LMAI Conference 2015 gets bigger and better

The Label Manufacturers’ Association of India (LMAI) organized its third conference in the pink city of Jaipur from July 16-18, 2015. The conference was attended by 450 registered delegates of which 200 were printers from 135 printing firms and 250 were associate members. In 2013, the LMAI conference was attended by 360 delegates. The third edition of LMAI conference was sponsored by 23 companies.

Vivek Kapoor, president, LMAI, welcomed the gathering on July 16 with a presentation on achievements of the association and contribution of Tarsus Group towards its success. He asked fellow members to ‘come forward and vote for a change to improve the Indian label industry.’ This year’s conference coincided with the 13th anniversary of the association, celebrated with a cake-cutting ceremony by the managing committee.

New features at the conference included an interactive and frank panel discussion with prominent Indian label printers moderated by Harveer Sahni, managing director, Weldon Celloplast. A round-table was arranged exclusively for sponsors to have personal business meetings with printers attending the conference.

Both the initiatives were appreciated and are expected to continue in the next edition. Kapoor said: ‘We received a positive response for the round-table. Sponsors were delighted with this initiative.’

Gourav Roy, managing director of FIG, revealed that he met 22 new printers at the round-table that he had no idea existed. ‘It was a great opportunity that LMAI presented the sponsors with,’ he said.

Manish Kapoor, country head sales, Nilpeter, said that it was a good initiative for sponsors. ‘We met all converters who attended the conference which normally does not happen while networking. It brought a lot of value to us and we met some new printers as well.’

SMI Coated Products showcased new products to targeted printers at the round-table conference. Ajay Mehta, managing director, said: ‘It’s a fantastic concept where you can meet all printers. We met quite a few new printers and got a good initial response for filmic labels that we introduced at the round-table.’

On July 17 and 18, sponsors gave presentations on varied topics including sustainability, cost reduction, pre-press, digital plate making and UV-LED.

Avery Dennison, UPM Raflatac and Martin Automatic focused on the significance of sustainability.

Sailesh Kapur, director, product management, Labels & Packaging Material, Asia Pacific, Avery Dennison, said: ‘Sustainability makes business sense. It is focused on achieving zero waste to landfill and anticipate cost related to packaging waste regulation. Brand owners are leading the change, stressed on reuse, reduce and recycle waste. The quicker we align ourselves with this, more business sense it will make for us.’ He added that in India, 99.6 percent of Avery Dennison’s waste is diverted from landfill for reuse or recycling; globally 85 percent of the company’s waste is landfill free.