Interview

Kantilal Shah, Managing Director, Acme Machinery, nurtured a dream of making it big in the printing industry forty-nine years ago. Started as a trading unit in printing and allied machinery, the company now boasts of manufacturing some of the most sophisticated machinery required in the printing and packaging industry. The company also exports its machinery to various countries. Being the stalwarts in this business for over four decades, the company wants to give the Indian market substitute for the imported printing machinery. Priya Sawardekar speaks to Mr. Shah exclusively for Packaging Material Purchase…

It’s been almost four decades as far as my association with the printing industry is concerned. I started this business about forty-nine years ago in 1961 with Rs. 5 lakhs as my initial investment. Looking at the requirements of the printing industry I embarked upon a dream to start something on my own for the printing industry. So, I studied the market scenario in the printing industry and the difficulties, investigated on the problems and finding solutions for the same. This gave rise to Acme print Engineering Company in 1961, as a trading unit in printing and allied machinery catering mainly printing presses around India. The company has built up its reputation through integrity of its partners and service-oriented approach to the printing industry.

The company started its manufacturing activities in the year 1970 as a small scale unit starting with Treadle Printing Press and Semi Automatic Paper cutters and later on pioneered to manufacture some of the most sophisticated machinery such as

• Exercise note book manufacturing plant
• Automatic carton folding and pasting machines for cigarette, toothpaste, pharmaceutical, cosmetics cartons etc.
• Automatic Hydraulic paper cutting machines, now also offered with Microprocessor Programme Control
• Corrugated box making plants
• Printing & Allied Machines

Our CountO Fold machinery, which is doing well in the market, has the following technical specification

• Folding and counting machine counts and folds from 2 to 12 sheets with one or two folds (parallel fold) for exercise books, album, etc.
• Automatic high pile feeder folded and counted work is delivered in streaming fed.
• The sheets counting are by electronic counter.
• Easy handling ensures regular performances

Data

Maximum Sheet size: 860 x 830 mm
Minimum Sheet size: 400 x 350 mm
Folding Capacity: 2 to 12 sheets depending upon condition and quality of paper
Mechanical speed: Maximum 180 to 200 sheets per minute
Pile Stack capacity: 10 to 12 reams
Power required: total 2.5 H.P. /3 Phase. /440v
Floor Space required: 1400 x 3600 x 1250 mm
Machine Weight: Aprox 2000 Kgs

The company’s head office is in Matunga while its manufacturing plant is in Kalyan.

Not at all ! If that were the case, we would have not started any manufacturing units here and would not be doing it so well for so many years. Importing machinery and copying it accordingly is what we have been doing for so many years. The import duty makes it difficult for us to import certain machinery. But then there is always an alternative as we can again sell this imported machinery in the market and make money. That way we are saved from spending so much on the machinery. We make machinery suited to the Indian printing industry.

Our automatic carton folding and pasting machine cost around 13.5 lakh whereas the imported machinery costs around 1 core 50 lakh which, is more than what is available at a reasonable rate in the market. So, definitely manufacturing the machinery for printing becomes more easily and also because of the reasonable rates and good quality products people would like to buy rather than import it.

You have to face competition when you are in business. I’m in this business for more than forty-nine years now. So, can understand the pulse of the market. We have been improving the quality of the machinery everyday. There is heavy competition both from indigenous and global market. To beat such competition one has to give better quality products. We also provide after sales support to our clients in need of emergency. We have skilled labourers with us who are there with us for more than 15 years now. Care should be taken by giving them increment s and bonus on timely basis to keep them lured to work more. The type of sophisticated machinery we make its difficult to employ inefficient and unskilled labours. I believe that the competition should be a healthy one, which gives a company to improve its quality and products. Without tough competition a person is not in a position to understand whether his product is upto the mark and is able to fulfil the demand of the industry.

The company believes in providing better quality machinery to the industry.

We believe in providing new things in the market. We want to give substitution to imports. We have a well-equipped workshop in our factory wherein we have two engineers who take care of our complete manufacturing activities. The company takes every care about there after sales service so that the users would not face any difficulty in the future.

With all this qualities Acme is still going strong after so many years. We have a long client list, which includes Parksons Printers, Borkar Printers, Print & Pack, Auurd Offset, Sundaram Printers etc. These are the well-known names in the printing industry and we are proud to be associated with them.

