Priyata Raghavan and her entrepreneurial success at Sai Packaging

       Priyata Raghavan 

The author has firmly believed that “Women are largely loyal, committed and resilient in business”. They achieve success in their endeavors despite being multi-taskers. We all know being a home maker is a gigantic task; looking after household chores, managing children, their education, their activities, arranging wardrobes for self and family. After all this, running one of the largest packaging companies in the country is nothing short of a miracle! Priyata Raghavan, is one such woman who is like a role model for young aspiring women leaders riding success with her hard work. She is the younger daughter of Vijay Raghavan, the founder of Sai Packaging Company and heads the overall operations of the company as deputy CEO.

Vijay Raghavan came from a modest background having witnessed financial heights and lows in his childhood. Despite difficulties he completed his education through college and then went on to achieve an MBA. Middle aged, in his late 40s, in 1993 he decided to set up his maiden venture Sai Security Printers with meagre capital that he could arrange. With sheer hard work he established his credibility and adopted good business practices and ethical values that became the way forward for the business and for his family to follow. His wife was a big support, with a masters in English literature she pursued job as a teacher. In the beginning of a new millennium, the business felt the need of more family members and at this time she quit her job to join as administrator, a designation she has held for the past 20 years. 

Vijay Raghavan carried on his security printing business, printing lottery tickets for various state Governments. In 1996 they invested in an imported, one of the early 13-inch 12 color narrow web flexo press for printing scratch coupons. Due to a sudden ban on lottery by the government, they were left evaluating what to do next. Vijay Raghavan initiated his journey into packaging by setting up Sai Packaging Company and putting the swanky new press to use instead, for Labels, Beverages and liquor. That was how they started working in Labels.

Vijay Raghavan is blessed with two daughters and being a proponent of women empowerment, encouraged his daughters to achieve the best in education. His elder daughter is a maths graduate from South Campus Delhi, and currently heads the Tutor Quality Department at CueLearn India, an e-learning startup focused on math education globally.  She is Carnegie Mellon University Dean's Scholar with a master’s in information systems management. His younger daughter Priyata who now heads the North India operations of Sai Packaging as deputy CEO since 2005, attended Holy Child School New Delhi and Sri Venkateswara College in South Campus, New DELHI. She did her MBA from IIM Lucknow and has been a gold medalist through all these institutions. She specialized in Marketing and Finance.

Priyata joined ITC Limited in 2003 as a Management Trainee in Sales and Marketing. She considers her time at ITC crucial for her business future, working on brands like Ashirwaad and Sunfeast that became household names. She gained insights into sales and distribution channels, travelling extensively across the country. She joined Sai Packaging right after spending a few years at ITC Limited. This was at a time when the business was going through a transformation from the lottery business into a world of labels and packaging. It was an important trajectory dependent on succession. She has spent over 20 years at the helm of SAI, wearing many hats like heading Sales, Operations, Finance etc. As with every family-run enterprise, her duties/task far outnumber any designation. After initially starting out in finance, then sales and operations, she worked her way to leading Profit Centers for the overall business as well as heading Business Development, Finance and Corporate Affairs for the Company. 

Reminiscing her early days at SAI, she says, “Memories of selling packaging those days, are very memorable, albeit for very different reasons. I was handed a few of the challenging customers to prove my mettle. I cannot name them here of course, but I can say that my learnings from selling to these difficult customers was far higher than the business earnings from them. I still carry those early lessons with me!”. As for the challenges she faced as a woman, she goes on to add, “Printing as such, especially the convertor business has few women and there is always resistance both within and without for a woman on the shop floor and as a leader. I overcame initial resistance with hard work, resilience, passion and delivery to be trusted by all stakeholders as an inclusive leader. “Priyata firmly believes that there are advantages of being a female leader. Women bring in the innate ability to multitask and establish an emotional connect. Their higher social quotient and emotional quotient helps build tangible and solid relationships amongst all levels of the team and stakeholders. This ability helps the teams to go above and beyond, and win trust with suppliers, customers and investors. She asserts that she has always tried to look at the end consumer requirements so as to understand the packaging needs of brands and translate that back to her teams within the company. This helped her in winning business. Sai, until she joined, was a men-only organisation 20 years ago, but contrary to that, it now employs women at various positions in the company. Sai has evolved to recognise the merit and talent in women.

Priyata's father, Vijay Raghavan, inspired her with his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit. He mentored her throughout her career, alongside other professionals in both family and business, which contributed to her growth. She avidly reads biographies and management books to gather insights and experiences. She has, over the years, been the recipient of many awards.

·       Business leader of the Year 2023, Women in Print by Printweek

·       Tycoons of Faridabad by the Jagran Group in 2019

·       Appreciation Award for Women Empowerment by FICCI 2019

·       Young Entrepreneur Recognition by DLF Industries 2020

Despite her entrepreneurial responsibilities, she has successfully raised two children. Advait, her 13-year-old son excels in football, academics, and music. Zoya, her 10-year-old daughter is an outstanding student and a dedicated Kathak dancer, performing across India and winning numerous awards.

Vijay Raghavan continues to guide and mentor Sai Packaging as Chairman. Arvind Sekhar -his elder son in law, husband of Priyata’s elder sister, is the CEO of the company looking after National Customers & Corporate Account Relationships, Strategic R&D Initiatives, and Investor Relationships. Arvind is master’s in chemical engineering, and has worked with International Papers and Ariba, an American software and information technology services company located in Palo Alto, California now acquired by German software maker SAP. He was in the US for 13 years, before he came back to India to join the company. 

Sai packaging is multilocation company serving FMCG brands needing a pan-India vender presence. Sai is the preferred partner for them with production facilities in Faridabad NCR and Bengaluru in the south of India. Their product range includes Labels, Cartons, Leaflets, Inserts and Security printing instruments. 

With 14 offset and flexo production lines they work out of the shop floor area admeasuring 270,000 square feet employing a 700 plus workforce at two locations. They invested in digital printing capabilities some years back and found digital solutions extremely useful in giving options with speed to the world of packaging. Priyata believes that hybrid technologies that toggle both conventional and digital technologies, have great scope for growth, in the years to come, however still, the industry needs to overcome the pricing challenge for digital.

Finally, regarding her vision for future, she says, “We want to consolidate that position to grow much faster in the years to come. We want to be known for our initiatives in Creativity, Trust, and Sustainability across the board.

