Under Forty: Celebrating 49 cool printers

PrintWeek India sets out to profile the young faces of the print industry in the Forty Under Forty compilation

Aditya would have liked to click his way to success but fate had other plans. He came on to execute quality, innovation, and ink on paper. When he is not creating print masterpieces, he explores islands and loves scuba diving

Alok is a man divided by three; print, sports and Gandhian philosophy. The third generation at Prabhat Printing Works, in his next 14 years in the industry (he wishes to retire at 50), Munot would like to travel across 100 cultures, live another 100 years

Amar is an exemplar of the old adage, actions speak louder than words; Webtech’s size and stature are nonpareil and Chhajed is a man of few words. The only thing he invests his time in (after sleep) is in expanding capacities and increasing reach

Animesh is a super strategist. A man of science. A software prodigy. An uber geek. And to top it all, he is suave.

The Tanna brothers had their plans in place as early as when they were 12 and 13 year- old. Too soon, you think? Not when one has been learning the rules of the game on the ground since then. Pssst…The brothers swear by Goa as a getaway!

One of the few entrepreneurs on our list. He has the skills and the heart. And thus enjoys a seat on both sides of the industry. Moreover, he labels most of your happy hour drinks. So be nice to him!

The Keralite is low-spirited with the ban of happy hours in the state. But Anoop gets a high on perfecting the pre-press process. He says, “The best way to a perfect print - a perfectly produced plate.”

Not all packaging converters are created equal. The Kejriwals are the bigger fish in the pool who conceptualise unconventional designs and produce award-winning packages. They consistently excel because they relentlessly experiment

Chirag was pipped to takeover the family business from the beginning. After graduation, he started his print journey with his father. Had he not been a printer, we would have been humming songs which he had penned

Dheer believes that one can tap many more opportunities that are “out there”. As of now, it is the lure of the packaging industry which entices him.

Dhruv has now been associated with the industry for over a decade. And his formula has been: Attempt the impossible in order to improve! Liberty clinched the PrintWeek India Wide-Format Printer of the Year 2014 Award

Marketing is Dwipal’s forte. He believes individual growth is not sustainable. Photo Orange, his latest venture brings together photo and print specialists. His efforts are complemented by Grishma, his sister at the helm of Shree Printwell Offset

His first love: Cars. An avid traveller. A no-nonsense perfectionist. And BMPA’s youngest president. He wishes to print a book titled : “The birth of a legend: 911 for Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.”

Falit does not take a ‘no’ for an answer. Except, may be, after his twelfth grade when he was steered into the print industry by his father (Falit wanted to be a pilot). Today Falit’s mantra is: ‘It isn’t what it costs, it’s what brings you back’

The youngest CEO on various panels. Gamyanth speaks of print as zealously as he does about football. He entered the print industry to escape the mundanity. At 22, he aspires to be listed in the Forbes Under 30 listing. Well, you do have another eight years to give it an old fashioned try!

A Chartered Accountant at 24, screens his skills to produce good quality print. Gautam lives by the mantra, ‘There is no end to learning’

The premier family of the print industry, the Paruchuris, require little introduction. Harsha is the ‘print whiz’ while Hemanth has soiled his hands to learn-it-all. What works in Pragati’s favour is that they keep the competitors (and us) guessing of the next big print idea, always…

Himanshu is the third generation of the 70-year old group. His group rolls out 2.5 crore books a year. He heads 27 branches and 325 people. He wishes to own a Bugatti Veyron

They are a trio; Himanshu, Rahul and Karan. Himanshu is the go-to-man for the tech troubles and tech jugaads on the shopfloor. Of what we know, he can successfully dismantle a machine and assemble it, too! PS: Himanshu loves to gloat about the room full of spares at their unit. It’s one of his favourite rooms

Himanshu takes pride in digital printing. He says digital technology has brought print to the common man. His proud possessions include a 27-inch iMac. After his graduation in 2004, Himanshu stepped up to fill his father, M N Pandey’s shoes

A marathoner and avid cyclist; sleeps at 9.30pm so that he can run and cycle at 5am in the morning. Alok Munot had this to say about him, “You don’t need Google if you have Hyuma Mahadevia. You can ask him anything!”

