The second Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) conference was held in July 2013 at Grand Hyatt Goa. The delegates were welcomed by Goan artists playing traditional music
The LMAI committee start the conference by lighting the diya on day one
Vivek Kapoor, president of LMAI welcomed the 390 delegates to the show and said, "In 2011, many of us came to Goa for the first LMAI Conference. Many people said we were creating history. Today we are meeting again to repeat history"
Vivek Kapoor president of LMAI, Amit Sheth of Label Planet and Ramesh Deshpande, secretary of LMAI unveiling the LMAI Directory of members
Anil Sharma, managing director of Avery Dennison who were the platinum partner for the conference said, "We are positive and bullish on key factors like per capita consumption of most products which use pressure sensitive labels or labelling in any form. Currently, these factors haven't gained traction in India. We believe, they have a scope for growth"
A cross-section of the delegates listening to Anil Sharma's keynote address. Avery Dennison has invested $100 mn in the graphics art industry in India
Lindsay Rice, sales manager of Dupont, spoke on trends in plate and plate making and hybrid dots in flexo plate making with a video on football to epitomise team-work in a flexo unit. Today, 15 thermal flexo units are installed by Dupont in India
Peter Henderson, business development director of Esko highlighted trends in the Indian label flexo terrain. He stressed on consolidation, shorter run lengths, flexo and digital growing, automation, error reduction, MIS systems (JDF / JMF), single point of entry, web based approval systems to improve communication, contract proofing and 3D web-based proofing, and data management
Kishore Sarkar, vice president sales of Daetwyler Swisstec emphasised the importance and function of doctor blade in narrow web flexo printing
Christina Nilsson, head of Trelleborg technical centre Flint Group said, "Most of all the inks must have good flexibility and should not become brittle after shrinking.
Shrink inks should have excellent scratch resistance, this is required to withstand the sheathing process without scratching and damaging the inside/reverse printed area"
Ajay Mehta, managing director of SMI Coated Products gave an imprssive presentation on the Indian label industry segment, size, volumes, revenue and opportunities. Working on a label consumption matrix; he projected demand patterns in India
K K Sharma, one of the delegates asking a pointed question about the data in Ajay Mehta's presentation
Vivek Kapoor, Sandeep Zaveri and Gururaj Ballarwad of LMAI felicitating the Dupont team
Day one of the conference concluded with a carnival spirit - and a bit of razzmatazz
Vir Das turned on the gags and one liners during his hour-long stand up performance
The front-benchers among the delegates were tickled by the high octane punchlines from Vir Das
Day two of the conference had Lisa Milburn, managing director labels group of Tarsus Group provide an overview of LabelExpo Europe 2013. LMAI has ensured travel subsidy for its members to visit LabelExpo, Brussels. In September, 65 members will avail the subsidy, as compared to 25 during the last LabelExpo
Ranesh Bajaj, director, Creed Engineers made a detailed presentation on brand protection. He said, "Brand protection in the label industry will be a game changer. India loses Rs 26,000 crore to the grey market"
Carmen Chua, vice president marketing Asia Pacific of Avery Dennison spoke on sustainability trends and solutions in label printing. She said, "LMAI and its members can shape the agenda for sustainability in India"
Paolo Grasso, area sales manager of Omet spoke about the innovations in label printing in India. He said, "India is one of the largest print markets in the world and has wider scope to grow in the label segment"
Federico d’Annunzio, managing director Gidue highlighted the impact of the UV flexo and the printing process for a growing Indian label market. Gidue's Indian partner Reifenhauser has notched an impressive number of installs in India. Webtech Industries in Navi Mumbai is one of the largest Gidue users
Wolfgang of Kurz spoke on the boundless possibilities in label finishing. According to him, post-printing finishes play an important role in enhancing the appearance of the labels
The second presentation by H+M-Kurz highlighted types of dies and the quality which can be achieved. H+M is one of the biggest die-making company with more than 40 systems installed to make the dies
Ferdinand Rueesch, the owner of Gallus spoke about the new products being introduced during LabelExpo Europe
Samir Patkar spoke about press standards. Later during an interaction with Sachin Shardul of PrintWeek India, Patkar said, "There are 70 Gallus presses in India upto March 2013. Of which, 55 presses of the EM 280 and four of the ECS granite press"
Spring Xu of Zhejiang Weigang made a detailed presentation with the use of videos about intermittent offset presses for label making
Nilpeter's Alan Barretto made a presentation "press economics - lean production" that evoked a solid response
Manohar Dhugga of Rotoflex highlighted innovation and automation through UV led technology
Amit Ahuja of Multitec discussed the challenges of an Indian entrepreneur. The Faridabad-based manufacturer has gained a reputation in the past 12 months for its Ecoflex narrow web flexo printing press
A Appadurai of HP delivered a presentation about how digital print can offer creative print services
Josep Roca of Xeikon. The Belgium-based Xeikon has unveiled a new dry toner for use on its digital label presses ahead of Labelexpo. Today there are five Xeikons in India
Harishanker of Epson made the presentation instead of M Ramprasad. The Japanese manufacturer is renown for its micro piezo inkjet printing technology in which ink is expelled due to change in shape of a piezo element on application of voltage
Mark Huisman of Stork Prints presented his views on why label converters want to buy a solution and equipment
FIG representatives discussed the outreach of Mark Andy and Xeikon in India
Sandhya Shetty of Synergy Packaging (Silvassa) networks during a coffee break
Shashiranjan (on the phone) of ManipalTech at a stall
The Malhotra Graphics team informed us that they will enter the Indian flexo market with Xeikon's ThermoflexX digital platemaking system
The HP India team underscored the success of the Indigo range of presses which has 134 installations in India
The Esko team discussed their integrated software solution with packaging and label print professionals; and the new functionality and updates which are possible
Editor of Indian Printer Publisher and Indian industry guru, Naresh Khanna discussed the finer points of print
Satish Nayak (centre) highlighted the colour gamut in the digital print samples produced on the Surepress at Sai Packaging in Bengaluru
The SIES Graduate School of Technology team highlighted the four year engineering degree course in packaging and printing technology as a distinctive engineering career in symbiosis with the needs of industry and society
Picture Gallery: LMAI Conference in Goa
Themed as “Print Innovation”, the recently concluded two-day conference on 26 and 27 July which was organised by the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) at the Grand Hyatt, Goa, was attended by more than 390 delegates and 21 key presenters.
PrintWeek India team brings to you the action from the who's who of the Indian label industry who attended the conference ...