”

Mahendra Shah

Mahendra Shah of Renault Paper Palghar, a part of Manohar Packaging group says, “We call ourselves manufacturers of labels but technically, we are just converters without any consumer brand-value which can be encashed at a later part of our entrepreneurial tenure. Our current or past investments do not last long, due to fast changing technology. If you do not capitalize your investment in the first one thousand days, your time and energy is wasted in just recouping the investments done. Really, is this why we became entrepreneurs? Competition was always there and will remain in future, the only difference is the mindset. Now with fast evolving technologies we need to achieve the  return on our investment at a faster pace. As first-generation entrepreneurs, we took harsh calls and succeeded, with this huge price impact on our inputs now, we all need a fearless attitude to go for price increases from our customers before it is too late. We may lose some customers but with clear thoughts I am sure we can all make our business profitable and sustainable.” 

Anuj Bhargava

Anuj Bhargava of Kumar labels asserts that the price increase must be passed on and it is an imperative for survival. Another point he mentioned is that the industry is not realizing that people are a necessity in a company to work efficiently and the cost of people has dramatically increased post covid. So that cost combined with the enhanced raw material costs is a “Killer.” If label printers do not pass on the impact of the combined cost increase, then definitely it is a formula for suicide.

The PSA or self-adhesive labels industry is already at crossroads whereby evolution is leading to a lot of demand growth going off to different evolving technologies like shrink sleeves, inmold labels, wraparound labels and direct on product digital printing. Expansion in capacities coupled with commercial and other offset printers, facing pressure from the online communication, also investing in label manufacturing is bringing about intense competition and pressure on profit margins. Label manufacturing also has another challenge which is becoming a matter of concern and that is the waste management. Adhesive coated waste matrix and the release liner that form more than 50% of the laminate is either going to landfills or being incinerated. Facing pollution controls and attending to environmental concerns the printers must now invest in measures that support sustainable and environmentally safe production processes. At such a time when input prices are going up putting margins under pressure, their woes keep on escalating, prompting them to get together as an industry and ponder over workable solutions to counter the concerns that are arising. The positive side is that in a large country India with a huge young population, the growth is evident and there will be enough for all label manufacturing technologies.

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi November 2021

Printweek India's edited version of this article  is also available at; https://www.printweek.in/Features/label-printers%E2%80%99-woes,-price-increases-and-shortage-of-inputs-55396  

Digistik, a move into digital label printing by Sai Com Codes Group

Harish Gupta, Managing Director of Sai Com Codes Flexo Print Pvt. Ltd. Rai, Sonepat has registered amazing growth in self-adhesive labels industry in India. Born and brought up in the North Indian city Jammu, a city on the banks of river Tawi, the winter capital of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Three generations of his family have lived in Jammu, his father R D Gupta has been a banker most of his life. He retired as General Manager of the J&K Bank and later took responsibility as Chairman of State Cooperative Bank. Harish, his only son besides two daughters, finished his schooling in Jammu and followed it up with a B. Tech in electronics plus MBA in marketing from Pune University. He got his first job for selling metal containers as a part of campus placement, but Harish was envisioning bigger avenues, so in just two months he quit that job and came to Delhi. He wanted to set up his own venture.

Mark Andy Scout

A close friend who was a successful offset printer suggested narrow web label printing to him as it was a growing line, together they had discussed printing industry at length. Harish spent long hours with his friend understanding printing business and finally decided to take the plunge. His friend had impressed that flexo narrow web self -adhesive labels was the future growth area, which convinced him. In December 2005 Harish set up his maiden venture Com Codes in Badli Industrial area Delhi. He bought a Mark Andy Scout label press without any family support, no one in his family was in business so could not provide any inputs, however a lot of
encouragement and motivation came from his father. He had no knowledge about flexographic printing or the presses, but since he was decided on the project, he extensively searched the internet. Learnt about flexo printing by surfing the internet, he even purchased his first flexo press without even seeing the press but by only seeing it online and studying the catalogues.

