Sandeep Zaveri elected as the president of LMAI

Sandeep Zaveri is one of the young guns in the label industry. Armed with a printing technology degree from the London College of Printing and a BTech in Business and Finance from Birmingham University. He was a part of his father’s unit, until he set up Total Print in Navi Mumbai. Total Print Solutions is a facility for manufacturing pressure sensitive labels and tags.

23 Oct 2015 | By Ramu Ramanathan

Zaveri has always been a key mover of the LMAI Young Manager Forum. He has now been appointed as the president of the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI). In a conversation with Ramu Ramanathan of PrintWeek India, Zaveri shares his action plans and initiatives as the president of LMAI.

Ramu Ramanathan (RR): As the president of LMAI, on which project(s) will you be working on during your tenure?
Sandeep Zaveri (SZ): I plan to conduct workshops and work towards finding solutions on recycling of wastage from the industry
 
RR: The Labelexpo concluded recently, and it was a bewildering show. What with digital inkjet and packaging infiltrating into this space. What do you think about it?
SZ: Well, I feel digital is the technology to look at. But the capital cost and the ROI for the project should be viable too. It looks like this will take around three to four years for the Indian market to go full swing.
 
RR: Your best print guru was your dad, Jagdishbhai Zaveri. Other than him, who were the other people you have come across, worked with or read about, who have been the most influential in your life?
SZ: Like you rightly said it has been my dad, and I also admire Anand Limaye. I have learnt a lot of things from him and can keep listening to his experiences; whether it is about printing or the work he has done for our print fraternity
 
RR: According to you, what are the salient features of a good label printer in India?
SZ: Besides keeping the commitments, quality and service along with upgrading of knowledge and technology are some of the features which makes up for being a good label printer.
 
RR: What kind of best practice do you as the president of LAMI expect from a print firm? And how many Indian print firms adhere to this?
SZ: It is extremely important for a firm and LMAI to jointly work on the restructuring of costing. Also, we as an industry should look for various means and solutions for recycling and sustainability and get ourselves upgraded in terms of technology by means of training at every step.
 
RR: Your view on trends observed in print spends on labels?
SZ: The trends observed are healthy and the print spend are definitely on the rise. 
 
RR: What will be your focus for the next LMAI conference?
SZ: Currently our plan is to start working on conducting workshops. The next conference will be in 2018 and there is a long way to go. We are still in the process of brainstorming.
 
RR: Which of your print partners or vendors do you most enjoy discussing print with - at the LMAI conference? And what were the best conversations about the print you had?
SZ: LMAI conference is the best medium to get the label industry at a common platform. It has now become convenient in terms of access to the supplier as well as for a label converter.
 
RR: How does the sensitive price point for the Indian market affect labels and as a consequence the quality of printing? Will LMAI initiate a dialogue with the buyers/brands?
SZ: Yes, we are looking at continuous awareness on costing. There is a pressing need for the selling price of the labels to be re-structured 
 
RR: How can printers address the pain points in the supply chain? Has LMAI defined these pain points?
SZ: We are working on addressing the pain points of the industry, for example, addressing the price issues, taxations etc.
 
RR: Which label print job surprised you?
SZ: Every award winning label print job teaches me and helps me to improve. I would not say I was surprised, but I believe it’s a learning process in which I am sailing.
 
RR: What was the last label print job you saw which made you happy?
SZ: Recently at the Global Awards, I came across a label which was printed by a Chinese printer, though it was not a very complicated job, but it was very finely printed with perfect registration, dots.
 
RR: One advice to your fellow printers to produce a quality job?
SZ: I believe in this and would like to tell my friends who are label printer that jobs need not be complicated and even a single colour finely printed label can win any award if it is finely printed.
 
RR: In future what can we expect of Total Print?
SZ: The immediate plan is to invest in another flexo press and exploring the options for the same.