SMI to celebrate silver jubilee

The celebrations will include a factory tour and gala dinner for its customers and friends from the label industry. 

The company started with just 11 people in Daman on a 750 sqm plot, and today has a team of more than 200 in Ambernath. SMI Coated Products shifted premises to its current location in 2008 and has been adding land and capacity to meet market demand and growing in double digits ever since. Its factory is now located on 25,000 sqm of land. 

SMI Coated Products managing director Ajay Mehta said: ‘Today, we produce more than 100 million sqm of labelstock annually on two water-based coating machines, two hot melt coating machines, two silicone coating machines, and one in-line silicone and coating machine. Three sheet cutting machines, and three slitters in India and one in Dubai are used to finish products for customers. With new equipment, the installed capacity will be 190 million sqm.’

SMI can further double the production capacity in the current premises. 

Focused on improving customer interaction, the company launched a mobile application in 2016, which is being used by more than 1,000 users. ‘The app has been appreciated by customers and several other companies in countries where we are not even exporting,’ commented Rohit Mehta, corporate director at SMI Coated Products. ‘It is not only a platform to interact with customers but is also potentially a great marketing tool. We have, thus, been working on the 2.0 version of the app based on customer feedback, and will launch a more interactive and detailed application during the silver jubilee celebration in February.’ 

SMI Coated Products continues to support the industry with new products and technologies while assisting customers to cope with various challenges. Rohit Mehta said that the company innovated and delivered about 100 products to address customers problems in six months. Citing examples, he said: ‘We suggest using PE instead of PP material on squeezable labels on larger containers which offers three-fold advantage. First, instead of 86gsm film, we now use 46gsm film which is a huge environmental impact as it reduces the consumption of plastic material by 50 percent. Secondly, PP is a domestic film so supports the Make in India movement, and lastly, reduced grammage and different constitution of the film brings down the cost of the label as well.’ 

Mehta also advocates the use of filmic label on lubricant containers to completely avoid the problem of bubbles. ‘Paper label contracts in the day while the container expands and vice versa in the night. The paper contraction and expansion is based on the moisture and containers’ heat. So, if replaced with film, it removes all problems of bubbles,’ he explained. 

SMI Coated Products will further launch new products on February 2 to support the industry.