While the
Indian labels industry keeps evolving, adapting different printing and converting
technologies, there is also a generational change happening in the leadership.
Most of the founders, while still active as mentors, have passed on substantial
decision making to their next generation who are now in the lower middle age
group of 40 years, plus or minus 3 years. All those who I have covered belong
to family managed companies. Though largely these young inheritors are the
influencers or drivers of growth in their respective companies, yet, complying
to the cultural heritage passed on in the Indian families, they give the credit
to their parents or their mentors who founded the company. This is so heartwarming!
These young men are professionally trained, well-educated and are always ready
to adopt new managing systems. They do not hesitate to invest in new and
innovative capital equipment to stay ahead of competition and drive expansion. They
have come to establish themselves as the young czars of Indian label Industry.
When Hemanth
joined Pragati, packaging was just a small part of their business, which has
now become 75% of the company’s overall business. Pragati is one of the highest
awarded printing companies in India. Their annual calendar created by great
teamwork at their commercial printing division is a piece of art that people
preserve as prized collections. Talking of future, Hemanth says, “Plan is to
keep growing in packaging and in labels by doing more specialized labels
predominantly self-adhesive.”
For labels and
packaging they operate at multiple locations in Hyderabad and in Noida. As for
roll labels they have three flexo
presses and one HP Indigo label press, for sheetfed they have a small Konica
Minolta digital press. For digital sheetfed packaging they may invest in larger
sheetfed press in digital. Total manufacturing area for labels and packaging is
spread over 440,000 square feet in Hyderabad, 120,000 square feet in Noida plus
80,000 square feet for commercial printing. The workforce for labels and
packaging is 700, and 300 is for
commercial printing.
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| Ankit Gupta |
Alumnus of
Harvard Business School, UCLA Anderson and IIM-A 42-year-old
Ankit Gupta,
Joint Managing Director of
Holostik India Limited, had pursued higher
education after completing his BE in computer science. He along with his
brother Shobhit Gupta took over the reigns of Holostik, a company founded in
1991 by their illustrious father Umendra Kumar Gupta who was leading
personality in the Hologram and anti-counterfeiting label and packaging
industry and passed away due to Covid in 2021. After a stint at A V Birla group
as an IT engineer, he joined Holostik in 2005 as head of its real estate and
chemical verticals. Thereafter, from 2007- 2020 headed the MarCom, HR, and
Strategy followed by heading the Sales department. After taking over as Joint
MD in 2021, he launched NaturTrust, the bio-degradable and compostable
packaging business in the year 2022.
Ankit’s
achievements include winning the prestigious Larry Wolfen Award for
Entrepreneurial Spirit in 2006. Investing in multiple start-ups including
Edukart - India’s leading education marketplace that was later acquired by
Paytm and Bedrock Ventures and Mentoring and angel-investing in more than 15
successful startups across India. For future he plans to keep working on
innovation and integration of innovative technologies to fight the cause of
counterfeiting, explore new markets and geographies both in India and globally
and increase the use of sustainable technologies as their commitment to a green
earth. Holostik India Ltd. is headquartered at Noida producing Anti-counterfeit security OVDs (Holograms),
Security Labels, 3D Labels, Holographic Packaging Films, Induction Liners,
Digital Supply Chain Solutions among many others. They operate with 450
employees out of the 100,000 square feet shop floor with three European Flexo label
presses and 2 Screen Printing Presses besides a host of other equipment.
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| Naveen Goel |
Thirty-eight-year-old
Naveen Goel is the Managing Director of Noida based
Any Graphics,
founded in 1987 by his father Kuldip Goel, past President of LMAI. After
completing his MBA, Naveen joined Any Graphics in 2009, beginning his career in
printing and packaging as Director marketing, responsible for business
development, client acquisition, customer relations and direct sales for the
company. 14 years on, now as Managing Director, he is committed and focused to
providing solutions to customers across all sectors providing innovations,
value engineering or cost engineering. Naveen says. ”Leading the company from
60 people to 800 people over the last decade has been a satisfying journey.
Being second generation, it was very important for me to sustain the founder's
vision to consistently innovate and handcraft solutions to diverse needs of the
customers.”
Any Graphics
has achieved exceptional growth through sharp focus on award-winning products
and solutions that include Rigid Boxes, Labels, Mono Cartons, Dome Stickers,
Panel Overlays and Decals. They employ an 800 strong workforce operating with 6
label presses and many sheet fed, screen, digital presses and a lot of other
allied equipment from 250,000 square feet shopfloor in 15500 square meters of
land.
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| Prakash Shivlani |
Prakash
Printers and Coaters Pvt. Ltd., established in 1975 by Thakurdas J Shivlani
in Ahmedabad, is now led by his 40-year-old son Prakash Shivlani as
Director. Prakash joined the family business while still in school as a
salesperson. Those days they used to print on sheet Offset and were amongst the
first ones in the Gujarat region for printing sticker labels exclusively. Transforming
the sticker business to labels in roll form, they initially installed some
smaller Flatbed and Letterpress narrow web presses machines Onda and Iwasaki. Later
at the start of a new millennium, as business grew, they installed a CI Flexo
from Etirama, Brazil.
