It is a treat
to watch Harish Gulati, Managing Director Alpine containers Jammu, immensely
active in his factory’s large shopfloor, moving from one corner to another at a
pace that even youngsters find difficult to match. He is in constant
communication with employees in all departments motivating them and encouraging
them to perform better. At 70 years of age, he emanates energy that sets an
example for his young workforce and inspires them to be active and more
productive. His father was a central government employee in Jammu, the winter
capital and the largest city in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, which
has now been converted to a union territory. Lying on the banks of the
river Tawi, the city is surrounded by the Himalayas in the north
and the northern plains in the south. Known as the City of
Temples for its ancient temples and Hindu shrines. Harish was born and
brought up in Jammu. He completed his schooling from Ranbir School and did his
graduation from MAM college and got his PGDAM (post graduate diploma in business
management) from Jammu University. Harish is credited for taking label
manufacturing to northern most part of the country.
Once out of
college, Harish applied and got selected for a job in IB the premier
investigating agency of India at that time but owing to typical profound wish
to do his own business, he did not take up the job. He started his own business
of manufacturing candles and dhoop (Incense) in 1975 and selling within the
state of Jammu and Kashmir. Moving on, in 1978 with family support he started
his printing press in old Jammu City in an 800 square feet premises. That was
his initiation into printing. Unfortunately, a year later the factory was
completely gutted in a fire, causing huge damage and loss. Not let down by the
setback and with firm resolve, he restarted from scratch within a few weeks. However,
at this time he closed his candle and dhoop business and concentrated on
building his printing business. Though they did some commercial printing, yet his
passion and concentration was in labels and packaging on which they started
concentrating, finding success. Those days they used the primitive treadle
presses to print with blocks and type fonts assembled inhouse. It was a challenging
situation then, as blocks, dies, type fonts, artworks etc. were to be sourced
from far away Delhi. He had to travel often to Delhi as there was no support
for printing business within Jammu. Total support for prepress and materials
was either available from Amritsar or Delhi, while sales were in the state of
J&K. Amritsar had an established printing business and Harish did face
competition from printers there, who would travel to Jammu to sell their products. Total support
for prepress and materials was either available at Amritsar or Delhi. Sometime
later someone did start making blocks locally but being committed to quality he
kept getting his blocks made at Delhi only. He had three treadle presses, two
were used for printing and one was for die cutting. Most of the jobs were done
manually which included printing, die cutting, pasting etc.
In 1980 Harish
got married to Sujata who was a graduate by education and did help him in
business for some time but resorted to be a home maker when their two children
were born. Daughter Divya was born in 1981 and son Vipul in the end of 1982.
Once settled at home front Harish Gulati worked hard to make his printing
business grow.
In 1985 he expanded and moved to a 1200 square Yards plot in
Gangyal Industrial area with 8000 square feet built up space. This facility was
a 10-fold increase over the premises at old city. They installed a letter press
printing machine developed and supplied by The Printers House in Ballabgarh. They
also added additional equipment like Victoria die cutting machine, varnishing
machine and other allied equipment. One of their earliest big customers was
Camlin Art Material Division where they were supplying the cartons for the
well-known Camlin pencils branded “Flora” and another big candle manufacturer
besides other customers. In 1994 he upgraded to offset with a single colour
Dominant offset press. Business was growing at steady pace and in 2003 his son
Vipul joined business as a trainee. With an additional working hand from
family, Harish Gulati setup another new factory by the name of Karton Kraft
Packers in same industrial area but a different location to manufacture
Corrugated boxes.
A year later
the present company Alpine Containers Private Limited was established and they purchased
land admeasuring 7000 square meters in two parts. Construction commenced in
2006 and by 2008 Alpine containers was actively in production at their present
location at Bari Brahma, Jammu where the built-up area has expanded to 60,000
square feet. Vipul Gulati who had joined as a trainee, became actively involved
in business in 2007. Bouyed by the addition of young energy of Vipul, major
expansion was taken up as the father son duo could share the responsibilities
and manage the growth more efficiently. This unit was setup to produce
corrugated boxes. In 2012 they installed an imported 5 ply automatic
corrugation plant which was the first automatic plant in J&K. One of the
earlier units manufacturing mono cartons that they had setup in at Gangyal
Industrial area was closed and sold while the other unit Karton Kraft still
continues to operate at the same place making monocartons. Here they had also
expanded to install a four colour Planeta Super Variant offset press. They also
ventured into printing labels in sheet form on pre-gummed Self-adhesive sheets and
manually half die cut with blade.