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

Rajesh Chadha; From small beginnings to big success!

 The history of Rajesh Chadha, Managing Director of Update Prints Pvt. Ltd., which owes its inception and inheritance to P C Chadha & Co. started by his grandfather, is an interesting one. The first thoughts on letterpress, managing waste problems and family support were all highlights along the way that came on a journey from Kobe in Japan to New Delhi in India, following is the Indian Label converter’s history and thoughts for the future.

Update Factory

 The very beginning

In the late 1970s and early 1980s driving on the western part of New Delhi’s Ring Road, many factories could be seen from far away. One such tall building was the factory of P C Chadha & Co. in the Naraina Industrial Area with a signboard on top visible from far. Around the mid-1980s when I was a commercial siliconiser selling release papers, I came to know that P C Chadha & Co. manufactured stickers and was a prospective customer. It was then a matter of time before I supplied some reams of release paper to them. During one of my visits to them, I spent two hours discussing why the stickers they were supplying were curling. I was quite naïve then but with time and experience, I have written on my blog a very widely read article on controlling curl. The young man I met was Rajesh Chadha, who was running P C Chadha & Co. and is the present Managing Director of Update Prints Pvt. Ltd. which owes its inception and inheritance to P C Chadha & Co. started by his grandfather.

 Starting up

In 1924, young P C Chadha, living in Kobe, Japan, initiated an enterprise producing paper transfer labels with a vision that branding would be an important tool for sales of any consumer product, label being the face of any product. Sometime in the midst of turbulent times during World War II in 1942–43, P C Chadha decided to return to his homeland in Rawalpindi, then a part of undivided India and now in Pakistan. Little did he realize that in yet another five years he would have to move again! At the time of India’s partition in 1947 he came to Mumbai to set up his production for maintaining continuity in his passion for producing transfers, the labels of that time. Chadha soon came to recognise that the weather in Mumbai was not suitable for his product, and he moved operations to Pune. Before long he was still restless at the location and travelled up North in India to Patel Nagar in New Delhi where he set up his factory on a 150 square yards plot. He initially worked from home and later from his small factory.

Sewing machine with transfer labels

As an entrepreneur’s son, the author had seen his father get advertisement boards hand painted by artists for advertising their stationery products. There was no alternative then. When one saw the transfer labels one used to wonder how they could achieve such exquisite printing direct on sewing machines, postal vans, crockery etc. Years later as the label industry was evolving into screen printing, I saw the same exquisite type of printing, which was different from screen printing, in my cousin’s factory making automotive filters. I realised they were using transfer labels like the ones P C Chadha & Co. produced. I was amazed to learn that the process employed by Chadha for printing was lithography. Based on the principle that oil and water do not mix, printing is done using stone blocks. In 1950 P C Chadha was joined in the business by his son Tilak Raj Chadha. They bought a used lithographic printing machine from England to expand their paper transfers business. Evolving further they later shifted to printing on cylinder type printing press using Zinc blocks mounted on wooden bases.

 Major changes

Major changes started to happen when P C Chadha’s grandson Rajesh Chadha joined the business in 1976. The same year they moved factory from Patel Nagar to a 600 square yards plot in the nearby Naraina Industrial Area. With Rajesh at the helm, in 1978 he started to produce stickers by the manual screen-printing process. For the next ten years screen printing business became the mainstay for Chadhas. One of the first major decisions taken by Rajesh Chadha was to buy a European automatic Svecia Screen printing machine to print a full 20” x 30” sheet, quite big for that time. The 1990s was a very eventful decade for the Indian label industry. It was the time when many of today’s stalwarts in the Indian label industry became visible. For Rajesh Chadha also, it was time to shed the conventional image and adopt a modern look. It was during this period that the conventional sticker became an engineered label. Rajesh set up Update Prints in 1994 as his flagship venture thereon, gradually taking over all the business of P C Chadha & Co, which was eventually wound up later in 2009. Sensing the need to modernize with faster machines at Update Prints; he bought his first rotary flexo label press, a ”Focus“. There was no looking back after this.

 Investments

Rajesh and Aditya Chadha

In 2001 he bought an Orthotec intermittent letterpress at Labelexpo Asia held in Singapore. Two years later he impulsively bought a Rotatek label press displayed at a New Delhi print exhibition, on an immediate payment basis in full, taking his industry colleagues by surprise. Update Prints under his leadership has been acquiring new state-of-the-art equipment at regular intervals. From the single 600 square yards factory the company was soon operating from three different plots, one of 1000 square yards and two of 600 square yards. It was now time to consolidate for a few years. In another strategic move in 2013, Update Prints moved all their manufacturing operations under one roof to a facility admeasuring almost 25,000 square yards in land area and 50,000 square feet shop floor. This exercise required the involvement of a huge amount of money, time, effort and commitment. The land was designated agricultural land. Setting up an industrial project on it was illegal. Many people in the area have done it but Rajesh Chadha is committed to tread the straight path. He got the land use changed to industrial. Any Indian will know the kind of effort and time this takes. Infrastructure was another problem; the nearest power feeder was far away and to expedite the matter of bringing power to the unit, Update Prints had to install 50 electricity poles at their own expense. The approach road to the unit was in shambles, it had to be re-laid at their own expense. Update Prints now employs over 100 workforce and has a total of eight label presses.

 Diverse technologies

Reminiscing about his work in the initial days in labels he says, ”The first label that I created was for Yardley Cosmetics“ he further adds that in those days he had bought two Newfoil three station hot-foiling presses. He used to love working with them creating innovative products. It was the most satisfying part for him because he could imagine and then create labels that would get appreciation from buyers. He has over the years equipped Update Prints with diverse technologies in label printing, decorating and finishing. Whether it is offset printed labels printed on his Rotatek Brava or labels created on flexo, letterpress, hot or cold foiling, screen printing, etc. his company is never left wanting for the ability to create. He is proud to say that  “I deliver quality, service and satisfaction to my customers and for this reason work comes to me automatically. I do not have to waste time running after work.” While discussing digital printing I was not surprised that his reaction was similar to that of a larger part of the Indian label fraternity, ”It does not make sense to me at this point of time. I can print good quality short runs cost effectively on offset and letterpress“. A very interesting change that I noted in Rajesh during my talks with him is that he has started to encourage Indian entrepreneurs who have excelled. While most of his equipment is imported yet in recent times he saw the potential in an Indian manufacturer of label presses, Multitec. He was not hesitant and bought the equipment. In fact, he has followed it up by acquiring two more.