There is slowdown in the industry and all the sectors are affected majorly. Tough competition is going on in the market. Demand has gone down and so is the supply. But we are least affected by slowdown and are heavily booked. Still we are taking every precaution to avoid recession. We are concentrating on exports of corrugated box making plant, which is supplied and installed in Bangladesh. We started export activities in 1973 and are exporting to countries like Bangladesh, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, East and West Africa, Egypt etc. The company exports its products and machinery parts even to USA & Germany and also supplies its box stitching machines to UK. Apart from all this, the company is headed by dynamic team of partners, ever eager to develop new lines of allied machinery and innovate the existing range of machinery for better performance. This helps us to cope with the recession.

Facing difficulties and finding solutions for the same are part and parcel of the business. We face difficulties such as shortage of power supply in our manufacturing plant. At times unavailability of skilled labour also causes problems at the times of delivery.
We manufacture which needs assembling of smaller parts to make it into proper machines. So, we need skilled and efficient labourers. If one such labourer is absent we find it difficult to give the delivery of the machinery on proper time.

The future is very bright. The growth potential of the Indian market is tremendous but government decisions, policies have to change, and especially the import duties should be brought down. As a result it becomes difficult to import certain machinery. Indian government has to invest a lot of money in developing the infrastructure to improve economy. Apart from all this it also needs to upgrade the existing one. We are in this business for 49 years now and will continue to make the best of it.

We want to give substitution for import by manufacturing new machinery in the printing arena. For this purpose, we want to study the new machinery available abroad and then bring it to India. We want to manufacture machinery, which is affordable to the Indian entrepreneurs in the printing industry.

What are the essential leadership qualities in today’s environment?

A leader should be well aware of the market conditions and act accordingly. That doesn’t mean that a leader should reduce salaries or manpower instead, if the cost of labour is increasing, he should increase production, which would bring down cost and vice-versa. He should encourage research and development activities in his company, which in turn will bring in good quality machinery with good demand in the market. This formula has made us a name to reckon with in the printing industry. Even my son Ketan Shah who looks after my business has adopted this formula to success.

Tetra Pak introduces innovative alternative to cans

NEWSBREAK

Tetra Pak Canada Inc. maker of the popular Tetra Brik Aseptic carton or "drink box," unveiled its innovative Tetra Recart packaging system at Grocery Innovations Canada 2001 in Toronto. Tetra Recart is a retortable carton packaging system suitable for foods that are traditionally canned or packed in glass jars.

The new system uses trusted retorting technology, (i.e. the filled container is sterilized through a thermal process.). This provides an alternative packaging solution that is suitable for a variety of food products such as soups, sauces, tomato products, fruits, vegetables and pet foods.

The cartons have an easy to open perforated lid that does not require an opener - simply unfold and tear. Also, there are no sharp edges when the package is open, making it safe for children to use. Additional benefits are the package’s lightweight and convenient rectangular shape that can increase the number of packages displayed on a shelf by 30 to 50 percent. The shape is also ideal for retail display since the package’s flat surface prevents graphics from slipping out of position on the shelf.

This is the first time in history of the packaging industry that "retorted" food has been packed in cartons, but it also represents a new business area for Tetra Pak — which has previously focused its efforts on liquid food packaging.From a technological standpoint, Tetra Recart is a breakthrough since it has long been considered impossible to "boil" a carton - a key step in the retorting process.

As with all Tetra Pak packages, the 400ml (375g) Tetra Recart carton
is 100 percent recyclable. The carton material is 75 percent paperboard with a
polymer coating and a paper-thin aluminum lining. Unlike cans that arrive for filling pre-formed - taking up great amounts of space - one palette of the source materials for the Tetra Recart process can make 35,000 cartons, while a single truckload can reach the one million-unit mark. With overall costs that are competitive to canning, the Tetra Recart system can produce up to 24,000 filled and sealed cartons per hour.

Still in its infancy, the Tetra Recart carton is currently only available in Italy and the UK, where it is being used to package Nestle’s Friskies brand dog food. Tetra Pak is hoping to bring the Tetra Recart to North America in the near future.

Tetra Pak has a long history of innovation in the design and development of food processing solutions. In Canada, the company is most widely known for one billion Tetra Brik, Aseptic cartons or "drink boxes" it sells annually, mainly in the juice and soy categories. Recently, the company launched its 1000ml Tetra Prisma(R) Aseptic carton, the first family-sized, eight-sided carton in the world.