L&E India is a packaging resource company that helps brand owners design and execute their packaging materials across the country. The parent company, L&E International, headquartered in New York. It is a leading global supplier of packaging and packaging-related materials to the footwear, athletic, retail consumer product industries and various global brands. With offices and warehouses in Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the company supplies hundreds of millions of boxes, retail displays and assorted printed and unprinted items each year to major brands all around the world.

The 50-year-old company started its operations in India in 2007.

In 2014, L&E India, in collaboration with SP TechPac Solutions in Kundli, purchased an Esko Kongsberg V20 sample-making table. “We did are our study and after discussing it with many of our printing partners who have the real experience, we got to know that Esko is the right company to go with as they also have a good name and support in the industry. So, we went ahead and bought a brand new Esko Kongsberg V20, large format digital finishing system,” said Vikas Gupta, country manager and sales director – emerging markets, L&E India.   

The sample-making solution from Esko was a huge success. However, both companies quickly outgrew the arrangement and each needed an in-house sample-maker of their own. Thus, in September 2015, L&E India bought a complete solution including Esko ArtiosCAD software and a Kongsberg V20 for its new office in Patparganj in New Delhi.

Gupta, added, “Generally companies source globally from regions such as Asia, South-east Asia or Asia Pacific and we understand their packaging requirements, their pain areas and work directly with brands as we are present everywhere. L&E is a single point contact with local teams situated in all the above-mentioned regions.”

L&E India is a nominated supplier of brands such as Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Bata, Action Shoes and Home Depot, amongst others.

With dedicated tools specifically designed for packaging professionals for structural design, product development, virtual prototyping and manufacturing, ArtiosCAD is the ideal product for all corrugated, folding carton and POP, POS, FSDU display designers and is unrivalled in structural packaging design.

The Kongsberg V cutters come in standard configurations for sample-making, signage and display production. The Kongsberg V offers a broad selection of tools, providing quality results on a wide range of cutting, creasing, and plotting tasks. There are two kinds of Kongsberg V tables. The Kongsberg V for packaging is a cutting table configured for sample-making, short-run production of mock-ups and other packaging specific applications. The Kongsberg V for signage and displays comes with a MultiCut tool head offering milling productivity and a camera system.

Gupta explained, “It was getting difficult for us to service our end customers and to offer them various options in line with their specific needs and provide faster turnaround in order to execute the orders. In addition, there is a lead-time of four to five days involved in die manufacturing, for a sample die-cut carton to be made at the manufacturing facilities and sent to us. This was consuming a lot of time, and we saw a strong need of an in-house sample maker CAD table.”

He added that since the use of the Esko Kongsberg V20 table, the company’s turnaround time has reduced to 24 hours from four to five days. “It has helped to get more and more orders. My customers are satisfied to see the sample within a short timeframe. This also helps us in refraining from investing in-dies fulfilling the real purpose of a CAD table. Now we are able to provide services to our customers in no time,” Gupta concluded.

Shrihari Rao, sales director of Esko in India, said, “We are happy that L&E recognised the versatility that Kongsberg offers in terms of tooling and the continuous developments we make for each of the applications. They needed the best of both worlds – cartons and corrugated- and our solutions fit in perfectly. L&E in India has been working with many converters, like SP TechPack in North India and MK Industries in West India, who also invested in our solutions (ArtiosCAD and Kongsberg V Series). Esko’s major strength in the Indian market is its post-sales support with around 100 Kongsberg table installations in this region alone.”

Esko is a global supplier of integrated solutions for the packaging and labels, sign and display, commercial printing and publishing industries. Esko products and services drive profitability in the packaging and printing supply chain by reducing time-to-market and raising productivity.