Just a couple of months back, in October 2025, Rajkot-based BSE and NSE-listed Rajoo Engineers invested in the majority stake of 60% in Mumbai-based Kohli Printing and Converting Machines. Apart from their structural alignment and the formal evolution of two family-owned Indian engineering companies being unique, it is their ambition and foresight in the need for scale that deserves examination and encouragement.
In an edited version of our recent conversation with Khusbhoo Doshi, managing director of Rajoo Engineers, and Kaku Kohli, managing director of Kohli Printing and Converting Machines Pvt Ltd, we reflect on the combined strengths of the two organizations in the plastic processing and converting industry.
We have visited the Rajoo Engineers and Kohli factories in Rajkot and Ambernath numerous times over the past 20 years. In September 2019, we attended an open house event in Rajkot, where Rajoo Engineers and Kohli demonstrated their jointly developed extrusion coater laminator, and thus, we are witness to the combined strengths of the two companies working together to produce extrusion coating and laminating equipment for seven years. “Our recent investment in Kohli has only fortified this strategic co-operation and put it in a more mature and organised structure with full involvement from both sides,” says Khusboo Doshi, adding, “Some industry quarters ask who is going to run Kohli Printing and Converting PL, and we have been categorical about this. There is no change as far as the operations are concerned, and Kaku Kohli remains the Managing Director of that company, which is now a subsidiary of the Rajoo Group. He will continue to run it independently, and we will retain the Kohli brand, which has great value for the new group structure.”
Both principals are keen to emphasize that this is a strategic collaboration to jointly scale the group. There is a sense of excitement as Kaku Kohli explains, “Basically, together we are trying to accelerate innovation and improve our manufacturing efficiencies. The key is to absorb and implement class-leading technology to optimize the efficiency of each machine. Our machines are globally recognized for their output quality, rated speeds, material throughput, man-machine interfaces, and safety, which match leading global benchmarks.
“Just to add to what Khusboo has said, it is known that I am very close to each customer, and these relationships with domestic and global customers remain unchanged. In fact, we want to add elements of this hands-on and personal approach to the technology-oriented and systematic approach of the larger group. This is one of the characteristics of all great engineering companies that we together aspire to.”
Rajoo Engineers is a formidable plastic processing equipment manufacturer for flexible and semi-rigid packaging materials and thermoformed articles. With the addition of Kohli’s machines and their joint developments, the group offers sophisticated blown film lines, sheet extrusion lines, rotogravure presses, coating lines, and packaging converting equipment, including thermoforming, extrusion coating and lamination, solvent-based and solventless laminators, and slitter-rewinders. Over the years, the two companies have achieved more than 7,000 installations not only in India but across the world.
We anticipate that in the current geopolitical environment with high steel, labor, and energy prices in Europe, the enlarged Rajoo Engineers group can take on the world. The group can consolidate its investment in research and development to absorb and integrate the latest design and manufacturing technologies. The technology agenda could well lead to the integration of the entire production workflow in its customers’ factories with new levels of automation, data collection, and preventive maintenance.
The demand projections for Indian and Asian packaging remain robust, while those of developed countries are tracking their GDP growth rates. We ask the two protagonists about how they see the competitive outlook in terms of technology, market demand, and growth, going forward.
“From our perspective, the market is huge, says Doshi. “There is a tremendous growth opportunity that is not just limited to flexible packaging but also for decorative printing on plastics, as well as paper. Combined with high technology absorption, research and development, our world-class machines become more accessible to our current and potential customers.”
“So, because we are relatively small from a global perspective, there are a lot of chances to grow, and that is how we are seeing this collaboration. In the export market, where both entities are very strong, and more than 65% sales are already coming from overseas, the opportunities are significant. At the same time, as Kaku Kohli says, we can realize technology improvement and manufacturing efficiencies.”
“In the current financial year, the results of Rajoo Engineers as a listed company will include the Kohli results as well, and it’s important to maintain the high growth we have achieved in past years, as committed to our investors. The market demand is growing in the same direction. That is what we are aiming for, and if we look at Rajoo Engineers’ figures over the last three years, we have registered nearly 20% year-on-year growth with 16-18% EBITDA.”
The process of significantly strengthening technical support and service to customers, including round-the-clock remote interaction through the shared synergies and infrastructure of both organizations, is already underway. “With the combined strength of our field service personnel already around 70 resources, we foresee faster response times and wider service coverage to our more than 7,000 installations in India and around the world,” Khushboo Doshi explains.
“This is a key area going forward for us, to learn from our hard-won experience over the years in serving domestic and global markets, and where we can add systems and resources. Our domain knowledge will percolate throughout our human resources, and the result will be a smoother implementation across our wide range of machines,” she says. “The know-how, learning, training, and cross-training of the two companies will make for a much more powerful force. We expect this to directly impact our customers in terms of improved installation and commissioning of new machines, and surely in terms of after-sales-support. The hands-on care and attention to customer applications will be implemented on any of the machines that you buy from us across our entire range.”
Doshi and Kohli both say the strategic collaboration is about giving plastic processors and converters better technology and stronger support, “Long-term thinking, while also keeping long-term relationships in mind.” And we can sense the confidence, spirit, and commitment that could well make the Rajoo Engineers group a global engineering powerhouse in the packaging sector to be reckoned with. While it is apparent that Khushboo Doshi and Kaku Kohli have broken new ground for the Indian and Asian engineering industry in the packaging sector, perhaps most important is their ambition and ability to collaborate for a larger goal.