The first one and half year after installing the label press was extremely challenging to run due to lack of knowledge of flexo printing process and experience in the field. Biggest challenge was, getting trained manpower as there were few people available in 2005-2006. Even good quality plates were not accessible locally. Most of the first year was spent studying the flexographic printing technology on his own. As he believes that to be successful, he needs to acquire the knowledge himself. He was hardly selling during the learning process as they did not know how to run the press properly. It looked like a big mess such that Harish got fed up and started contemplating how to get rid of the setup. One day in pensive thoughts at home, he reminded himself of the phrase, “Nothing is impossible” he again started training himself from internet programs. He undertook a seven-day course to learn flexo printing, he started first to learn printing and then being an electronic engineer, he then began to understand the machine operation and its nuances. Those days the machines only used hot air for drying the print, there was challenges in reproducibility and consistency  as viscosity of inks would change during printing resulting in variations in shades of print. UV inks offering instant crosslinking and drying came later. Due to the issues and hardships faced in initial years,  2007 to 2010 was a period of  very slow progress.

He still reminisces that in 2006 he ran into a big fiasco in printing. They had gotten an order for printing on PE film, the order quantity was six thousand square meters. They printed the entire quantity and when they started slitting, they realized that the ink was rubbing off, when touched by hand. It was then they realized that they needed to print with UV inks and not water-based inks. Plus, there was necessity for Corona treatment and top coatings for getting the printing right on filmic substrates. The entire quantity went waste as they could not supply the defective material and the order got cancelled. This was difficult learning. They understood at that time that with the present equipment they could only print paper labels, so started advising customers who wanted filmic labels to opt for laminated paper labels. By 2009 they did get support from an ink supplier to print PE labels with water-based inks, but they needed to cure the labels for longer periods, but then delays in supplies and lack of perfection in manufacturing process is not the right situation for rapid growth. This was at a time when the industry was evolving and moving towards “just in time” deliveries with reduced inventories. By 2010 Harish had become sufficiently adept in flexo printing and it was time to move ahead and invest in equipment the way he understood the technology. Presently they did not have equipment to support their foray into filmic and other specialized labels.

Ringing the bell on buying Nilpeter at Labelexpo 

In 2011 Harish bought his first Nilpeter eight colour, all UV label press. Thereafter the first big job order  came to them from Patanjali Ayurved Limited, whom they had started supplying in small quantities from 2006. Being an ardent follower of Sai Baba, at this time he changed the company’s name from Com Codes to Sai Com Codes Flexo Print Pvt Ltd. This was their take off point and there was no looking back, whereafter he started buying a new press each year. Initially they started by focusing themselves to the agrochemicals industry and by the end of that year they became the most prominent label manufacturer in that segment with Harish having personally indulged and motivated these customers to switch over to self-adhesive labels from wet glue labels. As business grew and their customers were setting up units in various locations, they proposed for Sai Com Codes to also set up units at these locations near their new manufacturing facilities. This was a pressing need considering better coordination, better inventory control and being at the customers’ doorstep for faster response time giving better service, ensuring  business continuity and growth.

Harish with his HP Indigo

Sai Com Codes is now a multilocation group with two units in Rai, Sonepat, one in Guwahati and one in Vapi. They are already planning one flexo unit in South India so that they are present in all geographical zones of the country. They operate out of around 100,000 square feet of total shopfloor area with three hundred strong workforce, eight flexo presses out of which seven are Nilpeters, one P7 and two digital presses. Four flexo presses are installed at Rai in the North, three in Guwahati in the East and one in Vapi in the west, all units are employing flexographic printing technology. The second unit Digistik in Rai, Sonepat is a separate Sai Com Code group company in another premises. Digistik is Harish’s move to bring in digital printing of labels in his range of offerings. When he observed the growth of e-commerce and the increasing trend of retail business going online, there was an evident need felt for short runs with variable and personalized printing. He also envisioned that the new literate generation is giving a fillip to demand by establishing startups, these startups need short runs of labels and packaging to manage their inventories and not have finance locked up in stagnant stocks. He decided to invest in top-of-the-line digital printing, primarily with startups in mind. The best and natural brand recall convinced him that he had to start with HP Indigo. There is no way he could have supported the need of these startups with only his analogue printing setup. He studied the digital label printing technology and was convinced that for future growth and to cater to the short run demand, digital printing capabilities was an imperative. An HP Indigo press was acquired in 2020 and installed at Digistik. They had earlier added a Konica Minolta digital press in 2019 and plan to further enhance their digital printing capabilities by investing in another bigger HP Indigo next year.