Family life

Aditya on shopfloor

Rajesh Chadha being the elder son in his family, like in most migrant Punjabi families of that time in New Delhi, joined the business while he was still studying. He is an alumnus of New Delhi’s Salwan Public School and later studied commerce in Dayal Singh College for B.Com and finished with a master’s in commerce. His wife Anju is a master’s degree holder in English and takes an active interest in the business. Rajesh and Anju have two children who are both now married. Their daughter Upasna studied at the prestigious London School of Economics and spent time at Oxford University. Son Aditya, like his father, studied commerce from Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce and later completed his MBA in marketing from ”Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA“. Then after a one-and-a-half-year work experience in AT&T in the US, he returned to India to join his father at Update Prints as director. Rajesh fondly mentored him to take charge of this company.

Update Prints’ business has transformed over the years. They do very little transfer labels business now and largely produce self-adhesive labels. Their customers are mostly leading FMCG companies. Ten percent of their produce goes into export. While in Patel Nagar, waste management was a big problem for them. With the company growing continuously, disposal was becoming a gigantic issue. It was one of the reasons besides expansion that they moved to this present location some 35 Kilometers from Delhi. Here they have developed collectors who take the waste and convert it for various usages and applications. He strongly feels someone needs to work in the direction of managing or recycling this waste effectively and believes a solution will evolve. He also feels going linerless is also a good direction but like digital printing it will be some time before this technology becomes adaptable extensively.

 Rajesh Chadha is satisfied about the time he has spent in the label industry, he says, ”It is an interesting industry. There is lot of work and room for creativity and innovation“. He is proud of his achievements. He has led the company to consistently achieve an almost 20% per annum growth rate, which is above the perceived industry rate. He is beaming when he says, ”Growth comes naturally to my company because of the quality of our work. It is not fueled by huge borrowings from banks“. No wonder he heads a fully family owned successful and growing zero debt company!

 Written in May 2014 and updated in April2024.

 

Price increases leave printers in a dilemma!

The adverse impact of lockdowns has not really worn off when a very awkward situation is now confronting the labels and printing industry at large. Prices of paper and all essential inputs are moving skywards disrupting the cashflows that appeared to be getting back to normalcy. It is a strange situation whereby there is a volume growth in demand and reduced availability of pulp and other materials coupled with compulsion of paper mills to recoup the losses incurred due to lockdown, driving up the paper prices. Stuck in between, the label and printing industry is compelled to swallow the increases with intense pressure on their operating margins and working capital requirements. The phenomenon is evident globally, as paper sellers are directing supplies to wherever they find a bigger demand around the world and can command higher prices. There are also logistics challenges owing to shortage of containers. One wonders if this surge in demand is real or there is an element of stockpiling. If it is the latter, it may result in a market crash once the normal working returns that would be even more worrisome. It is mentioned by analysts that the present spurt in prices is due to increased demand coming from China’s domestic consumption increasing dramatically. Surely these are unprecedented increases happening leaving a premonition of adversity amongst the printing and packaging fraternity.

The price increases in paper are coming continuously at regular intervals of time. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) which is one of the largest pulp and paper company in the world, wide their notification dated 22^nd  January 2021 increased prices of all grades of paper by 100$ per ton then on 1^st February 2021 they increased the prices by another 100$ per ton and also withdrew the reel discount they were offering, yet again on 1^st March 2021 they increased the prices by yet another 150$ per ton. With such a steady rise on monthly basis, one is left wondering when and where this will stop. SAPPI another global supplier of label, packaging and specialty papers, on 3^rd March 2021 announced an increase of 7-11% in prices. In the case of labels, both the face stock and the release paper have suffered cost escalation. Vinyl Acetate Monomer or VAM is an important part of pressure sensitive adhesives used for manufacture of self-adhesive labelstocks and tapes. Owing to a whopping increase in demand from China VAM prices also witnessed a continuous upward trend to reach an increase of more than 20% so far in 2021. This too directly impacts the cost of producing self-adhesive labelstock and eventually labels.  Many polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) producers in Texas USA have shut plant operations because of the winter storm in mid-February 2021 sending prices of films  upwards due to shortages. This increase in prices of polymers directly impacted price of label films and filmic labelstocks. The increase for different films varies between 12-25%.

As if the raw material price rise was not enough the varying demand across different geographical zones in the world and shift in purchasing pattern of populations around the globe brought about a huge impetus to online retail business. This resulted in a logistic change of transportation from established routes and volumes causing disruption of smooth flow of materials and altering the planning for container needs. All this led to increased freight rates, coupled with increasing fuel prices the ultimate impact on the end product keeps on escalating.  It is surprising that such an unprecedented upward revision of all inputs in one go has never been witnessed before in the labels industry. The labelstock manufacturer is squeezed between the large raw material suppliers and the printers who are themselves under intense pressure of high equipment cost and facing print buyers who are not willing to increase buying rates. More so, considering that increasing number of label printers are bidding for the same business and are always ready to compromise a bit more, the situation is complicated.

Gautham Pai

Gautham Pai founder and Executive Chairman of Manipal Technologies Limited Manipal, expressing concern at the situation prevailing says, “The price increase of raw materials is significantly impacting the business. In addition, the supply chain disturbances and logistic cost increases have added to the overall costs increases. These increases at a time when buyers are still struggling with low demands and muted orders is a major concern.” U K Gupta Group Chairman & Managing Director, Holostik Group also feels, “Price increase in paper, solvents and adhesives have impacted the Label Industry badly”. Indian Labelstock producers have steadily grown in numbers and size as the industry registers double digit growth over the last many years. The industry players have gradually transformed from being manufacturers of  just commodity stocks like semi-gloss and uncoated wood free or maplitho to advanced specialized label materials, both coated, uncoated, filmic and specialty products like security label materials. Since all inputs in labelstock manufacturing have been adversely impacted and spreading the effect to the entire self-adhesive label industry, Ajay Mehta Managing Director of India’s largest indigenous labelstock manufacturing company SMI Coated Products Pvt. Ltd. brings forth the reality that the industry is facing by expressing, “The price rise in all raw materials of Label Stock solutions have gone up tremendously and we have to pass it on to the Label converters and unless the  Label converting industry joins hands, to take immediate action in getting a price rise from Label buyers , the Industry stands to loose INR 250 million per month, which is going to be extremely detrimental for the health of the industry”.

