Self Adhesive Labels Industry in India and the world : LMAI Panel discussion

Showing posts with label LMAI Panel discussion. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

LMAI conference 2025, bigger and better, deliver’s awe!

Celebrating 25 years of inception along with their biennial Conference themed, "Emerging Beyond Boundaries", Label Manufacturers Association of India LMAI, delivered value!

700 plus delegates were awestruck attending the seventh LMAI conference at the picturesque and astounding venue, The Fairmont Palace Udaipur from 3^rd to 6^th July 2025. All 300 rooms at the property were booked at the venue Hotel and additionally 60 rooms were booked in Hotel Aurika with a total of 360 rooms. 35 sponsors including some of the most renowned names in the world for the label manufacturing industry supported the event. Kurz was the platinum sponsor and Avery Dennison the elite sponsor besides many others. Fairmont Udaipur Palace is an alluring destination to discover the charm of Udaipur, seamlessly blending timeless tradition with modern elegance, featuring a historic stepwell, one of Rajasthan's largest ballrooms and exclusive events pool with jacuzzi and amphitheater. Nestled in the Aravalli Hills, it offered easy access to the city's top attractions and cultural landmarks. In view of the author who has travelled the world over for diverse label events,

“This three nights-four days event, packed with amazing presentations and entertainment, was perhaps the biggest label event in the world”!

Traditional Rajasthani welcome awaited the delegates arriving by road rail and air. Local folk dancers, drums, music, garlands, traditional aarti and special beverages were a part of the welcome on arrival while being ushered into the hotel. Excellent arrangements executed for their arrival and meticulous planning made it stress free checking-in for all guests.

The conference was officially thrown open at 6PM on the 3^rd of July 2025. The inaugural evening was themed patriotic, so the board of directors (BOD) were all wearing the Modi jackets and tricolor stoles around their necks.

Rajesh Chadha President LMAI

The welcome note was delivered by the LMAI President Rajesh Chadha.

The conference agenda information was given by the two conference Chairmen Manish Desai and Jaideep Singh.

Jaideep Singh

Manish Desai

Pradeep Saroha

Pradeep Saroha events director of Labelexpo India came onstage to apprise the audience about the upcoming Labelexpo Europe.

This was followed by Raveendran Selvarajan, Managing Director of Seljegat Printers Pvt.Ltd. being conferred the fourth LMAI lifetime contribution award.

Author and Surendra Kapur Founder President

It was a pleasant surprise that after a lapse of few years the LMAI founder president Surendra Kapur came to attend the conference.

Stephane Royere KURZ

After a presentation by Stephane Royere from platinum sponsors Kurz, all the event sponsors were felicitated.

Thereafter the Welcome night themed “Saar’e Jahan Se achha”, was thrown open for cocktails, dinner and entertainment by Mohit Verma and troupe. The delegates, eager to party, hit the dance floor until late in the evening. When asked to wrap up so that they are back in time for the presentations next day, happy people were heard saying, “Abhi toh party shuru huyee hai!” Means, the party has just begun.

Jitesh Mehta

The second day commenced with another presentation by Stephane Royere, Head of business area packaging and print, international sales and marketing, of Kurz India and followed by one from Jitesh Mehta senior Director LPM Avery Dennison India.

Natasha Jaichandra

The vibrant young girl Natasha Jaichandra director VEEPEE graphics enthralled the audience speaking on the ECG (expanded colour gamut).

Thomas Schweizer Heidelberg Gallus

After that followed an array of great presentations. Notable amongst them were from Appadurai country head of HP Indigo, Thomas Schweizer Global head of sales at Heidelberg Gallus.

Ranesh Bajaj of Vinsak with Naoki Ogawa

Gourav Roy FIG with Florian Stroe of Mark Andy

Hostess Lekha and LaBella

A huge attraction was LaBella! She is an AI robot, she added glamour in leading delegates to wherever they wished to go!

Pawandeep Sahni, Managing Director of OMET India Private Limited made a high powered and energetic presentation pulling the audience into attention and becoming interactive. The presentation can be viewed on YouTube https://youtu.be/cVtHUPa-OGo?feature=shared Click the image on the left to watch the full presentation.

