Top label printers in India

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Ajanta Packaging

Besides Mumbai, Daman and Baddi, Ajanta has set up a unit in Sharjah. One of the rare print firms to deploy waterless offset technology. Specialises in cosmetic and FMCG labels. Installed a brand-new Nilpeter and MPS press in Daman and Baddi few years ago. Ajanta Print Arts, the parent company of Ajanta Packaging, is the publicity printer for Yash Raj movies and moved their unit to Navi Mumbai with an expantion in offset packaging.

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Interlabels Industries  

Interlabels has international partners: Sato of Japan, Psion Teklogix of Canada and Symbol Technologies (division of Motorola) and a subsidiary unit in Kenya. An ever-expanding unit in Vasai, presence in Kolkata and Delhi, has opted for a 360 degree market which includes wet glue, self adhesive, wrap around film. Pioneered the creation of label applicators. New plant in Chennai and Baddi. Gautam Kothari, who is at the helm, loves to travel, far and wide, and relishes all kinds of cuisine. Now part of Skanem Group from Finland which has acquired 51% has 11 plants worldwide. This is Skanem’s first establishment in India, but Skanem already has one factory in Asia, which is located in Bangkok, Thailand.Interlabels is also one of the largest user of Gidue narrow web flexo presses

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Janus International

Powered by Gallus and a HP Indigo digital web label press in India. The Thane-based Janus has carved a niche in beer labels and labels for the liquor and wine industry. The last ten years have been quite a journey for Janus from offset and gravure to flexo, and now digital. The founder, Joe Annunciation is an old hand with stints at Colour Carton (now shut down) and work in the Middle East. Two sons, Denver and Janus now jointly take care of marketing and production.

Letragraphix

LetraGraphix in Ahmedabad bagged the flexo awards at FINAT – besides receiving an award for pharma application. End 2009, the company installed its second Gallus EM280. This is a 10-colour printer with in-line screen printing, hot foil and cold foil stamping. It has an ink kitchen, plus they stringently adhere to US FDA certification and now added a Gallus EMS 340 servo press. Kamlesh Shah, the director, was a canvasser before he set up LetraGraphix and climbed great heights along with his nephew, Nirav Shah, who did a course in flexo printing technology in the USA.

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Maharshi Labels

Mudrika Labels

The 23-year-old firm specialises in labels and stickers, cartons and corrugated boxes. Has a fleet of Gallus presses. Recently, Mudrika installed a Gallus EM 280 flexo press which was inaugurated by the Gallus owner, Ferdinand Rueesch. A high energy firm looking to up its productivity. Manish Desai, managing director is a past-president of the label association and plays tennis and avid singer. He planned to start a gravure printing division and has already started the gravure printing division with an overseas partner.

Renault Paper Products

Manufacturer of blank and printed labels, self adhesive labels, tags and computer stationery. K2 (KDO)narrow web presses, a letterpress- flexo, an intermittent offset-letterpress-screen and two flatbed machine for stamping and printing in single pass housed in 20,000 sq/ft unit in Palghar. Has become a multi-process label, packaging and printing house. Prior to starting label printing, Mahendra Shah had a continues stationery printing business. Renault Paper Products is part of the Manohar Packaging Group. Mahendra Shah, director of Renault Paper Products is the first generation to start the unit. The firm has added new Omet Variflex narrow flexo press. Mahendra Shah travels in express trains to travel to his unit which is located in Palghar from Mumbai.

Reynders India

Belgium-based Reynders is a multi-locational, 59 million Euro company with more than 60 Gallus units. The Indian unit was based in Manesar and now, it is in Bhiwadi. Gallus kits have been installed and top-end pre-press workflow from EskoArtwork in Bhiwadi. Three decades of R&D have ensured complex label constructions that are completed by visual enhancing elements such as holograms, VIP and special colours.

Partnership with Goodwork to create RyDung. It was a rare JV between label players. The company specialises in multi-layer and booklet labels.

Sel Jegat

Sivakasi-based Sel Jegat has a fleet of flexo, letterpress and offset with which it produces wet glue and self adhesive labels. Capable of adhesive, coupon, tea tags, roll fed, and sleeve markets. The company won the PrintWeek India Label Printer of the Year 2010 Award. In keeping with industry norms, Sel Jegat setup a full-fledged laboratory to test raw materials along with finished labels. Sel Jegat family started as a hot foil stamping unit. It has a battery of presses. It majorly supplies labels to the firecracker industry in Sivakasi. Three brothers and now their sons jointly operate the growing label printing business.

SGRE Labels

Established in 1977, the Bengaluru-based company is galloping at a fair clip. Two Gallus presses – backed by a label press from HP Indigo. Now, SGRE Labels is part of the Positive Packaging Group which offers packaging solutions to customers in various countries through a robust international sales and service network, catering to diverse sectors including FMCG, agro products and pet food. It has plants located in Khopoli, Dubai and Nigeria. Positive Packaging has an annual manufacturing capacity of 31,800 tonnes of laminates, 55,000 units of rotogravure-printing cylinders, 9,000 tonnes of metallised film, 5,400 tonnes of CPP, and 12,000 units of base shells. The 18,000 sq/ft award winning SGRE unit has a workforce of 86. The unit is backed by ERP systems. The two partners at SGRE are young and very sporty.