The pain and anguish at the emergence of this difficult unprecedented turn of events in words of, Ajay Agarwal, CEO of Syndicate labels New Delhi, “Price increase is nothing but a nightmare for the Label Printing fraternity and the biggest reason is that it disrupts the operations for all label Convertors. The process of transmission of the rate increase to the end customer is extremely difficult and is often characterised by a new round of negotiations, reverse auctions etc. and most likely it results in reduced margins for the label convertor. While price increase is a reality and need of the hour yet in face of the current increase in prices of raw materials, it still leads to a lot of pain.” Sharing the same concern, Himanshu Kapur Director, J K Fine Prints Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai agrees, “Price increase is a necessary evil for accommodating inflation, if done effectively it will benefit the entire supply chain else  operation will suffer long term. Unfortunately, the print buyers are also responsible for the collapse of an industry which was once an art form and now considered a commodity”. Rajesh Nema Director Pragati Graphics Indore and honorary secretary LMAI (Label Manufacturers Association of India), “Label industry is indeed facing tough times as cost of all inputs has gone up yet print buyers are not agreeing to price increases. Most of the self-adhesive label manufacturers are in yearly contracts with their buyers, it is difficult to make them agree to price increases during currency of the contract”.  According to Lakshminarayanan business unit head-Wintek at Signode India Ltd. : Impact of Prices is not only from raw materials, but it is also due to Inflation and logistics. There is  a strong demand for consumer goods and food packaging in the country. Nonessential packaging sectors is also regaining normalcy, but the price increases continue to challenge converters supplying due to their inability to pass on the  price increases to end-users, who in turn are driven by their cost pressures and not accepting to consider any price increase in current situation. Considering the greater need for working capital due to the steep increase in prices during recent weeks and the narrowing margins, inventory held by both converters and end-users remained below the average.

A brave Anuj Bhargava of fast-growing Kumar Labels NOIDA beamingly says. “Price hikes shouldn’t affect any organization’s normal profitability in the entire eco-system. All actions favorable to this intent should be taken so that a new equilibrium is arrived at with positivity” However he further adds, "that price hikes should be passed on so that profitability is not affected for anyone. New equilibrium is with revised prices for everyone.".

Kuldip Goel

LMAI President Kuldip Goel, Managing Director of Any Graphics NOIDA,  sums it up as a situation whereby in the covid times many in the industry have lost customers because when you take the increased price to them, your competitors who have their own pressures to strengthen their balance sheets so that banks are satisfied to lend more, are ready to offer without any profit or at a minor loss. Or if they have spare capacity and can retain their loyal customers they will attempt to take in new customers at unreasonable rates. It is not that the print buyer is not facing the impact of covid-19, the moment they see price escalation they will start exploring options to prevent the rise in cost of inputs. Printers at this time must evaluate as to how best they can handle the situation; price increase is imperative for them to sustain but then it needs to be seen how much of their business is dependent on that customer. One must strike a balance in price and cost optimization internally by trying to achieve more from their existing infrastructure and manpower. One must look within, reduce labour cost, wastages, save electricity, inventory control, and produce more with less.

At this time, the entire value chain is in jeopardy, each business product unit is customer of another, all constituents of the industry up to the print buyers need to empathise with their suppliers to bring some relief from this dilemma post continuous increase in input costs, that has descended on entire industry. It is appropriate at this time to mention a famous quote, “The journey is never ending. There's always going to be growth, improvement, adversity; you just got to take it all in your stride and do what's right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment”.

Addendum: Messages received after posting the above article;

Aaditya Kashyap, Marks Emballage Pvt. Ltd.  Baddi; Already struggling to come back to normalcy from the pandemic-induced challenges, the increasing raw material pricing is like the last thing we could have wished for.  I see label printers in a very weak and vulnerable position completely squeezed out of business by increased prices from bigger players on the supply side and the dominant brands and buyers on the other hand who refuse to accept any price hikes. Would love to see that material manufacturers and suppliers work with printers to take the price hikes to brands and buyers. This is a difficult time for all, so need for all stakeholders to work together to find a win-win in this difficult times."

Rajeev Chhatwal, Kwality Offset, New Delhi: Very Strange Scenario no break on increasing RM prices. Business being run on negative profits!

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

Note: Print magazines are free to reproduce this article subject to giving credit to author with blog address

Sonic Labels; Driving their startup to success.

 

S P Ojha and his friend Vinod Vaidya migrated from their ancestral home in Rajasthan to Mumbai in 1976 to explore new avenues in their career. In Mumbai Ojha worked his way to handling marketing operations for a Birla group company and Vaidya went into manufacture of writing instruments. Despite having moved away in different areas and getting involved in their careers, they kept the warmth in their friendship alive and would occasionally meet and reminisce their time together. At times, they also indulged in some business dealings. Both the families remained bonded, Ojha’s only son Aditya and Vaidya’s only son Kapil were school going kids, but like their parents they to became good friends. S P Ojha too started a side business of manufacturing regulators as contract manufacturers to other fan producers. Ojha and Vaidya used to often meet and discuss possibility of starting a business enterprise together.

Kapil

S P Ojha’s son Aditya Ojha finished his BSc IT  and wanted to initially start producing electrical items like dimmers etc. but his father who had worked in corporate world, wished that he does some business that is more organized, accountable, and straight forward. The unorganized small business had its own challenges and pitfalls with large amounts of cash handling. Vinod Vaidya’s son Kapil Vaidya completed his master’s degree in Computer Sciences and then attained his MBA from Sikkim Manipal University. Since his father preferred that Kapil should get some experience before indulging in business, he took up a job initially in Computer networking industry in hardware at Aksh Optic fibre company, where he stayed for 2 years. As Kapil’s father was into manufacturing writing instruments, he wanted Kapil to gain experience by working in other enterprises, he subsequently took marketing job in Flair Pens. After 5 years of doing various jobs, Kapil wanted to start his own business and a little different from the existing father’s business. As in case of Aditya, Kapil too found the pen manufacturing line too labour intensive. He wished to indulge in a business where there was automation. Someone suggested to him to get into printing and for that impulsively one thinks of offset. Since already many of his relatives were into offset printing, they decided to refrain from entering a field where they would be in direct competition with their relatives. So, they started to look for something else.

