Although entry barrier is high for the label printing industry, robust growth opportunities have attracted many players, leading to tough competition in the space. To survive and thrive, cost optimization is of prime importance. Cost optimization in times of sluggish economic climate is of prime concern for Mumbai-based JK Labels, which has been in the label printing business for almost three decades. By implementing a number of innovative ways, it has managed to reduce wastage by close to 7% in the recent past. “We cannot control the competition but we can surely bring changes and innovations in house that can help us take on the competition. Reducing wastage in one such step and having managed to reduce wastage by almost 7% is a huge step towards cost optimization,” says Karan Kapur, one of the directors in the company.
The ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 accredited company has achieved this by putting in place the right systems, good monitoring set-up, right sized paper and screening operators. “We cannot control the competition but we can surely bring changes and innovations in-house that can help us take on the competition. Reducing wastage is one such step. Having managed to reduce wastage by almost 7% is a huge step towards cost optimization,” says Karan Kapur, one of the company directors. Kapur believes that to bring in such practices, a change of environment is needed in which the workforce operates. For that, the company conducts training sessions for the employees.
Another important development has been the growing focus on medium run, high-value jobs. This has helped the company grow in these competitive times. High-volume jobs are important, says Kapur, but the company is looking to build a wide portfolio of customers. “We have been open to working with a lot of new companies or start-ups that give short or medium-run jobs. Lot of other label printers would not be ready to work with such start-ups but we do our best with such customers. And we have fun,” Kapur explains.
Expansion next year
The company has been in a consolidation phase since late 2013 when it installed its second Gallus 280 label printing machine. In December 2013, the company unveiled Gallus EM 280, which was an upgrade over its earlier machine installed in 2007. The latest EM 280 has features such as auto re-register, dual camera inspection, full servo press, electronic plate mounter ink pumps, electrostatic unit cold foil lamination, embossing debossing screen printing corona and more. A part from the two Gallus machines, the company employs one 7-color high-speed UV rotary label printing machine and two 4- color label printing machines.
According to Kapur, the plan is to add two more 10-color machines in the next two years. “The last addition to our printing set-up was close to two years ago, as we have been busy consolidating during this period. We are looking forward to adding two machines by 2017.” says Kapur.
