Harveer Sahni, Chairman, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi 12.23.22
Born to Malayali parents in the south Indian state of Kerala, Hari Nair, CEO of Digital Labels in Toronto, Canada, does not sound like a Malayali. On the contrary he sounds like a typical Mumbaikar (local, longtime residents of Mumbai). The Malayali people are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predominantly native speakers of the Malayalam language, and they constitute the majority of the population of Kerala.
Hari is proud of his Indian heritage and firmly believes in the oneness of being an Indian rather than be recognized as a part of separate religious or caste-based segment of the society. Many years ago, Hari’s parents had moved residence to Mumbai, where he grew up. They lived close to the airport in Santa Cruz. He did his schooling from Kalina Education Society and university in Parle College. He followed this accomplishment with a Masters in Organic Chemistry from Bombay University. Finally, he completed his MMS (Master of Management Studies) from Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.
Post education in 1989 he along with a few others were hired by Suresh Gupta, former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL, which at that time was Paper Products Limited (PPL). PPL was promoted by the late Sardari Lal Talwar and his family. PPL was later acquired by multi-national Huhtamaki.
Sardari Lal Talwar’s son-in-law, Suresh Gupta, joined PPL when it was facing tough times. Suresh Gupta, fondly called SG, was in the process of transforming the company from purely owner-driven to professionally managed. An elaborate program of in-house training was put in place. The program was designed by SG and his colleagues to suit their specific needs, may they be technology, sales, customer or people handling. They were transforming the company to project their acumen in offering the latest in packaging. So, he hired these youngsters and trained them. They were initially trained in flexible packaging, learning every part of the process, including slitting. Hari mentions, “SG had long term vision.”
SG achieved success by implementing his ideas. These new incumbents included six or seven people to be groomed as his core management team. Hari Nair was one of them, and he considers Suresh his mentor and remains in awe of his capabilities to transform a company that was just Rupees 35 Crores when Hari joined. However, under SG’s leadership, PPL blossomed and crossed Rupees 2300 Crores when SG retired.
Hari started his career at Thane (Mumbai) plant of PPL in the flexible packaging division. When SG introduced shrink sleeves 1993-94, Hari was sent to Fuji seal Japan for training. In 1997 he was appointed general manager of the Hyderabad plant of PPL. Hari arrived in Canada in 2001 from his last posting in India at PPL Hyderabad. When asked why he moved to Canada, he says, ”I always thought it would be good for my daughter, plus I was fascinated by the West.”
Each time he visited these countries on his business trips, he was in awe of the infrastructure, roads and facilities. Comparatively, he felt India was always a "work in progress." In his lifetime, he never imagined that coming to fruition in India. He yearned to live in these countries and drive on these roads, though today he says these were "stupid reasons." His vision for his daughter, Mythili, getting better education has worked well, he acknowledges, as she has become a doctor. When they moved to Canada his family had no clue what they were going to be up against. When they arrived in Toronto, the family was holed up in one room of a townhouse in which four families were living – sharing a kitchen, among others. It was an extremely challenging situation from the life they led back in India.
On landing in Toronto, he tried looking for jobs for which he would be qualified. Sandeep Lal, then owner of Metro Labels, called him for an interview. In response, he felt Hari was overqualified and he did not have a position for him at that time. For a full year thereafter, Hari did not get a break and he was so distressed that he even sent a message to his mentor SG that he might want to come back to PPL. The experienced mentor and a professional management leader that he was, SG advised him that while he was welcome to return, he did not want Hari to regret later and feel as if he did not try hard enough. SG advised patience. That was the motivation coming from a mentor that made him hang on, and it was the encouragement that changed his mind. A year later, while he was contemplating moving out of the packaging industry, he saw many youngsters joining banks as the jobs were there on offer. On a suggestion from a friend, he did a course in financial securities hoping to get a bank job. He was then living at Kingston, Ontario, and met almost all the bank manager there, looking for a job.
