LMAI hosts brand owners and printers interaction

LMAI hosted a gathering of more than 90 printers and brand owners for an interaction in Mumbai on March 12, 2019.

LMAI hosted a gathering of more than 90 printers and brand owners for an interaction in Mumbai on March 12, 2019.

Organized by Harveer Sahni, chairman of Weldon Celloplast, the event was attended by the who’s who from the local label printing fraternity and prominent brands including Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Future Consumer Group, HPPCL, Patanjali Ayurved, Pernord Ricard and Mylan India. The interactive evening was supported by Avery Dennison, Creative Graphics and SMI Coated Products.

The evening commenced with a keynote from Suresh Gupta, former chairman, Huhtamaki-PPL, who discussed the growth of the company over years and explained the need for smart labels and new technology such as Internet of Things (IoT) for data analysis and supply chain to give just-in-time solutions to customers. He further indicated that the investment in digital technology, recycling, anti-counterfeiting features and machinery is essential to stay ahead of the curve.

Somnath Chatterjee, head of procurement, Pernord Ricard listed out challenges in today’s market scenario and the need for innovation and efficient value chain. ‘Today's short time modern consumers need age appropriate, application appropriate packaging that caters to their lifestyle attitude. Theme based packaging is catching up and constant improvisation on design is happening,’ he said.

Turning to label printers, he insisted that wastages must be controlled, change-over time need to reduce further, and brands need even shorter lead times because they have to react to market demands fast. He further added, ‘We have more than 6,800 SKUs in labels so servicing SKUs is essential while being compliant.’

Another challenge, he stated, was that of counterfeiting in the liquor industry. ‘Amongst many anti-counterfeit solutions, we have narrowed down to polycarbonate caps, unique identity codes and void labels but even these are not full proof solutions. Counterfeiters use the same bottles as ours so the solution has to be on the label. We are, however, forced to buy holographic labels with few to no features from authorised government approved printers so we have no choice. We need you to work with the government to add more security features on holographic labels.’

‘We have to bring consumer in the centre. Label stock manufacturers, label manufacturers, machine manufacturers, ink supplier, and all industry forces have to work together and cater to consumer demand,’ Chatterjee concluded.

Vishwas Jangam, packaging development manager at Future Consumer Group took forward the discussion and said that every Big Bazaar store houses more than 25,000 SKUs and a consumer has 12 to 13 seconds to make a decision. ‘So, labels and packaging plays a very important role in consumer behaviour. Label has transformed from just giving information to being interactive.’ He then went on share some new labelling trends that the company is adapting.

Anil Choubey, head packaging development, Patanjali Ayurved, said that the company was open to suggestions and ideas from label fraternity to further develop their labels and packaging.

Ajay Bapat, associate director packaging development, Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Prabhir Kumar Das, head packaging, technical services, Mylan India discussed the label requirements for pharmaceutical industries that included zero tolerance for any mistakes and mix-ups, cleanliness, hygiene, just-in-time delivery as well as personalized and smart labeling.

At the end of the event, LMAI announced its fifth conference that is scheduled from July 25-28, in Kochi in southern part of India.