Harish is of opinion that continuous expansion is necessary for any vibrant organization, stagnation is counter-productive and that flexo and digital will coexist to aid rapid growth in labels and packaging. Therefore, he has plans to make further investments in both analogue or flexo as well as in Digital capabilities. As for analogue he is looking at using hybrid or combination presses to achieve complex results for demanding brand owners rather than simple flexo jobs. Change is the only constant and bringing in newer technology in each manufacturing process brings growth and aids innovation with creativity. All these new and diverse technologies will coexist and be complementary to each other in the way ahead. Future plans include continued expansion of capacity to make growth an eventuality. “We will treat  the analogue and digital as separate units and soon we will try and replicate the multi locations model separately for digital as well” says Harish. He further adds, “Very soon another digital unit will be announced. In 5years we will strive to at least double our sales”. As for moving to become a multinational manufacturer,  he feels India is a vast country with a big population having enormous potential. “Let us first achieve the maximum here, we consider that option, at another opportune time” he asserts. They wish to remain focused and specialize in labels, which itself is a big segment that has grown towards different tangents like shrink sleeves, wraparound, IML and a lot more. They are working on various projects, but personalization and innovation remain a preference indicating more indulgence in Digital label and package manufacturing.

Talking about the impact of the pandemic, Harish mentions that during Covid they also suffered like all, in terms of materials shortage, workforce migration, lockdowns, management challenges, movement of goods, etc. However, investment in Digital capabilities  came to their rescue as they could produce without the need for flexo inks, plates and many operators. It will take some time for the bulk of label industry to return to regular functioning like in pre-covid times. That is why it is now felt that a future without digital capabilities will be a shortcoming. On the onset of covid, inventories were already there but replenishments were lacking or missing. Those days many units kept on working so the impact was there but still manageable, once the impact had somewhat subsided and businesses started opening, by April or May 2021, label industry faced shortages, increased prices, imports became difficult due to container shortages, all this has put extreme pressures on the label manufacturers in the current fiscal year. As per Harish this situation will prevail until December 2021 or until all covid related restrictions are lifted and people are back to jobs, free to visit markets, schools and colleges are opened and travel, both domestic and international, becomes unrestricted. This is so because all industries are somehow interconnected.

Harish’s wife Pooja is a home maker they have a son and a daughter. His daughter Jayini is studying to be a doctor and presently pursuing MBBS 3^rd year. Their 13 years old son Tejas is still in school and a sports enthusiast.

Speaking about sustainability Harish agrees that it is a major concern for which they must adopt a system to manage waste. They are considering diverse options that would aid recycling. Linerless should come as it is a necessity which will decrease the tonnage going to landfills, it must be convenient and user friendly. Once they are convinced on the production and usability of linerless labels, they would definitely consider investing in the technology, as they are concerned about environment being safe for generations that follow.

Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi September2021

Abhay Datta, a printer's tryst with machine building

On any given day, 96-year-old S.N. Dutta, Satya Narayan Dutta, the patriarch of Dutta family of Dutta Press New Delhi, can be seen strolling on the shop floors of their printing or machine building units, interacting with workers, and imparting instructions. The man is active and an institution himself in printing. Dutta was born on 15th of August 1926, long years before the partition of India, in a family that hailed from Lahore, then a part of British ruled united India. His father was the head of accounts for Indian railways. Sometime in the 1940s as a young man, he developed an interest in printing so went to a family acquaintance, Kedar Nath Mehta, a master printer in Amritsar for a one-year training in the art of printing. They used to print on Chandler & Price platen presses and supply labels to Punjab based distilleries in Hamira and Khasa. Chandler & Price was founded in 1881 in Cleveland, Ohio and manufactured a series of hand-fed platen jobbing presses, as well as an automatic feeder for these presses.

Chandler and Price Machine

Love marriages were rare in those days before the partition of India, however S.N. Dutta during his training days at Kedar Nath Mehta’s facility, developed a liking for Mehta’s daughter and eventually married her. Post partition the Dutta’s moved to their Haveli, a traditional townhouse mansion in Darya Ganj Delhi. The Haveli was a heritage building that had earlier belonged to one Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, one of the Navratans of Mughal King Akbar. It was allotted to Duttas on migration from Lahore to Delhi after partition for a sum of Rupees 4000 only. In 1951 S.N. Dutta started his maiden startup venture “Dutta Press” with a Chandler and Price machine on the ground floor of their Haveli. He bought the printing press for Rupees 1200.00 and did not have the money to put an electric motor on it. So, initially the machine was foot operated with a peddle. As a memento and a reminder of their past, the machine still stands tall on a pedestal in the lobby of their Okhla factory. Thereafter from 1951-1965 Dutta was on the move continuously, he also set up his own typesetting and composing section, then added two more machines, following it up with buying a new Heidelberg GT Platen press for just four thousand Rupees, then in the mid 1970’s a Mercedes Super Cylinder Press from Printer’s House in Faridabad, Nibolo and some more letterpress cylinder machines. Customer base acquired during this period included those from segments like beer, whiskey and lubricants with main customer being Mohan Meakin. S N Dutta has two sons Rakesh and Abhay, as business had grown and the boys were now grown up, it was time to move to the next level of business. In 1980 they moved to a new factory in Okhla and imported their first Heidelberg KORD offset press and Heidelberg TP Foil stamping machine from Germany. Those were tough times of needing import license for all imports, yet firm resolve made them to move on.

Heidelberg Weisloch Factory

Abhay Datta the younger son of S.N. Dutta, born on 16^th August 1961, is an Alumnus of St. Xaviers School Delhi. He was never a serious student but had other technical interests. Barely 16 years old and in school, he started experimenting with making music systems. On finishing school, he along with his friend Joseph George set up their maiden startup venture Systm India to make and sell music systems. Abhay proudly mentions that in a couple of years his company’s turnover was higher than that of Dutta Press. Young boys in business families are prompted to spend time in family production units and Abhay was no exception and whatever exposure he got was by way of his father mentoring him to have a penchant for perfection and zero tolerance in whatever he did. One fine day his father came to him and complained, “you make so much noise testing your music systems, speakers etc., neighbours are irritated . It is not a respectable business. He appealed to Abhay that they needed help in the printing business and that he should wind up this music equipment business and join him in the printing business. Obedient as he was with immense respect for his father, Abhay could not refuse his father’s request. Abhay’s elder brother Rakesh was better in finance and other marketing activities. In just a matter of minutes Abhay decided to hand over the music business to his friend Joseph and moved on to the printing business at Dutta Press. He was sent to Heidelberg training center in Germany for training in print technologies where he spent time in the Wiesloch factory understanding mechanics and engineering of offset presses. It was an eye-opening experience for him. In India we did not have CNC machines, no auto cad computers, all the planning was done manually on huge drafting boards. It was there in Germany that he gathered an eye for perfection, low tolerances, fine finishing, good appearance and machine safety norms. This was as his father had mentored him to be a zero-tolerance person.

UV Coating Machine

Once back in the Okhla factory Abhay had to begin at the lowest rung of the ladder. He was required to clean up the machines, sweep the floor, take care of staff, serve them tea and support them in small errands besides operating all the machines personally. He learnt to run all the machines like an operator, make negatives/positives and offset plates and foil stamping blocks himself. Those were days when there were no PS plates, so he learnt all the chemistries hands on. Graining offset plates, putting sand, marbles etc. in graining machines, he did all that himself. He was a total worker like any laborer in the factory doing all kinds of jobs that included printing varnishing cutting packing and dispatch. The experience has rubbed on so well on him that even today on the shop floor in hot and humid conditions with perspiration trickling down his torso he enjoys remaining amongst his workforces. He is a hardcore technical and shopfloor production-oriented person while brother Rakesh manages the white-collar part of management. With Abhay’s penchant for perfection, he proudly mentions that we made quality, such that print buyers would come looking for them. Since they were supplying to breweries and distilleries, they came across a challenge; solvent base varnishes on labels scuffed and needed to be replaced with Water based varnishes, but these would not work on existing hand fed varnishing machines produced locally due to slow drying. Abhay was given a task by his father to make a machine that could coat aqueous varnishes at high speeds. He developed an automatic machine with the help of Sanjay Gupta of Ronald Machinery and added an anilox roll with a motor and hot air dryer to do the varnish. It worked and that was when his tryst with machine building commenced. Later he started manufacturing fully automated high-speed machines to do aqueous and UV coating with anilox rollers and chamber doctor blade systems.

Abhay Datta on Shop Floor

After that there was no looking back in machine developments. Abhay was young, success encouraged him to research, experiment and develop more from a shed in the driveway of their Okhla factory, it has been a long journey with lot of hurdles. He then started converting hot stamping machine for own use and sales. Since in earlier days they had bought a Heidelberg hot stamping machine, from experience gained, Abhay could convert die cutting machines and the Chandler and Price machines into hot stamping machines. When stamping foil suppliers became aware of his capabilities to make hot stamping machines, he became an accredited suppliers to many companies who indulged in hot stamping. In 1992 he successfully started making UV coaters and till 2016 they have supplied over 250 offline UV coating machines in India and Abroad.

During his 1995 visit to Drupa, he was fascinated by an Aquaflex label press printing Smirnoff Vodka labels. Unlike the sheet fed converting, the press was unwinding, printing, embellishing, laminating, die-cutting and delivering finished labels at the end of line in a single pass. Abhay was convinced that this is the future. Those days there was no WhatsApp where he could take videos and upload to inform his family about the equipment. Wanting his father and brother to also look at the machine before deciding, he made a trunk call, described the machine and requested them to come and see. Three days later both his father and brother flew into Germany, they saw and fell in love with the machine. They became friends with the founder of Aquaflex, signed the deal to buy a press and also became the sole selling agents in India. They opted for an eight colour press with rotary hot foil stamping. It was a bold decision as rotary tooling for hot foiling was very expensive, cold foil was not there that time and most of their production for liquor labels needed foiling. In their factory they already had 20 Heidelberg hot foil machines running, they used to buy used Heidelberg platen machines and convert them into hot foil stamping machines by retrofitting, all done by Abhay himself. The Aquaflex ordered by them was displayed at Labelexpo Singapore in 1996 and then shipped to India for Dutta Press to start printing labels on a narrow web press. Till the end of the millennium 1999 they were only printing wet glue labels on this machine. Pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) labels production commenced only in the new millennium in 2000, they kept adding Aquaflex presses in regularity.

Ultraflex Label Press

Between 1996 and 2003 as agents, they sold nine machines to customers like PPL, ITC, Modi Federal, Sai Packaging and others. They added four more press at Dutta Press. In 2001 Aqua flex got sold to Chromos USA . At this time when he was under pressure to offer a press to his customers, he met a software engineer who suggested the name of Shanti Pal Ahuja of Multitec and once the two met, they instantly decided to get together to build label presses. Abhay invited Ahuja to his facility and have a look at the Aquaflex label presses and to do reverse engineering of the press. A complete unit was removed from the Aquaflex and sent to Multitec facility in Faridabad. It was completely meticulously redrawn and the first Ultraflex machine was developed and sold to Nishi Labels in Ahmedabad and the second machine was exhibited at Nehru Centre in the first “India Labels show” which later became Labelexpo India. That machine got sold on the very first day of the show to Khosro Moradi, of Farah Banfash Manufacturing Company, Iran. Few years down, having sold over a dozen presses, their partnership fell apart and Multitec renamed their press as Ecoflex and Abhay Datta retained the name Ultraflex that he would build himself one day. Until such time for their own label manufacturing they invested in Bobst label presses

CNC Machines at UV Graphics

Passionate about making machinery himself, in 2017 after they bought their 3^rd Bobst M5 press, Abhay visited Florence and was inspired to build his own flexo press. On return from Florence in September 2017, he dug deep into the Flexo Machines and studied other equipment that would enable him to build a narrow web label press. Keeping cost down and not compromising in automation he started planning a machine with zero waste and instant make ready. He launched his first Ultra flex made in his company UV Graphics. 

Ultraflex Plate Mounter

He insists that for a perfect and quick make ready, “a communication between the plate mounter and the machine is imperative.” Abhay also started making plate mounters. He asserts that with plates mounted on his plate mounters, the first meter of print which rolls out will be 99% in true register. This is his creativity. His machines and plate mounters are designed as perfectly complementary and compatible equipment  so as to make life easy for the machine operator. He claims that in 3-4 minutes you can perfectly mount an eight colour job on his plate mounter and have the machine running in full register within 3-5 meters. That says Abhay is our USP. Ultraflex machines offered by him are of international quality, fully servo driven with auto register control, it is value for money and affordable. Ever since, Abhay has already installed thirty-eight presses in India and abroad with the latest ten color machine being shipped to a prestigious customer in USA. This will be his first installation in North America and fifth machine being sold overseas.

Abhay has two sons Anuj and Akshay and a daughter Aallia. Both sons run the PSA labels division of Dutta Press while brother Rakesh manages the wet glue label business from Okhla. All family members are in business together as a joint family. UV Graphics and Dutta Press operate out of 66000 square feet factory in Noida and an 18000 square feet facility in Okhla with seven flexo presses in Okhla and six flexo presses in Noida. With a total of 280 employees, Abhay aspires that if God and Kismet helps UV Graphic will be a leading global supplier of diverse label equipment in 5 years. He proudly says, “we produce from nail to the hammer. In UV graphics we produce our own UV Systems, Plate mounters, Core cutting machines, Label presses, Slitter Rewinders, Semi Rotary Digital Finishing, Print Cylinders, Magnet Cylinder, Sheeting Cylinders, Hot Foiling Stamping Equipment, Screen Printing and almost everything that is needed for flexographic label printing and converting. We also make wide format Roll to Roll Hot Foil Stamping Machines for the tobacco industry.

The way Abhay Dutta is moving it will not be long before he achieves what he aspires.

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Ltd. New Delhi August 2021

SMI Coated Products and FLEXcon USA are now Partners!

 SMI to Carry Durable Labeling Products from FLEXcon

Mumbai headquartered and with factories at Ambernath Maharashtra and UAE, SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd., a family managed company headed by Ajay Mehta as Managing Director, India’s largest amongst the indigenous labelstock manufacturers has announced its strategic partnership with another family managed Massachusetts USA  headquartered FLEXcon Company, Inc., an innovator in adhesive coating and laminating, to provide durable label stocks across India. Both companies are certified under ISO: 9001

 

By partnering with FLEXcon, SMI will offer polyester and vinyl label stocks with high-performance adhesives ideal for harsh environment labeling. The company will initially offer eight of FLEXcon’s UL-recognized base films along with one robust overlaminate. The products will complement SMI’s existing range of solutions across automotive, outdoor power equipment, power tool, appliance, and electronics markets. These will include Flexcon’s established UL certified products; THERMLfilm® NEXgen™ and COMPUcal® EXCEL™ as well as FLEXcon’s recently launched FLEXcon® NEXgen™ line. Most products also comply REACH and RoHS. Products will be stocked in either 27” or 30” masters with custom finishing available from SMI.

 

“FLEXcon has the capabilities to produce label materials that will enable SMI to effectively penetrate the durables market in their region,” says John Forster, VP International Sales & Corporate Development, FLEXcon. “This synergistic relationship will allow SMI and FLEXcon to jointly provide exceptional products into the Indian market without the challenges of time differential or cultural barrier.”

 

“The addition of durable labeling products from FLEXcon to our offering is in line with SMI’s resolve to provide Consistently Relevant Solutions to our customers in an ever-broadening durable labels market,” says Ajay Mehta, Founder & Managing Director, SMI. “As solutions partners working collaboratively, our two companies can ensure that printer/converters in our region have convenient access to the highest-performing materials on the market today.”

 

For more information on the companies www.smicoatedproducts.com and www.FLEXcon.com

Rohit Mehta

Corporate Director, SMI Coated Products Pvt Ltd

rohit@smicoatedproducts.com, +91-9833755909

 

Amanda Monette 

Marketing Manager, FLEXcon 

amonette@flexcon.com  +1-508-885-8459 

Marks Emballage, an international banker’s foray into Label Manufacturing

Marks Emballage factory at Baddi

In May 2018, the Indian label fraternity was amazed to read the news of an upcoming relatively young label company Marks Emballage announcing the confirmation to buy two Gallus Labelmaster presses in one go. This one step would take this nondescript label manufacturing company into the big league. The author has been in the Indian label industry for over four decades. As far as memory recollects, there have been instances when two presses have been ordered by printers to be delivered one after the other with a gap of time, but the unique instance of two presses to be delivered and installed in just one go is a first one such occurrence so far, this is history for the Indian label industry! By rough estimates, a 4 billion Dollar labels industry (not label stock but finished labels) growing at an average of 10-15% per annum surely needs such investments regularly to meet the 400-500 million Dollar growth in demands of labels. Leading Mark Emballage, Aadtiya Kashyap, a former international banker, is the courageous one who made his foray into the Indian label industry and announced his first significant expansion investment with a bang.