It was ultimately due to a suggestion by Kapil’s father-in-law Kashi Prashad Chamaria that they decided to get into label manufacturing. Kashi Prashad Chamaria was one of the earliest people to diversify from screen printing and start manufacturing labels. Kashi Prashad still has a 40 years old Labelmen label press running in Borivali Mumbai in his company Jepi Chemo Pack. Taking up on the suggestion of his father-in-law Kapil started researching about labels and gradually came in touch with suppliers of equipment and materials. Once the mind was made, both the friends, fathers of Kapil and Aditya, got together to seek each other’s opinion on the project. The decision was spontaneous, and both decided to let their sons Kapil and Aditya to initiate their startup venture as partners and they themselves would remain as mentors and advisors. Though they initially wished to install a high-end European press but were cautious to make an entry that would get them started and after gaining a foothold they would like to expand. The Kapil- Aditya duo speak very high about industry veteran Amit Sheth who initiated them and convinced them to opt for a Donghai Label press with the full set of allied equipment needed to start their label press. To see the demo of the Donghai Press they visited China and on return Sonic labels with Aditya and Kapil as partners were in label business in 2011. Due to support from mentors both families had business contacts from where business was assured to their startup venture. Their initial struggle was only in learning printing and converting labels. They happily say vendors supported them and became their teachers whether it was Ajay Mehta led SMI Coated products educating them on the labelstocks or was Flint providing information on the inks or Sanjeev Atre of PGI Tech teaching them about tooling or was Deepanshu Goel of Creative Graphic helping them with pre-press and drawings for dies. It is interesting to note that the vendors became their teachers, and they were quick learners who stand indebted to the team of venders who helped them in their initial time.

Kapil reminisces that the biggest challenge they faced was printing bar code labels for pens on flexo. Since their connect was with the writing instrument industry most of the business they were getting was coming from that segment. By their own efforts they have formulated a specialized process to create these and it has become a niche segment for them. Till date they remain perhaps the most successful supplier of barcode labels specially for pens industry. Though their first success came from supplying to a leading brand of electrical switches and thereafter the journey became smooth and growth oriented. Three years down the line Sonic labels felt the need for expanding capacity, they again pondered over the idea of going in for a larger European established brand press but on deliberation and mentor’s advice, it was decided that it is too early for them to take a big financial risk and that they should go in for yet another similar press, so in 2014 they acquired their second Donghai Label press. Unfortunately, in 2013 Kapil’s father Vinod Vaidya passed away. “He did not witness the success that we as entrepreneurs achieved” says Kapil in a pensive mood. As they progressed, their customers also started asking for corrugated boxes, so as part of diversification and expansion they also put up a corrugated box manufacturing unit. However still they are firm in their opinion that label market is more stable and growing part of packaging plus it has a lot of room for innovation. It is for this reason that post the downslide due to the covid19 impact, label is one product that bounced back the fastest.

Talking of short runs, they say they are comfortable doing that on their flexo machine only and have not really felt the need to go for digital, which they say is not cost-effective and their customer will not pay the higher price. Moreover, flexo printing is working very well for them. Ecstatically they mention that after acquiring the second Donghai, they were able to pay it off in just about 18 months and by mid-2015 with capacity fully utilized, they were envisaging yet another label press! Moreover, the previous two machines were only printing 6 colours, they had a constraint of not being able to cater to customers who had jobs of more than 6 colours. With focused marketing they had built up a good customer base for themselves, but it was a handicap and distressful to lose an order that was more than 6 colours. Ever since inceptions Kapil Vaidya had wanted  to have one of the best equipment available but they did things systematically and endured the initial struggling by investing conservatively in the initial years. Once they were fairly settled, they approached bigger brand owners for orders but faced a situation whereby they were asked which label press they possessed, this also motivated them to move on to a higher platform. This time around they had made up their mind to upgrade and so started researching on options available and at Labelexpo 2017 they finalized their order for a Gallus, a brand that had been in their mind since long, even though it was way beyond their planned budget.

Such is their dedication to labels that just a few months after installing their new Gallus label press Sonic Labels became the winner of the UV flexo special effects award at the Flint Group Narrow Web Awards at Labelexpo Chicago in 2018. The partners are optimistic about them achieving robust growth in the ensuing years by also adding more products that are in synergy with their printing capabilities. Aditya says, “IML is one growth area we have identified, and we are excited to add that to our range in the near future”. Kapil agrees and states, “we have established Sonic labels as a brand, we will continue to expand and grow”. At Sonic Labels, they are already running to full capacity so the next expansion may happen by end of 2021. However still they are committed to stay focused to label manufacturing and foraying further into IML. Digital or other printing technologies are not considered, as they wish to stay focused on the flexographic label printing that has given them success so far, moreover the costing of digital printing remains beyond their comprehension given the fact that India remains a very price sensitive market. As they grow, they are now concerned about waste management and may soon consider ways to reduce waste and evaluate processes to curtail their adverse impact on the environment. Waste also occupies a large amount of expensive real estate, so it needs to be shredded and responsibly disposed off.

With every new equipment they acquire they evaluate the output, make effort to reduce manpower, reduce wastage and implement more automation to minimise the dependence on operators. They have implemented ERP, CRM, and other management systems. They also plan to work on inventory management and implement “just in time” purchases to have a healthy cash flow. Both Kapil and Aditya feel that the label industry in India has a tremendous scope for growth. It is for them to envisage how much of this opportunity they can capitalize and benefit from. They are confident that capacity enhancement and expansion is going to remain a way of life for their enterprise. Given that vision, they still exercise caution and give a lot of time for planning before investing so that their investment gives maximum returns. Sonic Labels is operating with approximately 40 people out of a  shopfloor area of 10,000 square feet 40% of which is available for more expansion. They try to restrict their operation to the present location, but the growing business has prompted them to set up a finishing unit in Nashik, to service a customer at their doorstep there. It is maybe the first baby step to go multi-location.