With a turnover of more than Rs 50-crore, Webtech is breaking records. One of the first label printers with an automatic ink kitchen. With the recent expansion in Navi Mumbai, Webtech can produce more than five-million labels per day. Amazing! Especially when you consider it all began with sticker labels. With the acquisition of a Xeikon digital press, it can handle short-runs and high-end proofing. Begun 12 years ago, these are first generation entrepreneurs – and the average age of the unit is 30. Have a plant in Parwanoo, foot hill of Simla. Webtech is one of the first label printers with an automatic ink kitchen. The company which is one of the largest users of Gidue presses has also invested in Mark Andy presses and Xeikon digital label printing press which can handle short-runs and high-end proofing. Webtech can produce more than five-million labels per day. the label printing firm has in-house pre-press which is equipped with Dupont Cyril Fast system, Kodak developing unit, Kodak Prinergy software and uses Dupont plates.

ITW Signode (formerly Wintek Flexo Prints)

Wintek in Bengaluru – changed the label game. Recently, Wintek Flexo Prints had been acquired by Hyderabad-based ITW Signode, ITW India, a subsidiary of the multibillion dollar fortune 200 global industrial products company ITW which is head quartered in Illinois, USA. The label print firm caters to exclusive brands in the pharma sector, FMCG and toiletries. It has won PrintWeek India Award and was Pre-Press Company of the Year 2009. And the jury said it was a truly deserving Award for wet-glue and self-adhesives. The firm is Gallus showroom and is equipped with latest Esko CDI platesetter. It is the first company in South to be HD certified from Esko.

A Rs 33-cr firm with a mother plant in Dehradun. A fourth press, a 10-colour is being added. Zircon’s shopfloor has four Mark Andy narrow-web presses. Last year, the company invested in EskoArtwork kit which included a flexo pre-press and plate making workflow. A sprawling factory is being constructed in “a yet to be disclosed” destination in India.

The company has finalised plans to expand. The plant in Chennai being the latest expansion is already operational. Presently, Zircon which has three printing facilities —two in Dehradun and one in Chennai —and is planning to set-up another printing unit very soon. Sanjeev Sondhi, owner of Zircon Technologies, says, “We want to have a strong presence in the Western region of the country. Since many industries are moving to Gujarat, most likely we will open a printing unit in Gujarat.”

Zircon has opened three plants in last six years, and each plant required an investment of around Rs 20 cr. The Chennai plant, for instance, was set-up on a 12000 sq/ft area. Today, it awaits an expansion plan whereby the total covered area would swell to 20,000 sq/ft. Zircon has been clocking an annual growth rate of 45%.

Spotlight

Rising brand awareness coupled with a fast adaptation of urban lifestyle has stimulated India’s packaging industry at a 20-25% growth.

Today’s packaging companies work on wide-web flexo kit and gravure from W+H, F+K, KYMC, Comexi, etc.

 These presses power the big players like Uflex which added a Comexi at Jammu plant this year,Barrier Films, IDMC (Anand, Gujarat), Cargill (Baramati), Parakh Agro, Multiflex (Chennai) andSangeeta Print N Pack who have been averaging an annual growth of 15% in the last decade. The liquid food and beverage sector is set to further escalate the industry to newer heights. Bilcare with surface printing on foil; and Dynaflex with shopping bags for premium brands and has recently booked second Comexi during Drupa.

 Daman has Glory Polyfilms and Radha Madhav, IDMC, Mother Dairy which has added Uteco CI flexo press, Propac has also added one CI flexo from WH and Kris Flexipack with a combination of gravure, flexo and even digital. This firm which is one of the biggest in shrink sleeves has won won India Star Award 2012.

There’s Taurus Packaging, Narendra Polyplast, Rollatainers.

S B Packaging, Narmada Polyplast is capable of producing high-end packaging which consists of multi-layer laminated sheets of plastics (PVC, LDPE, HDPE, BOPP, BOPET), paper, cloth, or metal foils that are used separately or in combination. Tetrapak has set high standards for its Pune plant. Tetra Pak has also started a new plant at Chakan near Pune. The total investment in the new factory is around Rs 600-crore. This is the fourth green field facility worldwide of Tetra Pak followed by Russia, China and Pakistan. The company has targeted five billion packages by 2013. In 2010, it has sold three billion packages with total revenue of Rs 850-crore. The total capacity of the new plant will be 8.5 billion packages per year, with the potential of scaling up to 16 billion packages across carton packaging materials.

Classic Image has three Gallus EM280 and multiple Heidelberg Sheetfed Offset presses. Primarily into liquor labels and with over30 foil stamping machines.

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