Rajubhai, Ahmedabad’s label press manufacturer, passes away
RK Label Printing Machinery’s founder and proprietor, Raju Thaningasalam is no more. The Ahmedabad-based entrepreneur, who was on a business trip to Chennai, suffered a massive heart attack in the early hours on 21 November 2021 and passed away at 8.04am. The funeral will take place this evening (22 November) at 4pm from the RK Label premises in Ahmedabad.
22 Nov 2021 | 2502 Views | By Noel D'Cunha
Thaningasalam, popularly known as Rajubhai, moved from Tamil Nadu to Ahmedabad years ago, and was more a Gujarati than a Tamilian. He spoke in fluent Gujarati, said Narendra Parmar, editor of Printing Samachar, the local Gujarati magazine.
Thaningasalam established RK Label Printing Machinery, then RK Machine Tools in Ahmedabad in 2000. The company specialised in manufacturing customised label presses – initially manufacturing flatbed models, before moving to flexo towers in 2007. In 2014, the company expanded from its earlier 3,000 sqft plant to a bigger 20,000 sqft site.
When PrintWeek had interviewed Thaningasalam a few years ago, he had said, “We used to sell Chinese flexo towers, but developed our own models. We converted their four-colour machines to six-colour.” In 2018, RK launched FM-Servo, an eight-colour flexo rotary label press with all UV dryer, chiller drum system and three rotary die-cutting units, which was featured in PrintWeek’s September 2021 edition narrow-web flexo compilation of popular presses for labels.
R K Label Printing Machinery, a regular exhibitor at the PrintPack show, was one of the most crowded exhibitors stands at the show. “At the end of day one, almost 50% of the machines on display had the ‘sold’ board. Such was the popularity and acceptability of RK’s label presses among the label players.” RK has over 1,500 installations in India and exported to many countries such as Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ethiopia, England among others, Parmar informed.
Thaningasalam is survived by his wife and three children.
Narendra Parmar, editor, Printing Samachar
The news of Rajubhai's sudden demise has come as a great shock to the print fraternity of Ahmedabad, and Gujarat.
Thanigasalam alias Rajubhai, who started his career on a manual paper cutting machine, had a very broad and far-sighted vision. Later he worked as a fitter in a label press machine manufacturing company, and after gaining enough experience, he set up his own small-scale unit to make label presses. Today that company sells label presses across India and overseas.
The smiling face of Rajubhai only enhanced his image as an ever-helping person. For him, his customers were like members of his family and he always saw that they are successful. It was never his intention to just sell the machine. During installations, he would ensure that the customer is fully satisfied and the machine is running to its full potential. And it is one of the reasons, why RK Label Printing Machine Machinery’s made in India label presses are so popular.