Label printing
was always in the mind of Harish Gulati from the time of his initial days, in
2015 they entered manufacturing of labels in roll form in Alpine containers
with the installation of a brand new eight color Gallus label press ECS340.
This was a pioneering move taking the PSA(Pressure sensitive Adhesive) label
manufacturing in India to Jammu and Kashmir, the northern most part of India. The
level of confidence in succeeding is evident as the installation was done
without having any orders in hand. The confidence was there because of fact
that their existing customers for corrugated box packaging were also users of
labels, and it would be a matter of time when label orders would come their
way. The first big order that came to them for labels was from an Agro Chemical
MNC. Gradually other companies including more MNC’s too became customers.
Initially due to locational disadvantage at Jammu there were many challenges
which were overcome by their sheer perseverance and strong will they managed. Four years later in 2019, they
added yet another press, this time they
bought a Brand New 10 Colour Mark Andy P7 label press and other allied finishing
machines.
They had planned
further expansion at Baddi Industrial Area in Himachal Pradesh in the year 2015,
but a customer prompted and convinced them to setup a unit in West, because instead
of going from North to another location also in North it was better that they
went westwards extending their reach in a big way. Finally, they decided for
expanding in western India and in 2016 invested in Gujarat buying four acres of land for further
expansion. Construction at site started in 2018 but when plant and machinery
arrived from Taiwan the pandemic due to Covid19 had broken in, putting all
plans on hold as no engineers could come for installation, plus there was
restrictions on personal movement. Finally, the Auto Line was installed in the
year early 2021. Production has now started in the 50,000 square feet-built
shop floor and they have commenced construction of another 50,000 square feet.
By end of the current financial year the full 100,000 square feet will be
completed.
Harish Gulati’s
daughter Divya born in 1981 is a computer engineer now married and living in
Jammu. His son Vipul finished his schooling from Maharaja Harisingh
Agricultural Collegiate School Nagbani Jammu and followed it with higher studies
in business management from Lovely University Jalandhar. In words of Harish
Gulati, “Vipul is a big contributor to the growth of their company and is very
passionate about our business. He is a keen machinery buyer always wanting to
buy the right equipment to produce the best.” He further adds, “As a parent I
have to and do support his endeavors, he has the capability and knack to get
after things and achieve success. A very hard negotiator.” Vipul got married
in 2009, his wife Smridhi is a qualified doctor but prefers to remain a
homemaker by choice to bring up their three
children, two school going children, a son. and a daughter. The third
child is an infant son.
As regards the
present scale business, they convert 1000-1200 tons of paper for manufacturing
corrugated cartons. They convert 350,000 to 400,000 square meters of PSA Labelstocks
per month to make labels. They are already working out of 170,000 square feet area
at three locations; 60,000 Sq.ft. in Bari Brahma Jammu, 10,000 in Gangyal
Industrial Area Jammu and 100,000 Sq.ft. West. There is wish now to consolidate and modernize present
factories only with more efficient machines with increased automation, despite
having more industrial land in possession at Jammu. The total workforce
employed as of now is two hundred and fifty persons. Keeping in view the
multilocational growing presence, professional management team has been put in
place to manage the operations efficiently maintaining the progress
effectively. There are plans to modernize the corrugation unit at Jammu by
replacing with a new more automated faster plant for increased cost-effective production.
Their present ever growing customer base extends from Jammu-Kashmir to Gujarat,
Punjab, Himachal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. They intend indulging in
exports as and when more capacity is available. There is a definite plan to
expand their label business exponentially and become a prominent player in the
labels industry.
Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman
Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi India October 2022