The preplanned motivational speaker’s slot had to be altered to the next day as Gaurav Arya, who was supposed to deliver the motivational speech, could not reach due to flight cancellations. The LMAI leadership must be commended for arranging yet another speaker in a short time. Anand Ranganathan, a renowned speaker, agreed to fly in on the next day that was final day and address the label fraternity.

Once all the presentations were done for the day, it was time for networking, dinner and a musical evening that beckoned the guests to go on to the stage, dance and party.

The label industry continues to evolve, emerging beyond boundaries. The wet glue or glue applied labels have continued to transform initially to self-adhesive labels, converted on narrow web label presses and register a high growth rate to reach more than 50% of all the labels produced in India. Later the narrow web converting started to expand owing to evolution and labels, moved into diverse tangents. To dwell on the impact of this expansion and the modalities involved, the first program on the 3^rd day was a panel discussion moderated by the author Harveer Sahni and titled, “Narrow web label converting expanding to diverse applications". The panelists were leading Indian printers in narrow web converting, Priyata Raghavan Deputy CEO of Sai Packaging, Mehzabin Nair Managing Director Skanem India, Ankit Gupta Jt. Managing Director Holostik Limited, Hemanth Paruchuri director Pragati Pack, Denver Annunciation Director Janus International and Stephane Royere of Kurz India. The impact and future of this expansion was discussed at length in the panel.

The panel discussion was followed by a very interesting and confident presentation for Weigang by the young daughter of LMAI founder Amit Sheth.

Motivational Speaker Anand Ranganathan

More presentations followed until noon after which the motivational speaker Anand Ranganathan came onstage to deliver his speech. Following this a round table interaction was arranged for all sponsors to interact with printers. Each sponsor was given a table on which printers would visit in batches of six each to enable sponsors the opportunity to interact with their customers.

The day culminated in a gala evening hosted by Kurz India. The dress code was “Men in Black” and for ladies it was “Glitter” to add shimmer to the vibrant evening started with an amazing

laser show by special artists.

The part titled "Gauardians of Empire"

Author with Stephane Royre

After Jitender Pal Singh CEO of Kurz India addressed the gathering, LMAI past president Vivek Kapoor delivered a vote of thanks.

Asees Kaur

It was then time for the celebrity performer Asees Kaur to add fun to the entertainment and prompt the delegates to hit the bar and the dance floor enjoying until late in the night or the wee hours of morning.

All good things come to an end, leaving nostalgic memories of fellowship, togetherness, networking, knowledge delivery and entertainment. It was time to go back home with perfect departures arranged so that there are no inconveniences. This covering of the event would be incomplete without appreciating the amazing venue overlooking lush green hills all around, the weather was fantastic, the hotel staff was hospitable in the true sense of the word.

The general Manager Vishrut Gupta was always around with his team responding to guests personally and as for the food, kudos to Amitesh Virdi the culinary director and his team who did a wonderful job delivering taste.

The events organizing company led by the beautiful Hemal Bhagwat created precision in every aspect of the stay from arrival to departure. Delegates have been showering praise ever since.

The LMAI board of directors need to congratulate themselves for having created and delivered this mind-boggling big event, bigger and better than the best in the world. The icing on the cake is wonderful appreciations pouring in from delegates and sponsors. It is an encouragement to imagine and plan more for the next conference!

Written by Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi July 2025

More Images from the conference:

Amit and Rupa Sheth

Party time

LMAI BOD

Jaichandra, Nalani and Mehzabin

Monday, May 5, 2025

LABELS FRATERNITY LAUDS LMAI’S PANEL DISCUSSION

LMAI, the labels Manufacturers association of India organised a panel discussion titled, “Label buyers’ challenges with quality, Sustainability & Innovation” on the 2nd of May 2025 Hotel Radisson Blu, New Delhi. The event was attended by a “house full” of leading label printers and suppliers as sponsors. The distinguished panel consisted of leading brands Nestle, Diageo, Reckitt Benckiser, Amway, Dabur and Sun Pharma. The panel moderated by the author Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited and member of Board of Director LMAI. The panel on stage consisted of Arijit Mondal(Nestle), Sanjay Ghoshal( Diageo), Naveen Stuart (Reckitt Benckiser), Swati Gupta(Amway), Sidharth Sharma(Dabur) and Mohit Mittal (Sun Pharma). The delivery of responses by panelists to questions by the moderator, left the audience spellbound. Ruma Ghatak head Packaging at Nestle was a special invitee. The program was initiated by the hard-working LMAI secretary Jaideep Singh who had made untiring efforts to organize this amazing event, this was followed by the welcome speech by the LMAI President Rajesh Chadha.

