K Vijayakumar of Lovely Offset passes away

A great visionary, Vijayakumar, through his leadership skills over the years, guided Lovely Offset to be among the top printers in the country. In fact, the modern Lovely plant was his brainchild.

A voracious reader, Vijayakumar could debate on any subject under the sun.

Born on 24 November 1966, Vijayakumar had a diploma from the School of Printing Technology, Sivakasi, where he underwent training in operating colour scanners, and later trained at both Komori and Ryobi factories at the young age of 18.

“He had a natural flair for mechanical engineering and could pick up any technology quickly and thoroughly. Very few people in the industry have such technical knowledge, said K Selvakumar, director, Lovely Offset Printers.

Lovely Offset was founded in 1961 by C Kadarkarai. A self-made man, he specialised in the printing of self-designed papers and wedding cards.

Later, Vijayakumar, together with his brothers, K Balamurugan, K Selvakumar and K Senthil Kumar, helped leap-frog the company into a new league with an expansion on a 28-acre plot.

K Balamurugan, who was the eldest among the four brothers, passed away in 2006.

Selvakumar said his brother was a sharp decision-maker who did not believe in formalities. “He had concluded several multi-crore machinery deals in a single sitting with the manufactures,” he said.

He also had the habit of opening LCs for equipment within 2-3 days of completion of a deal.

Vijayakumar also did not believe in wasting time on negotiations. He usually trusted suppliers to give him the best possible rate at the first instance itself. And the trust paid off. Selvakumar said, Vijayakumar had a knack for finding the right vendors and he remained loyal to them. Most of Lovely's vendors are with the company for decades.

“He trusted people and rewarded their loyalty with his unflinching support. He never went back on his word,” Selvakumar said. This applied to sharing knowledge as well. He was a generous person who never hesitated to share technical knowledge even with competitors.

But most of all, Vijayakumar believed in thinking big and putting in the hard work to achieve his goals.

Selvakumar said apart from printing, the biggest passion of his brother’s life was cars and driving. “If my father had allowed, he could have easily been a successful race driver.” Instead, he owned a fleet of fancy cars.

Vijayakumar was also involved in religious and social activities without any sort of expectations or publicity. He had been training the next generation of boys in the family rigorously for the past few years on various subjects.

Vijayakumar’s son Vivek, who has an MS in Print Media from Chemnitz, Germany, will succeed him.