Mumbai Massala |
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Mumbai - the pulsating metropolis of 13 million - attracts investors, salaried employees, day laborers, stars and starlets alike as if under the spell of the magical words "open sesame". Those who take their chances in the former Bombay can profit in a big way. Parksons Packaging did. Around 12 years ago, the print shop decided to focus entirely on packaging printing, still a niche segment at that time. Now it is setting its sights on the world market.
Rush hour. Right in the thick of the evening traffic chaos. The nervous chorus of horns from countless cars and mopeds mixes with those of trucks and double-decker buses to form an unceasing vibrato. Nothing in Mumbai moves silently. Every morning the exuberant megacity draws around five million commuters, and in the evening it spits them back out again.
There are almost always four cars driving next to each other on the three-lane streets. Every inch of asphalt counts; the smallest space gets used, even if it means that other cars have to swerve onto the sidewalks. Nobody takes offense at this. Why should they? It wouldn't change anything. The swarms of people weave through the city like an endlessly long snake. The breakneck economic growth has transformed Mumbai into a masala - into an incessantly sizzling, gigantic stew, made up of all classes and lifestyles, a mix of more than 200 languages and dialects as well as countless religious persuasions. Despite the spartan way of life for large sections of the population, a spirit of optimism prevails, affecting everyone in the pulsing megacity that never sleeps. Production, construction and consumption take place round the clock.
Booming Packaging Market. It's shortly after 6 p.m. Young people and families with many children, all packed with plastic bags, stroll through the air-conditioned halls of the shopping center of Phoenix Mall. At the "food bazaar" there, people are waiting in line at the cash registers. Here there is almost only packaged food anymore. Also in other fast food restaurants, the meals wrapped in paper or plastic are piling up.
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Adidas and L'Oréal - the influx of global companies to Mumbai is unflagging. Every new opening pushes the lifestyle more in the direction of the West. And that’s inseparably connected to packaging. The higher the standard of living, the more important the packaging is. Because of the large variety of similar products, packaging plays an increasingly decisive role in sales. "Up until 10 years ago, almost nothing was packaged in India. With the economic growth, the percentage of packaged goods multiplied," explains Ramesh. The 57 year old is CEO of Parksons Packaging. The business, with headquarters not far from the "Phoenix Mall," entered the packaging printing industry in 1996 and is now riding on a wave of success.
Parksons Packaging's success is no coincidence. Rather, it is the result of meticulous market analysis and a well thought-out business strategy. Founded in 1957, the print shop originally produced playing cards and then mainly commercial products. In the middle of the 1990s, Ramesh and his eldest son, Siddharth (34), seized the chance and steered the business towards packaging printing. They hired a worldwide leading consulting agency which interviewed selected Fortune 100 companies on current trends and the growth potential of the Indian packaging printing market. Step by step, the print shop expanded its knowledge - and proceeded systematically. "The first two years we only printed short runs in order to get a feel for the return on investment. The change from commercial items to packaging meant massive investments in terms of equipment. In addition, we also had to reorganize processes and suppliers," reports Siddharth.
He studied business in the United States and entered his father’s company in 1994, where he is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) responsible for the daily operations, including marketing and production. In order to check the high investment volume and absorb risks, Parksons Packaging has in the meantime pulled a private equity partner on board that has a minority share in the company.
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