Pradeep Saroha director label expo updated the audience on the next edition of Labelexpo Europe in Barcelona Spain. Jaideep Singh shared a presentation of the upcoming LMAI biennial conference at Udaipur from 3-6 July 2025. Organising committee member Sandhya Shetty conducted the agenda efficiently. Dinesh Mahajan Vice President LMAI gave the vote of thanks. This was followed by an interactive question and answer session.

Audience

The congregation was highly appreciative of the knowledge delivering panel discussions and their responses to LMAI team and the moderator are as follows. The responses are reproduced here unedited and as received.

Mrs. Kusum Dunglay Director Redunn Labels Gurgaon: A truly impressive and well-executed event. Congratulations to LMAI and the brand owners for putting together such a memorable event.

Manish Hansoti, Founder and Managing Director S.Kumar Group Ahmedabad: Thank you for putting together such an incredible event. Your careful attention to details, from the label printer’s perspectives created an atmosphere that perfectly matched with unanswered questions from label printers to Brand owners. I especially appreciate how you handle without any boring topics. The event's success is a testament to your planning abilities and dedication. I am truly grateful for all your hard work in making this event so special.

Anuj Bhargava, Founder Kumar Labels NOIDA: Well organised event by LMAI. Intriguing questions by Label Pitamah Harveer Ji. Brand owners shared valuable insights. Always good to connect with fellow industry colleagues. Many thanks to LMAI for organising this cosy event.

Rakesh Mahajan, Director Prakash Labels Noida: It is refreshing to see buyers and sellers coming together to address common challenges. This exchange can drive innovation and growth in the label printing sector.

Yoshita Goel from Any Graphics Noida: The LMAI panel discussion held on 2nd May 2025 was a remarkable success and quite knowledgeable. The interactive session among the panelists was intellectual and brainstorming towards the printing and packaging industry.

Yogesh Agarwal Print Pack New Delhi: The event was very well-organized, and the panel discussion was insightful and engaging. Sincere thanks to Harveer Sahni Ji for moderating and conducting such a meaningful and well-curated session.

K M Manoj Director Avery Dennison: It was great to see some of the prominent packaging professionals share their views about pressure sensitive labels. The conversations around emerging regulations, how labels can be more sustainable and actions to tackle the common challenges were insightful.

Ranesh Bajaj Managing Director Vinsak: Well organised and very informative panel discussion. It was great to hear brand owners sharing details which are critical to the growth of label convertors as they align their future plans.

Bhaumik Mehta Director Flueron Inks: It was a pleasure for us to have sponsored this event for our friends and colleagues in the label industry. The panelist, the moderator and the audience were all in sync on the topic of discussion. It was insightful to see how the brands perceive procurement, supply chain partners and their own responsibility towards sustainable solutions. What struck out was the Q and A which the panelists took their time and put the answers in perspective on the business.

Innovation and Sustainability not just in products and services but in growth and prosperity is as much essential for all partners involved and this to me was a fantastic outlook. Cheers to LMAI for hosting this and giving us an opportunity to be a part of this amazing initiative for the industry.

Inderjit Singh Toyo Inks: We are thrilled to have attended the panel discussion on Label buyers’ challenges with focus on quality, sustainability and innovation organized by LMAI (Label Manufacturers Association of India). The discussions reinforced the importance of collaborative efforts to drive sustainability, ensuring regulatory alignment while adopting innovative and sustainable approaches.

The event was an incredible experience, filled with inspiring discussions and I had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with some amazing brand owners and partners. Looking forward to applying these new learnings and continuing the conversations to fulfill the brand owner’s requirements.

