Established in 1976, Super Label has been in the business of printing and manufacturing of self adhesive labels and has been one of the early movers in label printing industry. Since then, label print firm has been providing solutions to multinational and corporate houses across India, gradually expanding services and building up a strong clientele. From introducing the first four-colour water-based flexo in India, to the first six-colour and eight-colour UV flexo machines, Super Label is constantly innovating to provide creative, customised solutions for its clients.
 

The Navi Mumbai-based Super Label specialises in printing and manufacturing quality adhesive labels for products spanning from health-beauty, personal care, pharmaceuticals, confectionary to beverages.
 

Dhaval Mehta, director at Super Label says, “With a variety of printing options, we can offer a line of labels for any product and industry. We have been investing and will continue to invest in the latest technology which can produce and deliver quality labels.”

 

A positive re-start

In 2004, the fire gutted the Mumbai unit of Super Label. This incident was a huge setback for the label print firm. But with a determination to overcome this, Bharat Mehta, chairman of Super Label rebuilt a new plant at Navi Mumbai moving out of its Mumbai unit.
 

Mehta says, “It was really a difficult and a struggle period for us, as we had to shift our entire facility from Mumbai to a new location in Navi Mumbai. We have invested millions of rupees to establish the printing plant.” 

 

Women power

Although Bharat Mehta is a workaholic, they say he is passionate about each and every label that is produced in his press and personally supervises the post-press activities to assure quality, which he believes is the key to success. 
 

The quality control department consists of automatic defect detection systems. The company employs around 50% women in various departments of production, including QC and QA. This is, in true sense, women empowerment.  
 

Mehta adds, “We are highly conscientious about maintaining the highest degree of quality control in every aspect right from the materials used for printing, to delivery and after-sales services. This is why we employ only the most professionally trained staff to oversee every process.”

 

Investment in technology 

The 16,000 sq/ft manufacturing facility is based at Mahape, Navi Mumbai and is equipped with the latest label printing technology from Gallus, high-end inks from Flint Group, defect detection systems from Germany and label stock from Avery Dennison. Till date, the label printing firm has invested around Rs 20-crore.
 

A Gallus customer, Super Label deploys UV technology to cater to label products spanning from health and beauty, personal care, pharmaceuticals, confectionary to beverages. The journey began with an Aquaflex and then the UV Gallus 280 with inline screen and hot foil stamping, along with defect detection systems. The firm recently invested in third Gallus EM280 UV narrow web flexo press as it felt the need of increasing the capacity.
 

Mehta says, “We believe in producing high quality premium label product and don’t compromise for anything cheap. This is why we have invested in high-end equipment and consumables. We don’t change our partners which include manufacturer and suppliers.” 
 

Mehta adds, “Over a period of time, we have trusted on Gallus technology for producing quality labels. They have been supporting us with the right technology.”
 

Samir Patkar, managing director-South Asia at Gallus India, says, “Super Label has been popularly seen as a high quality pharma label printer. They have now diversified in high quality cosmetic and labels as well. Bharat Mehta got the first Gallus EM280 in India in 1998 much before the EAC/Heidelberg days and became partners with Gallus in 2000. We can officially say he is the person who really started the EM280 era in India.” Since then Gallus has installed 60 EM 280s narrow web flexo presses in India. 
 

Patkar adds, “They got us a very sound base of reference along with Wintek Flexo in the earlier years.”
 

Super Label since then has not looked back. The firm believes in high quality production, print-finish, operational efficiency and a high acumen for consistency. 
 

Patkar says, “Mehta believes in his partners and as I am often told his module is kept simple as he has to deal with only four suppliers, Avery Dennison for PS stocks, Gallus for presses, Flint Inks and K&B for toolings. As a company they possess good knowledge on pre-press which has not been an easy journey since 1998 with so many  developments. It can get complicated to print flexo or screen or hotfoil inline and with less wastages if you do not have the correct pre-press knowledge. “

 

Digital’s the future

With short-runs getting shorter, Mehta believes that digital is going to be the game changer in the future. “Digital is growing because of small volumes and the set-up cost is negligible,” he says. 

“Direct to plate, HD plate, digital printing presses, and different quality of inks will be future’s technology. Offset has come to the end of the road and letterpress will be eased out. Therefore, there are huge opportunities for flexo. There are several companies, which demand short or very short run labels.”  

 

Premium price

The company also feels that crass-cost cutting should not be practised for maintaining the growth story of the industry. “Do not drop your prices; you are killing your industry yourself. Dropping price means compromising with quality,” says Mehta.  
 

According to Mehta, Indian consumers are ready to pay for the right quality, “The Indian middle class is growing at a fair clip. Today Indian people are very conscious about the product and quality that they buy. The choice available is very wide right from small and medium scale to the MNCs.” he concludes. 

Factfile Established 1976 Location Mahape, Navi Mumbai Speciality Premium adhesive labels for products spanning from health-beauty, personal care, pharmaceuticals, confectionary to beverages Equipment Three Gallus EM280 narrow web flexo presses, automatic defect detection systems Staff 80