Design India forays into labels with Mark Andy

The eight-colour Mark Andy E5 can print 330-mm wide media at the speed of 228.6-m/min.

Amit Sharma of Design India said, “We print labels, especially battery labels, on offset printing presses. We were looking for a machine to fully diversify into label printing. We studied and found that cosmetics and liquor industries are the best options for us, and Mark Andy is the best available printing press to serve the segments. Anil Gupta of FIG educated us and shared the knowhow. Thus, we could make a decision.”

He added that shorter web length and single button preset and reset was the technical reason to choose the machine. The press is not under 100% utilisation yet, but Sharma said soon it will be.

Design India was established by Amit Sharma around two decades ago. Initially, it was an advertisement agency. Around a decade ago, the company ventured into printing. “Right now, we have the capacity to print more than one crore labels per month,” Sharma said.

Sharma’s younger brother Sumit joined the business around five years ago and is now responsible for business development and the design studio.

“We have grown from five to more than 1,100 clients in the last twenty years. We don’t work for top companies; we work for growing companies, especially from tier-II cities,” Sharma said.

He added that the company hires graduates and undergraduates and trains them in-house. “We even invite children of our employees for internships. We are growing more than 20% per annum. By adding the Mark Andy, we are expecting a growth of 30-40% this year,” he said.

The company earned Rs 18-crore turnover last year. It is expecting around Rs 32-crore this year, and Rs 50-crore in three years’ time.

“We are planning to establish a production unit in Hyderabad. Another unit will come up in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. Our new production unit in Rai Industrial Area is under development and we will shift there soon,” Sharma said.

Soon, Design India will be renamed as Powerstik Labels India. 

Gourav Roy, managing director, Flexo Image Graphics, said, “We, at FIG, is glad to be partnering with Powerstick Labels India. We found Amit and Sumit very enterprising and plan to produce special labels with their design capability and interior market reach. I personally think he will be developing a market where big boys do not want to look at this point. We see growth with the business plan Powerstick Labels India have in the next three years."