Happy Birthday Narendra Paruchuri

Narendra Paruchuri has built an impeccable name for Pragati over his 35 years in the printing industry. Pragati has made a name for itself in both the domestic as well as international circles for the quality that it has shown is possible in India.

Pragati was started as a small letterpress unit in 1962 by Narendra’s father, Shri Paruchuri Hanumantha Rao. Pragati is today the highest awarded printer in India, and has internationally put India on the map of printing excellence. It has won the highest accolades in the printing industry, including prestigious international awards such as the SAPPI International Printer of the Year (thrice in 2006, 2008 and 2010). No other printer in Australasia (all of Asia and Australia, including Japan) has ever won a SAPPI International Printer of the Year award – so with three of these awards in succession, Pragati is recognized as the highest quality printer in this entire region.

Pragati has also been a winner of multiple World Star packaging awards since 2002 – considered the highest awards in the packaging field. In the latest 2013 competition, Pragati won three awards – the highest by any Indian company.

A chemical engineer who became a printer
A chemical engineer by education, Narendra had a short stint at Roxy Metal Finishing in Bangalore before he decided to join the printing business started by his father in Hyderabad. This was in 1978, and Pragati was just moving from the traditional letterpress printing to the more modern offset printing. While the industry was new to him, he was an avid reader and his decision in 1979 to set up a phototypesetting machine paid the company rich dividends. This was the first machine in South India and it changed the paradigm from hand setting of type to computerised typesetting with a choice of various fonts, etc. He was joined by his brother Mahendra, a commerce graduate, in 1980, and together they led Pragati on a highly successful trajectory.

Narendra’s desire to move printing from just ‘ink on paper’ to a high value added product, and belief that the developing Indian market wanted the best in the world in terms of print quality as well as embellishments to make the printed product stand out, saw him bring many pioneering technologies into India. After the first phototypesetting machine in South India, he brought in the first five-colour offset machine with computerised controls in India in 1988. It was under his leadership that Pragati offered the ‘Spot UV Coating’ technology for the first time in India in 1996, where selective portions of the printed item could be made to stand out with a very highly glossy coating. He also installed the first high-end computer-to-plate systems in India in 2003, where the master plates were made directly by lasers controlled by the computer – which gives a high degree of accuracy, quality and repeatability.

Diversifying and achieving Rs 220 crore
A believer of sticking to one’s core competencies, he led the company’s diversification strategy into allied fields of packaging and point-of-purchase materials. The combined turnover of the group reached Rs 220 crore in the financial year 2012-2013.

With his finger always on the pulse of the market, he unerringly brought in new technologies that differentiated the products printed at Pragati and led to customer delight. He firmly believed in not directly copying the West in terms of technology, but keeping in mind the Indian context of abundant skilled labour and the importance of generating employment, and invested in both machinery as well as in people and their training so that the right assets could be used in the right areas.

His philosophy of being a part of the customers team and thinking on their behalf in terms of making choices that had the best impact as well as made for a good value endeared the company to its clients. The roster boasts on many of the top corporates in India. For example, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's Labs, ITC Limited, Infosys, etc.

Partners in progress
At the same time, he treated vendors as partners in progress, and today Pragati has an impeccable name amongst its suppliers, and they give Pragati the highest preference and service.

Narendra always attributes the success of the company mainly to the team whose skill and more importantly, their passion, which ensures that every project is treated with the same same intensity and desire to make it better. Narendra attributes creating a team with the passion as the most important building block to excellence.

He was also instrumental in setting up the Pragati Charitable Trust, which works mainly in the areas of primary healthcare for women and children. Over 18,000 patients are registered with the Trust, and a weekly clinic is held in the Mokila village in the outskirts of Hyderabad, where about a 100 to 200 patients turn up each week for free consultation and medicines. Any operative procedures if required are carried out at subsidised rates.

Happy birthday.

Hemant Paruchuri is the director at Pragati Pack