Vikram Arora, founder & director, Chanakya Printing & Packaging, said, “We have seen a tremendous growth in our conversion with folder-gluers from Vijaya Grafiks. We were converting around 70,000 boxes in a 12-hour operation with our old machines. Now, with a single folder-gluer from Vijaya, we are converting more than 3.5 lakh boxes.”

Prior to investing in Vijaya Grafiks, the company was using a few pre-owned, and other India-made folder-gluers. “Vijaya machines are tailored-made,” Arora said. “Prashantha Kumar of Vijaya has the perfect knowledge of folder-gluers, and he is helpful. We have benefitted from his guidance.”

In 2015-16, Chanakya shifted its base from Okhla to Noida for a bigger space. Arora said he is happy with the facilities provided by the authority. “Noida is a better place to work and for expansion. The authorities here are friendly and have ample land, electricity and water,” he said.

He added that today customers need high quality printing with fast delivery. Also, as Chanakya is a small setup, the owner has to get involved.  The second generation of the family-owned business, Chanakya Arora, joined the business in 2018.

While the company manufactures mono cartons and corrugated boxes, Arora said, during the pandemic, it added a stationery unit for its long-standing client, Luxor.

The company shopfloor includes multiple multicolour printing presses, lamination machines from PS Graphics, and post-press equipment. It has also purchased new land for greenfield expansion.

“We have six floors in the existing unit. But we were running out of space. Therefore, we went for another plot of 800-sqm in front of our facility,” Arora said. “The new facility will be dedicated to corrugation. We manufacture narrow, broad and E-flutes in corrugation with Chinese equipment, and machines from BK Industries. We convert around 200 tonnes of kraft per month. In mono cartons, we convert around 350 tonnes of paper and board per month,” he said.

He added that there are plans to add more machines in the new facility.

Arora ventured into packaging-printing on the suggestion of a family member. “I come from a service family, and I was in a well-settled job. But I had an interest in business and got the opportunity. With no technical background, I had learnt everything with hands-on experience,” he said.

Arora said, during the pandemic, the company doubled its turnover from Rs 12 to Rs 24-crore.

Vikram Arora is responsible for administration and finance and son, Chanakya, is responsible for purchases, quality, business development and marketing.