Being in their mid-30s, both partners have the enthusiasm, vision, time, and zeal to rise above the crowd! They are a team to watch…

Written by Harveer Singh Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi February 2021

Environmentally conscious and sustainable in labels

Another day in life many years ago, we would love to light up a bonfire on a winter evening and sit around it warming ourselves and enjoying it. It was a common sight to see construction workers and other labourers huddled around a small fire they would light up by burning tree branches or dried leaves to warm themselves and ward off the cold. This incineration, which was a pleasurable exercise once, is looked at as non-acceptable now because it generates smoke and adds to the already high level of pollution in our cities. In the 1960s all our groceries were shopped wrapped in paper or carried in paper bags. In India we saw a lot of paper bags made even from old newspapers and old magazines adding an element of recyclability to the already used paper. 

In 1965 Swedish company Celloplast patented the single use poly bag to start an era of convenience in shopping with plastic bags. By late 1970s or early 1980s the polybag evolution had reached India and started to grow at a robust pace. It also became the preferred packaging material for a very diverse range of end products. Rapid developments were made to create multipolymer laminates to achieve better shelf life and barrier properties.   So much so that it became difficult to imagine a life without these plastic bags.

Mountain of garbage termed as landfil

Ironically by end of the last century the ill effects of plastic waste due to non-biodegradability became the most worrying factor for governments. The plastic bags littered around the globe remained plastic for years and would remain so for hundreds of years. Bangladesh became the first country in the world to implement a ban on thin plastic bags, after it was found they played a key role in clogging drainage systems during disastrous flooding. Other countries began to follow suit. Soon the awareness came about that plastic was not only clogging drains but also adding to soil quality erosion, affecting life of cattle who devoured these while grazing and endangered the sea with tons of plastic dumped in. The heightened awareness of all kinds of waste going to landfills; in fact, they are no more landfills but have become garbage mountains occupying expensive and already shrinking land space in cities and emitting poisonous gasses impacting environment and health of population. Climate control, banning single use plastics, finding alternative to multi-polymer plastic laminates due to these not being recycled, conserving resources, recycling, reusing, waste management, etc. became imperatives for all governments. Environmental protection and sustainability became the necessity and buzzword for a safe future of generations that follow us. Sustainability is explained as the avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance, in other words replenishing the mother earth with the natural resources that we use for our benefits.

Kimoha Solar plant

The author while returning from Labelexpo Europe in Brussels in the end of September 2019, stopped over to visit Dubai based label printing company Kimoha. While excelling in the world of labels Kimoha leadership had done a lot of work including investing for environmental protection, waste management and sustainability, setting example for others in the label industry to follow suit. Being fully aware that advancements and enhancement approaches are needed for the economic development of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations, Kimoha has taken steps to be sustainable and take care of the environment and its social well-being. They successfully completed the Green Building Initiative and are the first printing company within GCC to have the Gold LEED certification from the US GBC for its manufacturing facility. Under the new green clean energy initiative, they have commissioned own Solar Plant with Installed capacity of 1.0143 MWp, generating 30% of their power requirement. Kimoha Solar Plant is one of the largest Solar plant in the manufacturing segment within JAFZA. All the mechanical material handling systems are battery operated to cut off use of fuel and its associated pollution.

Integrated Waste Management System

Kimoha sources material from FSC certified partners as a responsible management initiative in protecting forests, being in paper industry.  The entire facility light management system is based on Motion & Occupancy Sensors. Occupancy sensors increase lighting energy savings by 23 %, auto turning off or turning down for amount of time with no movement. Skylights are used as natural lights here at Kimoha warehouse, thus further adding to Energy Management initiatives. As a part of its water conservation initiative, waterless urinals are installed in the facility washrooms. One waterless urinal saves approximately 3,250 gallons of water a year. The Solar cleaning system is also of dry wash robotic system which aids this program. On its Carbon footprint initiative, Kimoha has installed a state of art Integrated Waste Management System for auto extracting and compacting its label design and trim waste. Most of the paper waste is bailed, to reduce size and skip loads and sent to recycling vendors for a circular economy. Right from inception Kimoha has always believed in human capital and thus refrained from using Solvent Inks.  Kimoha also has a Sedex Member Mark which is a testimony to their responsible and sustainable business practices.

Back home in India the author tried to touch base with label printers in India to understand if they too were investing to make their industry and products environmentally safe and sustainable. It was heartening to note that the process has begun but it is just the beginning. To have a large-scale impact down the line, it appears legislation will provide the necessary impetus required in this direction. Noida based Any Graphics lead by Kuldip Goel is building a new huge new certified green factory spread over 15500 square meters that will be ready to move into in 2020. Kuldip Goel says: ‘The green manufacturing unit will be our contribution towards being environment friendly and sustainable. The process began right from the time when we started building the plant. For instance, we cannot uproot any trees from the new land without having a plan to re-plant and nurture them and plant maximum number of local varieties.’ Complying to the Green factory requirements they are procuring maximum construction materials produced from within 500 kms of the construction site, using minimum 50 percent old material and furniture from previous factory, minimum usage of wood, covered car parking, usage of less water and big fume taps to save water, natural sunlight inside the factory, usage of light and insulating Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) panels in the building, amongst others. They also plan to install both sewage treatment plant (STP) as well as an effluent treatment plant (ETP) at the new facility. ‘With the STP, they will be able to re-use almost 50 percent of our water that would otherwise just go down the drains. With the consumption of almost 40,000 litres of water a day, this will be a huge saving. They are also installing state of the art 600-700 KW rooftop solar power units. This will reduce 5.5 to 7.5 MT of CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to planting about 35,000 trees. Goel further added, “We have even studied air direction at the new site to maximize the impact of air flow and sun for most efficient use of solar light and energy. There is a list of above 40 requirements listed by The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) that we must adhere to for our factory to be qualified as a green building and we are passionately working on each one of them”.

The author with Anuj Bhargava

Another Noida based Label Company Anuj Bhargava lead Kumar Labels who also produce labelstock for their captive consumption has put in place many processes in their production plan to make their contribution to environment and sustainability. They have shifted to 100% LED lighting in their factory. They plan to replace UV lams with LED UV lamps on all their presses by 2021, the process has begun. They have developed and commercialized SRTF (Single Release with Two Face stocks) which saves 50% release liner. Spreading the concept globally. Other endeavors include elimination of corrugated boxes and using multi-use plastic trays for dispatches within 200km distance which saved over 15 Tons of kraft each year. Selling labels on bagasse, mineral paper and recycled kraft label stocks (though to begin with the quantity is small). Work has started to use thinner liners. 70% of factory is on evaporative cooling instead of air conditioning, saving energy. No plastic bottles or cups are used for water or food, even during group dinners. Segregation of waste is done so that most unsupported material gets recycled. Employees are encouraged to shift closer to factory to avoid commute and save fuel. To set an example, owners have also moved closer to factory. Used UV lamps are disposed off through a recycler who removes the mercury.