Gautam Kothari Managing Director Worldpack: LMAI Event Sheds Light on Label Buyers’ Pressing Challenges. The LMAI event held last evening proved to be a timely and insightful gathering for stakeholders across the label manufacturing ecosystem. With a sharp focus on the challenges faced by label buyers, the panel brought together key voices from FMCG, pharma, and logistics sectors who shared first-hand accounts of the evolving demands and operational bottlenecks in label procurement and usage. Overall, the LMAI event succeeded in bringing buyer concerns to the forefront, sparking necessary dialogue around innovation, transparency, and strategic partnerships in the label industry.

Ashwani Kumar RSM Kurz: The recent LMAI event fostered a productive dialogue between brand owners and industry leaders regarding key challenges and potential solutions in the label manufacturing sector. Discussions highlighted the detrimental impact of price pressures and reverse auction practices on innovation, alongside the complexities of liner recycling. Brand owners underscored their requirements for superior quality, competitive pricing, and dependable partnerships, with Swati emphasizing the role of partners in brand protection. Mr. Naveen (Reckitt) articulated that effective anti-counterfeiting necessitates products being both easily recognizable and difficult to replicate. The increasing significance of track and trace technologies for ensuring product authenticity and enhancing supply chain transparency, as demonstrated by Dabur's application, was also a key takeaway.

Pradeep Saroha Director Labelexpo India: "The LMAI's 'Amazing Brand Owner Evening' was a resounding success! The interactive event brought together numerous brand owners and printers to discuss innovation and sustainability. It was a fantastic platform for networking and exploring new ideas."

The panelists also commented.

L-R: Mohit Mittal, Arijit Mondal, Sanjay Ghoshal, Harveer Sahni, Swati Gupta, Naveen Stuart, Sidharth Sharma

Arijit Mondal Global Packaging Development Lead Nestle: Thank you Harveer ji and panelists for super engaging discussion. It has been a super enriching experience to meet all of u in person and our super capable label fraternity. I am looking forward to another time together in the near future too.

Swati Gupta Senior Manager Open Innovation and Packaging Development Amway: Thank you, Harveer ji and all fellow panelists. Great perspectives and learning!

Sidharth Shankar Sharma DGM-Purchase Dabur: Thanks Everyone for being such a wonderful fellow panelist. Special thanks to Harveer ji for bringing us to such a platform.

Sanjay Ghoshal Head of Packaging Diageo: Thank you very much Harveer ji and the LMAI. It is my honour and privilege to be part of such an elite panel and such an august audience. It is truly a great platform for the exchange of thoughts and wisdom between the demand and Supply side of label/labelling industry.

Naveen Stuart Cluster Packaging manager - Health - SoA Reckitt Benckiser: Thankyou sir and everyone at LMAI. It was a perfectly organised event and an excellent platform to share views.

Mohit Mittal Senior Manager Packaging Development Sun Pharma: The LMAI panel discussion event was a well-organized and insightful event, bringing together key industry stakeholders, innovative technologies, and valuable networking opportunities. The sessions were informative and addressed current challenges and future trends in the label manufacturing sector. Looking forward to more such impactful gatherings in the future.

Jaideep Singh Director Zodiac Reprographics Hyderabad: Thank you each one of you to add immense value to the panel discussion event with your insights on the perspective of labels in each of your industries .We as label printers feel reassured labels will play an important part of your brand perception and create an impact and value perception which is important to grow your industry through the value our labels will be able to provide.

Deepanshu Goel, Founder & Managing Director Creative Graphics Noida: This was an ensemble of renowned packaging development specialists. Great learning!

Amol Naval, National Manager, Maxcess India: We had a wonderful experience at the LMAI event. It was both interactive and informative for all attendees, offering a valuable platform for close engagement and networking with existing and potential customers. Thanks to the LMAI team for organizing such an insightful gathering that brought together end users, label manufacturers, and solution providers under one roof.

Raman Anandchahl Neovation Graphics Private Limited Gurgaon: It was a pleasure to attend such a well-conducted event. The entire session was highly informative, especially for someone like me who is always eager to learn. This event was also particularly special for me, as my elder daughter, Nitya Anandchahl, who joined our business just last month, was introduced to the industry for the first time here. She interacted with the panelists and many other industry stalwarts throughout the day. I was truly happy to see how warmly everyone welcomed her and wished her success in the future. Seeing the next generation step in with such enthusiasm makes me feel assured that the future of our beautiful label industry is in safe hands.

More Images from the event: