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.
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 Mark Andy Scout
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.
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 added another Konica
Minolta digital press and plan to further enhance their digital printing
capabilities by investing in another bigger HP Indigo next year. Harish with his HP Indigo
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 3rd 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.