Anil Sharma takes on bigger role in Asia at Avery Dennison

Sharma joined Avery Dennison in 2010 and has held a number of increasingly senior positions across South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining Avery Dennison, Sharma was the vice president of sales North America for Johnson Diversey and its food and beverage hygiene businesses. He also held a number of senior commercial and business management positions at Diversey, a global company operating in industrial detergents and sanitizers, jointly owned by the SC Johnson family and Unilever.

‘When I joined Avery Dennison I was scared because I came from an industry where soap making as a technology had been constant for a long time,’ said Sharma. ‘How much different can a soap be? It was the same soap my grandmother made that Hindustan Lever manufactured, too. The innovation was at best in the packaging form, and differentiation was in reaching the product faster to the market, etc.

‘When I came into the print industry I realized that innovation is almost like the internet – something is happening every day, every moment, be it the suppliers or the label manufacturers themselves. Look at the improvements in the processes, from offset to letterpress to flexo, to now digital and combination presses; we started with different types of inks to now looking to manufacture REACH compliant inks; and in finishing technology we are talking about laser die-cutting, automatic rolling, turrets, etc.’

Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) congratulated Sharma on his latest promotion at an event at the end of April, and where the association’s president Sandeep Zaveri said: ‘It is difficult to say farewell to a friend of LMAI, as Anil has been because he has done so much to get Avery Dennison and LMAI aligned as partners in activities needed for the label industry.’

Other LMAI members also paid tribute to Sharma at the event, including Vivek Kapoor, RL Deshpande, Guraraj Ballarward and Kuldeep Goel.

Bharat Mehta of Super Labels summed up Sharma’s contribution to the label industry and his talent. ‘When Anil’s predecessor Raj Srinivasan left for the USA, he left behind a large and solid footprint to match. Anil has proved his skill by not only meeting it but also raising the bar for his successor to scale.

‘Nobody has a monopoly over dreams. If it is Indra Nooyi at Pepsi, or Sundar Pichai at Google, why can’t we all dream of Anil at Avery? Let all our dreams be the motivation for Anil.’

Pankaj Bhardwaj, director for South Asia of labels and packaging materials at Avery Dennison, is set to take Sharma’s place at the company’s India operation shortly. ‘Avery Dennison has been a partner in LMAI’s pursuit to providing skilled technical resources, which has helped the industry to fulfill the challenges of trained manpower,’ said Bhardwaj. ‘We will continue to work in tandem to fulfill the aspirations of the label industry.’