The self-adhesive labels industry as it continues to grow, has been facing a gigantic task for disposal of side trim, waste matrix and liner waste. Almost 50% of the label material after conversion is waste and earlier converters were either sending the same to landfill or incinerating it. Both the actions are adversely impacting the environment and require urgent attention. Multinational labelstock manufacturers Avery Dennison has taken some pioneering initiatives towards this problem. The Company under their “Avery Dennison’s Recycling Services India program” has been concerned about the accumulation of waste and is on a mission to also reduce the amount of packaging materials used beside recycling and managing the waste generated. They in association with leading brand owners started collecting the label liner generated as part of the labelling operations centrally before passing these on to the appointed recycler for this Liner Recycling Program. The collected liner waste is then reprocessed, and this recycled pulp is used to create new materials such as cardboard, paper, and tissue. On another front they are interacting with converters to co-process or reprocess their leftover label matrix instead of landfilling it at no cost, given that the paper and film materials are sorted at the converter end. The matrix that is made from either paper or film material is usually discarded. As per Avery’s initiative through co-processing, paper matrix can be re-used as fuel in industrial processes. Through reprocessing, filmic matrix is converted to polymer pellets used to manufacture products like boards and benches.

Himanshu Kapoor of Mumbai based J K Fine Prints lists the processes that they have implemented in this direction: The have started liner recycling program with Avery Dennison, all plastic ink bottles are sent to MPCB(Maharashtra Pollution Control Board) waste handling unit, used UV lamps go to hazardous waste collection unit, they pack finished rolls in paper and not in plastic, all waste is shredded and sent to cement kilns to use as an energy source to replace natural gas, cores/boxes/packing materials etc. are reused to reduce carbon footprint, waste water from water purification system is reused for cleaning purposes, all ACs/fans/lights are switched off when not in use, Auto stop taps installed resulted in reduced usage of water and collection of used liner from end users and sending to recycle in pipeline.

Sustainability is important for many reasons including environmental Quality in order to have healthy communities and a safer planet for generations that follow, we need clean air, natural resources, and a nontoxic environment. Government has now realized the huge negative impact of this and due to their efforts to spread awareness, words like sustainability, environmental protection, circular economy, recyclability, reusable, etc. have become frequently debated topics in industrial conferences and CSR initiatives of leading industrial houses. Even the common people now are impacted and concerned about this problem. Label industry has been implementing many such initiatives to reduce the impact of waste. For a lot many years we have seen press manufacturers making the label presses with short web pass to reduce setup waste, usage of thinner filmic liners have been implemented at many places to reduce the tonnage of liner going into manufacture of self-adhesive labelstock and more so because the filmic liner can be recycled to produce other plastic products. In recent times we also witness the development of linerless labels to entirely do away with the liner by use of a filmic liner that is peeled off in the manufacturing process and laminated on top of the same label. One solution cannot cater to all labelling needs, every process has its advantages and disadvantages, but the heartening fact is that now the industry is taking steps both to reduce wastage and eliminate it from going to landfills and incineration. The social responsibility of the labels industry is evident!

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi December 2019

History of Indian Label Industry part 2D

This is the final part of History of Indian Label Industry” up to third quarter of 2019 written by the author. The history would look incomplete if mention was not made of those who started their label journey from scratch or very humble beginning and then rose to a pinnacle achieving success not only in the home market but also internationally and continue with their journey to greater heights.

Ole Rugland MD-Skanem who acquired Interlabels with
Gautam and Bhavin Kothari promoters of Interlabels

From the start of new Millennium in 2000 until the time of writing this part of the history, enormous changes have come about in the Indian label industry. Label printing companies who started from virtually nothing, grew and spread to multiple locations. Some of the bigger ones on the way, decided to sell out to or partnered with foreign companies who were entering the Indian market for label manufacturing. Label, being a miniscule portion of the total packaging cost of a product, does not deliver very large turnover as compared to that of package printing or flexible packaging companies. However, it does generate relatively higher profit margins than that of high turnover package printing industry. For this reason, we did not see any label companies in the earlier part of the new Millennium who could reach a coveted target of Rupees 100 Crore or a Billion Rupees as annual sales turnover. However, some packaging companies or multinationals who invested in labels as well, were above this figure. It was incredible that at least three Indian startup companies who started their business purely with stickers that later evolved as labels, grew to cross Rupees 100 Crores turnover or more in 2018-2019.

Manish Desai-Mudrika Labels

First among them is Manish Desai led Mudrika Labels. Sandeep Desai working at a greeting cards company started trading in stickers that he outsourced in 1975 and a year later he started screen printing them at home. His 10-year-old cousin, Manish was always excited to see stickers being made. In 1977 Sandeep moved his sticker manufacturing to a 500 square feet factory in Malad. In 1985 they started outsourcing pregummed sheets and get them printed on offset to finally finish them to be stickers at their factory. They grew and expanded into packaging, making cartons and corrugated boxes. Sandeep eventually moved into packaging and the young Manish who had labels in his heart, in 1996 expanded into labels with Kopack label presses and later many Gallus presses. He further expanded integrating backwards to produce self-adhesive labelstocks and collaborated with a Korean company to produce heat transfer labels. By 2019 Mudrika labels were working out of 100,000 square foot shop floor, 550 workforce to achieve a Rupees 160 Crore (1.60 Billion Rupees) annual sales turnover.

Kuldip and Naveen Goel of Any Graphics
With their awards

The second person to achieve this Kuldip Goel of Any Graphics started from very humble beginnings. At a tender age of 14 years he started making stickers by screen printing manually himself to earn some money while still in school. He did this in his one room home. Despite extreme hardships in life he remained honest and focussed on providing the best in quality and indulging in innovation. In 1989 he started his maiden venture Stickline in Noida. By start of the millennium Kuldip’s company Any Graphics was recognised as one of the best label manufacturers in quality and one that never cut prices to get orders but prove their innovative capabilities to convince customers. From mere screen printing he went on to add dome labels and letterpress printed labels in his portfolio. In 2009 he moved to a 100,000 square feet clean sanitized dust free factory adding, Heidelberg Offset Presses, Orthotecs and a fully loaded Omet flexo and screen combination label press. He also became one of the largest makers of rigid boxes. By 2019 he had crossed the Rupees 100Crore sale without compromising profit margins and becoming one of the most awarded companies in India. In 2019 he commenced construction of a certified green factory spread over 15000 square meter plot size and 250,000 square feet shop floor.