Aaditya and Khushboo

Aaditya was born and brought up in Mumbai, an Alumnus of St. Xavier’s School Mumbai (He prefers to call the city Bombay as he has called it all his life). Later he finished his graduation from the prestigious Ruia College, Mumbai, in Mathematics. He had considered a career in computers and did a couple of courses in that, but he graduated in the subject since he was good in mathematics. While in Ruia college, he fell in love with Khushboo Singh, who was pursuing BA in the same college. After a courtship lasting almost five years, they decided to tie the knot and got married in 2008. After graduation, Aaditya got his first job in the international bank J P Morgan, where he worked for the next seven years. This job was a good learning experience in how systems in business work and how different departments work. He was the only one in the organization at that time who got four promotions in seven years. Those were many learning years that added to his experience. Looking back, he is happy that he worked there, as the experience has been helping him when in business. 

Aaditya’s wife Khushboo belongs to a successful business family involved in pharmaceuticals, so it was a matter of time that his In-Laws prompted him to consider entrepreneurial options. The suggestions ranged from indulging in pharmaceutical products to items connected to pharma. Khushboo’s grandfather Samprada Singh took it upon himself to mentor Aaditya. Samprada Singh, the founder of Alkem Laboratories, had a significant influence on Aaditya. He was a true visionary and an impactful leader whose life was full of beautiful lessons of courage, resolve, hard work and indomitable willpower. His journey from a tiny village in Bihar to establishing India’s largest pharma company is just an extraordinary one. His life story portrays the old English adage, “From tiny acorns grow mighty oaks.”

Initially, Aaditya spent time in Alkem Laboratories to learn various aspects of the pharma business. First, he spent time with the purchasing team before moving on to “Doctor’s gifting”, a concept that was a contact-building and promotional cum marketing exercise undertaken by pharma companies to stay connected with doctors. A year down the line, he moved to Galpha laboratories owned by his Father-in-law N K Singh taking care of the same portfolio of doctor gifting until a government notification limited the scope of “doctor giftings”. At this time, he faced another change of job profile or considered another line. In his time spent with the purchasing team at Alkem & Galpha, he had gained much knowledge about packaging and its nuances. Khushboo, being born into the pharma business family, was a natural fit to take up professional responsibilities. As business was in her blood, she joined her father’s company, GALPHA which she had joined immediately after college in 2004-2005, primarily taking care of production planning, purchase of packaging and raw materials. The circumstances, as they evolved, led Aaditya to consider making a foray into packaging.

Meanwhile, Aaditya and Khushboo decided to move to Baddi to set up a pharma unit extension of GALPHA, manufacturing formulations. Aaditya’s experience as a banker kept bringing to him the realization that if two people are doing the same thing, then the output is restricted. He started looking at some other venture. His brother-in-law Dr J P N SINGH (Khushboo’s sister’s husband), who also is looked upon as a mentor by Aaditya, was making pet bottles, suggested label manufacturing and that, eventually led him to decide on labels. JPN had prompted, “all the bottles I make will have labels made by you on them”. His father-in-law NK Singh and grandfather Samprada Singh all agreed that labels were good business. So, in 2011 the decision was taken to set up a label manufacturing unit. The initial two and half years were spent trading in labels, outsourcing them from different vendors and supplying to group companies. During this period, he spent much time with the printers at their factories, getting the right kind of labels and in the process learnt the basics of label manufacturing from prepress to plate making and finally converting. He is indebted to Datta Ram Fulsundar of Aarya Printpack - Mumbai, with whom he had confided about setting up his unit, yet the printer agreed to teach and train him all about manufacturing labels.