After
completing his undergraduate studies, Prakash joined the family business in
1997 sharing responsibilities along with his father, specialising in sales, however
he now also takes care of production. Their production profile now includes Labels,
Shrink Sleeves, Flexible laminates. They also produce silicone liners, Hotmelt adhesive
label stock with diverse face stocks like Holographic/Metalized paper, Aluminum
Foil , 2/3-layer substrates for In-house consumption. Prakash endeavors to
expand into packaging in the near future. Presently they operate with seven
European flexo presses besides other equipment from a 355,000 square foot shop
floor with 150 employees.
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| Krish Chhatwal |
29-year-old Krish Chhatwal is the
grandson of late Narendra Chhatwal who migrated to New Delhi after partition of
India in 1947 and worked for the famous Kwality Restaurant. In 1962 he set up
his maiden venture, a printing press and nostalgically named it Kwality Carton
manufacturing company. Later, the name was changed to Kwality labels
unit of Kwality Offset Printers. Krish Chhatwal, a BBA in Finance and Marketing
has been the director of Kwality Labels since 2017. He initially worked as a
trainee in all departments of the company learning the nuances of printing. As
for sales, he made cold calls, met potential clients and gained new ones for
the company. Accompanying his mentor, his father Rajeev Chhatwal, visiting
expos around the world, he realised the growth potential of labels industry.
After his active
involvement, Kwality invested in a Xeikon digital toner label press,
implemented ERP systems, Inspection systems, hybrid Xrite colorcert software
for Density control of colours and software for pre-press. They have won awards
for excellence from Printweek, NAEP, LMAI, Finat, Asian print excellence and
many more. Krish plans to make continuous investments in equipment to produce
highly embellished and security labels. They operate with 110 employees and
seven label presses complementing their offset presses and allied equipment in
a shopfloor admeasuring 35000 square feet, producing Self-adhesive labels, Anti
counterfeit security labels, Wet glue labels, Variable data labels, Customized
and Personalised labels, consuming more than 800,000 square meters of label
stock.
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| Priyank Vasa |
Founded in 1992 by Hemen
Vasa and Bhupen Vasa, Unick fix-a-form & Printers Ltd. Ahmedabad is
a specialized producer of functional Labels, multilayer leaflet/booklet labels,
piggyback dual labels, tri layer labels, scratch off labels, hanger labels,
special peel and seal labels for pharma applications, shrink sleeves, etc.
Heman Vasa’s 31-year-old son Priyank Vasa, a BE in Printing Technology
from Manipal Institute of Technology, is now the youthful leader at Unick
fix-a-form. He is designated as development & strategy director. Priyank
specialized in Financial Modelling and Analysis. Before joining the company in
2014, he had spent his summer break as a trainee in the company while still
pursuing his engineering. After joining, Priyank supported the sales team with
new developments and innovations to venture into segments outside their comfort
zone of pharma. He later also became part of the QA team to standardise inputs,
ensuring error-free products.
Priyank has been
instrumental in implementing ERP systems for smooth operations. Since their
specialized labels lacked in aesthetics, he led the implementation of value
additions like screen printing, embellishments, using special inks varnishes
foils, metallics, touch and feel effects etc. The company has further
undertaken projects to curb expenses, reduce wastage and optimise production
processes. Unick operates from a 30,000 square feet shopfloor with 5 label presses
and 250 strong workforce consuming 400,000 square meters of label stocks per
month for their specialty labels.
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| Aaditya Kashyap |
41-year-old
Aditya Kashyap is
himself the founder and Managing Director of Baddi based
Marks Emballage
Private Limited and Marks group, that he established in 2011. An alumnus of
the famous Ruia College Mumbai, he worked briefly in an international bank and
later got trained in family-owned large Pharma companies for packaging
development and purchase, followed by interning as a trainee in a label
manufacturing unit before initiating his maiden venture. With Two Gallus
label presses that he bought in one go, one Bobst Label press, AVT inspection
system, Prati finishing machine, Pantec embellishing equipment, Xrite and much
more, the company shopfloor is spread across 30,000 square feet having 60
employees. On his journey so far Aaditya says, “The journey has just begun,
after setting the unit from scratch to what it is now.” He further adds,” “though
we are setting up professional management, yet I am still involved to implement
my vision of creating a world class company.”
As a part of
its CSR initiative, Marks group has invested in sponsoring the annual
“Printweek Student of the year” award to backup educational initiatives for
encouraging young people to take up print as a career. Aaditya aims to grow the
company multifold in coming years with his latest ideas. He aspires to roll out
at least one new project every year for the next five years. He is pensive in
his thoughts, ”this is the time for us to spread our wings before getting into
a consolidation mode. “
A relatively
new entrant in the self-adhesive labels industry 35-year-old Vatsal Vora
Director of Asean Pack Ahmedabad, has achieved amazing success in just 5
years including the 2 years passed in covid. Asean Pack was founded by Vatsal
in 2018 after completing his MBA. In a short span of time the company is
producing Pressure Sensitive Adhesive labels, Shrink Sleeves and In-Mold Labels
(IML) in a 40,000 square feet shop floor with 2 Bobst label presses and one HP
Indigo Digital label press working with 115 employees.