Articulate and competitive, Irfan loves his work (so do his clients). He swears by his Macs. He is the doyen of pre-press processes. Studio 6 won PrintWeek India Creative Repro Company of the Year 2014. He is just 27

Two years ago when Kashyap joined the family business, he got down to the brass tacks. He realigned the horizontals and verticals of the organisation

Kayyum believes in keeping up with time. His inclination towards digital technology, his habit of brainstorming with peers and his belief that the 60-year old Constitution needs to be amended

They are PrintWeek India Green Printing Company of the Year 2014. They have kicked-off a book revolution in education. They are an end-to-end solution for book printing

Mahesh likes collecting Swiss Watches next time you ask this, the list would have doubled

Manu could not complete his post-graduate thesis. But he has achieved milestones with the complete set-up and implementation of an MIS and colour management system

He decided to join the business during his second year in graduation. Staying current, he masterminded two e-commerce stores in two years. He isn’t done yet. He will invest Rs 25 crore in these! Only if he wins that amount...

An advocate of digital printing, Milap and Pratik Shah have exploited the web-to-print module to their and the customer’s benefit

KGN Xerox is as old as Akhter. Founded by his father in 1985, KGN today is synonymous to enterprising and expansion with six outlets in Hyderabad, an exclusive tie-up with FedEx, an online portal and most technology firsts in the city

He has just reached the 40 milestone. He, who pioneered the POD model, has conceptualised Sansrack. A venture servicing the publishers to revive the back titles. He believes, ‘Let any book not die’

Naveen has geared up to take his father, Kudip Goel’s rags to riches story to greater heights with plans to provide label and packaging products to retail clients and FMCG brands. Right now he is upbeat about their most recent investment: Heidelberg XL 75

The next gen of the packaging and label specialist learned the tricks of the trade while soiling his hands. Print enhancement, he thinks, is what takes the pie, today

The former investment banker entered the print industry by accident, while trying to get a self-authored book published. Nilesh set out to change the outlook of print. The “differentiator” aspect lies in playing in the sweet spot of commercial quality at the local printer’s price if not less

More than a decade in the industry, Todi aims to make Canpac a 360 degree committed company. A step toward this is their latest expansion plan in Bavla with a Rs 21-crore investment in a 40,000 sq/ft space and machinery

He is an avid reader, an electronic engineer, who has been an associate editor with a firm. He now spearheads the second expansion phase at MOS, aspiring to be a Rs 300 crore firm in the next five years

Priyata joined Sai Packaging in 2003. The woman in print says, “Printing is an intensive process with erratic work hours. But I see more women coming into the business now.” She works two to three times a week and spends the rest of the time with family

A decade ago, when he saw the Multivista unit for the first time, Karthik was strong-willed to join the business. At Rochester Institute of Technology, he attained his formal education. The Argentine supporter, would like to have a face-to-face with Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi

Manjushree is a regular at packaging awards. But for Kedia, grabbing an opportunity is the greatest achievement. At one such instance, he built-up a business line of Rs 10-crores p.a. in a different business vertical within eight months

The third generation of the organisation has succeeded to bring home various accolades and trophies. An essential for him is the experience that his uncle and mentor, Pramod Jain, brings to the table.

Rishabh started getting hands-on while he pursued his education. The team, he believes, is the core competency of an organisation and ‘once the right people are in the right positions, a lot is possible.'

Sanandan holds a BTech degree from the London School of Communications. What ticks for him is the sound of a press. The four time winner of PrintWeek India Post-Press Company of the Year Award is proud to be a worthy third generation printer

The company has diversified its sheetfed operations to service newspaper houses like the Indian Express and the The Times of India Group, plus in to textbook production. Saeesh mans the operations across shopfloor.

18-months in the business, Shail is using his print media degree from Rochester Institute as a peg to make the most of the technology and peers. For him, greed is good.

Sandeep is one of the young guns in the label industry. He was a part of his father’s unit, until he set up Total Print in Navi Mumbai. He also is a key mover of the LMAI Young Manager Forum

Quoting from his favourite movie, The Butterfly Effect, ‘It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world’. This (plus the ISO / Fogra certifications), says a lot about Tholasi’s passion for high quality print and why he always wanted to join the business

Once forced into the business, Ganguly now tries to better print quality at N K Gossain with his emphasis on creating innovation each day. With his investment bankers’ hat on, he has already chalked an expansion plan, from a to-be-won Rs 25-crore!

In addition to the multi-locational multi-crore book production plant, Goel is responsible to trigger a road trip of the young turks; Hyuma Mahadevia, Akshay Poddar, Vividh Makhija, Alok Munot, and Amit Sharma back in 2011. Are we sensing a reunion?

“The possibilities that a good printing press and a good printing brain can conjure are much greater than simply meeting the expectations of a customer.” Now we know why they say, “Vikas is not just him. He is also the sum total of all their print jobs.”