Since Aaditya had made up his mind to invest in a label press and print labels himself, JPN mentoring him on, suggested; that to test the heat, one should check with just a finger touch before putting your hand in, meaning start the operation at a tiny stage and go thereon. In November 2013, Aaditya, with his wife Khushboo as a partner, launched their maiden startup venture, Marks Fine Printers in Baddi Himachal Pradesh, in a 2000 square feet industrial shed with just one Chinese stack type flexo label press. While Khushboo continued to look after GALPHA Laboratories Baddi, Aaditya got full time into setting up the label unit. The first order, even though it came from a family-owned company GALPHA laboratories, the experience was, as Aaditya says, “Exhilarating! It was like scoring a maiden cricket century.” For the next two years, they catered to family-owned pharma companies. The biggest challenge was getting the suitable operators and people to run the press but then time elapsed, which has taught him to manage that. 2 years after initiation, Aaditya seemed to have tested the heat and confidence, invested in a Bobst label press. Once the operations were well set, it was time to get customers beyond the family companies. The natural step was to rope in companies that were contract manufacturers to the group. Subsequently, they ventured out to service customers outside the family reach, initially it was all pharma as they had much experience in the segment, but later, they got into all segments like Food, FMCG, Liquor and others. He remains indebted to the four mentors that including his father. It is their advice that made this possible. Aaditya always wanted to be like his father, who taught him; "The name that you earn, always has more value than the money earned".  Walking on his father's footsteps, Aaditya has ensured a good name for himself along with setting up a successful business. Once established, it was time to get experienced professionals in and systemize the whole operations. They looked around and slowly got their team together.

C K, Aaditya with Ferdi and Sameer of Gallus 

In packaging requirements for pharmaceuticals, the size of labels is relatively small, but when Aaditya started to look at other segments, the label size was much bigger, which meant that with the same inputs and infrastructure, the costing would be different, turnover would grow bigger. This was an exciting realization, and the vision to expand started getting more precise. Initially, Aaditya had planned to add a press every three years, but this new realization prompted him to grow exponentially. He established the new company Marks Emballage Pvt. Ltd. in 2018 to invest in two Gallus label presses in one go. Hoping to make a substantial impact in the Indian label industry with their big move, however, as luck would have it, they started printing on these two presses in April 2020 when the pandemic hit across. Covid has been a difficult time for Marks Emballage. The first few days were a mixture of too many different feelings inside, from the fear of the unknown, concern for employee’s safety, responsibilities to serve the customers. Despite the uncertainties, they gathered themselves and planned to navigate through the difficult time. This was possible only with the total dedication of their team, who put up great courage and kept the business going and growing. They realize that going into the future, leaner companies and more automation will be the way forward. Cloud technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality combined will reduce human physical contact and dependence. This will be the biggest shift for all businesses and Marks is no exception. This goes on to validate their investment in the right equipment, processes, certifications, and team.

Author with Aaditya on shopfloor

Besides having residence in Mumbai, Aaditya and Khushboo now stay in Chandigarh with their 8-year-old daughter Kiara. While they complement each other in work yet look after different businesses. Marks Emballage Pvt. Ltd. is a fast-growing company headquartered at Chandigarh and operates out of factories at two locations in Baddi. The plant is spread over 30,000 square feet and equipped with some of the finest equipment like print kits from Gallus, Bobst, AVT, Prati , Pantec and Xrite. A team of 60 people is creating a work culture of excellence. Talking of new ideas and projects and the vision for the next five years, Aaditya says, “We have too many ideas to implement. I am working on many exciting new projects in technology, consumer products, packaging, and pharma. We aspire to roll out at least one new project every year for the next five years. This is the time for us to spread our wings before getting into a consolidation mode in 5 years. 

CK Gadhia of Marks giving student of year awards

The journey has just begun”. Marks Emballage has, as a part of its CSR initiative, invested in sponsoring the annual “Printweek Student of the year” award. They are very keen to backup educational initiatives for encouraging the new generation to take up print as a career. 

As he plans his way forward in the label and packaging field, Aaditya makes a fervent appeal to peers, “I would like to appeal to all the fellow label printers that we should all work with better collaboration and work with each other rather than work against each other. Together we can have great strength to backup print education to ease our recruitment needs, have complimentary print technologies to avoid idle capacities, and have a better say in purchase or sales negotiations. The advantages are just many. It is time to team up and grow the industry together. We need to increase the overall pie. While we are all doing the basics of waste management today, the need of the hour is to attack the problem from the very base. We are studying and closely following linerless labels and believe that they can be a game-changer for our industry. As per industry reports, only 5% of the laminates and self-adhesive label stock is reused or recycled. This area demands our closest attention. 

Marks Emballage is a company to watch, as an ambitious team aspires to grow 10-fold by the end next five years. With a young, dynamic leader like Aaditya Kashyap at the helm, hoping the pandemic's after-effects soon end, this company will be moving fast to achieve targets and move tangentially, investing in technologies in synergy.

 

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July 2021