He plans to add
one more press in 2024 followed by yet another in 2025. Thereafter he aspires to make continuous growth to
increase their product range to include flexible packaging focused in producing
pouch packaging coming from the short run customized and personalized packaging
by adding more flexo and digital printing equipment.
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| Tejas Tanna |
Tejas Tanna
aged 42 years, had in 2005, joined Printmann Offset Pvt. Ltd. after
getting a Diploma in printing technology and B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree
from Rochester Institute of Technology New York USA. Printmann was founded in
1987 by his father Bipin Tanna the Chairman and Managing Director of the
company. While working in the company Tejas parallelly pursued studies for
getting an MBA from NMIMS (Narsee Monjee
Institute of Management Studies) followed by a crash course in packaging from
the Indian Institute of Packaging. Tejas and his 36-year-old brother Ankit
Tanna are directors at Printmann with Tejas looking after sales and
marketing, quality assurance and new product development and Ankit taking care
of supply chain and operations. Ankit is an MS in finance from Manchester.
Printmann started with commercial printing but by 1991 they felt the need of
diversification for future growth and since they were into marketing
collaterals for FMCG sector they opted to concentrate on packaging focused on
the pharma and health care segment. Now, 80-90% of their business comes from
this sector. They supply whatever these companies require in the printed
packaging space, which includes cartons, labels, leaflets and foil. Tejas says
,”We are perhaps the only company to offer all the four verticals from just one
source.” With European Pharma companies making tamper evident labels mandatory,
Printmann is now producing these as well. They are three times winner of
Printweek packaging company of the year award, including one that they got this
year. For making capex decisions, the
brothers become influencers and since their father is controlling finance the
final decision is a joint call that is made by all three.
Printmann’s
main factory is in Navi Mumbai, for expansion, they were looking for land
outside Mumbai and fortunately the adjoining plot became available which they
acquired, constructed during covid years and shifted their carton division
there. They have another unit for blister foil manufacturing in Vasai. Between
the three locations, they work out of 160,000 square feet shopfloor with over
300 employees clocking a turnover of Rupees 160 Crores last year which is
expected to rise to 180 crores in this fiscal year. Summing up, Tejas
emphasizes, “We understand our responsibility to remain sustainable and thus we
have commenced our journey towards sustainability. We are implementing safety
measures, EHS (Environment,
Health, and Safety) systems and are tracking carbon footprints. We have
hired PWC to advise and hand hold us in our endeavours on EHS.”
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| Denver Annunciation |
Janus
International led by brothers Denver
Annunciation 43 years and Janus Annunciation 36 years is a producer of a
wide range of print and packaging products like PSA Labels, In-mold labels,
Shrink sleeves, folding cartons, rigid boxes, eflute mono cartons, etc. The
company was founded by their father Joe Annunciation in 1999. Both brothers are
MBAs and alumnus of S P Jain Institute of Management and Research. Denver
joined the company in 2001 and Janus joined five years later in 2006. “It has
been an exhilarating experience running and growing the company so far, I am
looking at much more” says Denver. He had joined the company when they had just
9 employees in a 500 square feet shopfloor. This has grown to 202 employees in
three buildings at the same location in Thane spread over 55,000 square feet.
Janus International has 7 flexo presses, one HP Indigo digital press and 3
offset presses.
Talking of the
future, Denver mentions firmly that they endeavour to create a World class
manufacturing company with ongoing stable growth. The company registered a sale
of Rupees 83 Crores in the last financial year and they are confident to double
it in 3 years.
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| Vipul Gulati |
Alpine containers Pvt. Ltd. Jammu is
a company producing labels and packaging, at the northern most location in
India for labels, founded by Harish
Gulati who mentored his 40-year-old son Vipul Gulati from starting as a
trainee to taking up a leadership role in expanding the company. Though Harish
had set up the printing business manufacturing mono cartons in 1978 in an 800
square foot premises, but Vipul joined in 2003. The present company Alpine was
established in 2008 when they expanded into corrugated board cartons. In 2012
they installed an automatic corrugation plant, the first one to be setup in
entire region of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Vipul Gulati did his schooling
from Prestigious Maharaja Hari Singh School Nagbani and BBA degree from Lovely
University. Vipul led Alpine’s venturing into label manufacturing in 2015 with
installation of a Gallus ECS 340 label press then a Mark Andy P 7 in 2019 and
another Label press in 2022 along with 3 inspection machines and
screen-printing machine. As Executive Director of the company, Vipul is
responsible for purchases, new developments, expansion and day-to-day
operations. He is expanding label
business beyond Jammu, setting up a manufacturing plant in Gujarat.
The company is now operating from two
locations in a shop floor admeasuring 200,000 square feet employing more than
250 people. As for labels, they consume in excess of 400,000 square meters of
self adhesive labelstock which is likely to increase exponentially once the
expansions being undertaken are completed.
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman
Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 December 2023