T

Sanjeev Sondhi of Zircon with Pawandeep Sahni-Omet with
OMET Varyflex press 

he third printer who grew in similar pattern, a stout follower of Lord Shiva who greets people with, “Jai Bhole Ki” (Victory to Lord Shiva, lovingly referred to as Bhole) Sanjeev Sondhi, started his career as a medical Representative and carried on in the profession switching jobs until 2005 when he decided to trade in Barcode labels, printers and accessories. He was looking for bigger things in life! Two years later in 2006 he launched his maiden start-up venture Zircon Technologies India Limited with a Mark Andy 2200 Label press in Dehradun. Being a salesperson himself he drove the company in fast mode expansion and in a few years added multiple Mark Andy and Omet label presses which include the high-end combination Omet Vary flex 430mm. In just 15 years of inception Zircon crossed the Rupees 100 Crore reaching 120 Crores annual turnover mark coming purely from label manufacturing, “a record in itself”! While other successful label companies at this stage would look for foreign suitors, Zircon in 2019 was the first totally indigenous label manufacturing company planning to go public to raise capital for future expansion. They got the approval from SEBI in November 2018 with plans to open a 90-100 Crores public issue. Waiting for an appropriate time to launch their public issue Zircon continued to grow and invest in expansion. Sanjeev hoped to invest 80 percent of the receipts in expanding labels business while the rest in other allied products. Sanjeev was even looking at inorganic growth by indulging in Mergers and Acquisitions. With 3 factories in Dehradun and one in Chennai Sanjeev Sondhi aims to grow multi-fold with blessing of Bhole (Lord Shiva).

Having achieved such success through sheer commitment and hard work it is natural for companies like the three mentioned above to look at other avenues in synergy with their business to achieve a faster growth. All the above, while they continued to be proud of their beginnings and aware of the evolution, started to study or invest in new technologies.  We had reached a time when multiple labelling technologies surfaced, and future had many surprises in store. From the primitive times when a label had to be either tied to a product or riveted on to it or affixed with a wheat flour paste, we believed to have reached a pinnacle when self-adhesive or pressure sensitive adhesive labels that were developed and grew to establish as a predominant labelling technology. Initially it was the manually applied wet glue adhesive paper labels that were in use. With development of starch and dextrin-based glues and availability of automatic wet glue labelling equipment, wet glue labels became the most widely used method of labelling. Most of the organised industry employed packaging lines incorporating wet glue labelling. It was used in all segments like pharmaceuticals, Liquor, cosmetics, oils and in fact most of the products that were packed in glass bottles or metal cans. When plastics, mostly HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), started to evolve as a preferred packaging material for glass bottles and cans due to ease of manufacturing, reduction of freight due to lighter weight per can, possibility to produce in different shapes and colours, labelling with starch or dextrin based adhesive became a challenge. This change was taking place during the 1970s and 1980s. Since HDPE is a low energy material, paper labels with water-based adhesives made from various gums, starches and dextrins would not anchor on to the containers or would fall off in transit. Labels with pressure sensitive adhesives or stickers had already started being made initially by screen printing methods and later by offset printing, these labels would stick well just by application of pressure. They did not have to wait for drying and could be packed instantly after labelling while the wet glue labels would have adhesives oozing out on the sides and attracting dust and shifting in packing process, adversely affecting the aesthetics. More and more companies were opting for these stickers.

Heat Transfer Labels for pens

Towards the end of last century self-adhesive labels evolved in roll form and the automatic labelling equipment for pressure sensitive adhesive labels became available. Many companies did resist shifting from wet glue to self-adhesive due to the high cost of label applicator replacements. This is a big challenge that the likes of printers mentioned above faced and yet with their firm resolve they became a part of the change that brought them success. As the retail became dependent on customer choices and there was need for better decorated labels, self-adhesive labels became the preferred labelling technology and grew at fast pace. In between screen printing on containers also started but a slow process that did not have much decoration as compared to printed labels, it did not grow as a preferred process. Self-adhesive grew so much that it became almost 50% of all the labels produced in India. As we entered the new millennium and started looking also into future the thought process for future of labels is becoming extremely diverse and evolving in different tangents. Shrink sleeves came in to take away a big market share given the possibility of 360 degrees visibility. Wrap around labels also became extensively used in the beverage segment. Heat transfer label technology that had originated as Therimage Label technology developed by Dennison Manufacturing company in USA in the 1990s did not flourish then because Avery, who acquired Dennison, did not promote it as it was not in sync with their core business of self-adhesive labels. Once the patents expired, the Heat Transfer Labels or HTL reappeared in the second decade of new millennium and started growing. In mould labels is another labelling technology that had found usage in many segments and started registering growth in large volume usage. At this time, I try and link the changes to the three above who understood the need to expand the scope of labels in their business portfolio. While Mudrika as I mentioned invested in heat transfer labels, Any Graphics into innovative labels and rigid boxes and Zircon also started moving into brand security and innovative packaging including spiral wound containers.

Matrix waste in addition to liner waste

Around this time environmental concerns also impacted the self-adhesive label industry as almost 50% of the converted product is waste going to landfills. Much work was being done on this to reduce the liner tonnage by opting for thinner filmic liners that can be recycled and by developing linerless labels. Digital printing on to the products is another technology that may replace some of the usage of self-adhesive labels. All said and done, the sheer market size in India and the inertia, brings business to all label technologies and for this reason the self-adhesive labels market continued to grow at double digit rates. The industry will keep evolving both in terms of quality and innovation as also taking environmental concerns in its stride.

In over a year, as another decade ends, the author will update the history on the outcome of such endeavours. The total History as chronicled by the author until now is now available on this blog on links as below:

Part 1: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-indian-label-industry.html

Part 2A: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/07/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2a.html

Part 2B: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/search?q=History+part+2b

Part 2C: https://harveersahni.blogspot.com/2019/08/history-of-indian-label-industry-part-2c.html

Part 2 D: Above

Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi July/September 2019

Note: No one is authorised to reproduce, copy or reprint this article until permitted by the author in writing.