While he was searching for a banking job, Hari stayed connected and following up with Sandeep Lal at Metro Labels. A year had elapsed and one fine day he got two calls, one from a bank offering him a teller’s job for $10 an hour and that too for just 10 hours each week, which was not enough to feed a family. The second job offer, however, came from Sandeep Lal, which Hari accepted and joined Metro Labels as an estimator. The job was entirely different from what he had been accustomed to in India, as the workload was heavy. One of the first lessons he learned was that in India if you are dealing with large customers, the price for a particular customer remains the same for all quantities of the same label. In Canada, each job is estimated and quoted separately. In 6-8 months, he became the plant manager for Metro Labels. A year down the line, he felt discomfort as the environment was a lot different from the time he spent working at Paper Products in Mumbai.
After having spent over two years there, he quit Metro Labels and joined another label company: Labelad. He joined as a supervisor and gradually moved up in the chain. He stayed there for the next seven years, too. While at PPL, he worked as a general manager and handled everything, from production to selling, more like an entrepreneur. But in Canada the work system was entirely different and here Hari worked completely in production.
During his tenure at Labelad, while he was attending a Fasson seminar, the speaker mentioned that there were two big opportunities in North America: flexible packaging and digital printing.
Sitting at a roundtable along with his colleague Chris Henderson, sales, Labelad, referring to digital printing, Hari said to Chris, “This is the future.”
They parted on that note and forgot about the encounter. Six months late,r Chris was at Hari’s office asking him if he remembered his comments on digital and whether he wished to start something. With an affirmative reply, both indulged, and Digital Labels was born. Chris had spent 14 years at Labelad, and the partnership was an ideal combination with Hari as the production person and Chris as the sales expert. From experience, Hari felt that the HP Indigo 4000 series could not sustain a business expense, but when the 6000 series came it became a different story. After that model had been launched for two years, they felt comfortable to buy the press. Within six months they came into contact with Charlie Maclean, president, ASL PrintFX, and decided to get into an association with ASL investing in Digital Labels, taking a small part of the ownership.
Since they also had interest in digital, it was a win-win situation as ASL could use the digital capabilities of Digital Labels, which could in turn have access to ASL’s sales network. ASL has grown and is very focused in high-end jobs like wine and spirits and for short runs and personalized variable print jobs. Digital Label’s capabilities have emerged as an important resource.
Digital Labels is into manufacturing all segments of labels, shrink labels and decals, but mostly concentrating on short and specialized runs. To start they had huge challenges as both partners were into service before and lacked a traditional business background, so banks were reluctant to fund them. Working capital dried up soon. Once they got over the initial hiccups and proved their capabilities it became smooth sailing. The first six months were tough as buyers did not trust them since they were new in the labels business. A stroke of luck came when a scented candle manufacturer, which was having trouble with current vendors of labels, approached them. That business came to them as a big savior. Once orders from that customer came in, they were operating better and later when ASL came into the picture, things changed for good.
Chris and Hari have worked tirelessly, and their efforts have been fruitful as Digital Labels has been growing in the last few years at around 25% each year. Their business now stands around $7 million, and the goal it to reach $10 million in the next 3-4 years from organic growth alone. They presently operate from a premises measuring 8,000 square feet, and the space is fully utilized. Due to shortages faced following the pandemic, they had to increase their inventory. They rented space around their present premises so that they could maintain enough stocks to service their customers well. Chris and Hari operate with 25 employees, presently working 8-10 hours basis. They are a slim trim enterprise that is very careful with expenses and very focused on growing the business. Commercial real estate in Toronto is expensive so they feel that for any expansion that becomes imperative, they will try to rework their present setup and increase the working shift for the time being.
Hari's wife, Surekha, whom he married in 1994, is from Goa. She is a social worker by training and since 2007 has been working for the social services division of the city of Toronto. Their daughter, Mythili, was born in 1995. Hari remains connected with all his friends in India. But has no business with India. He still remains in awe of Suresh Gupta, whom he looks at as a mentor and feels he has yet to meet anyone as smart, knowledgeable and professional as him.
Nostalgically and pensive in thoughts, he says, “Whatever I learned in my journey in profession so far, it has been from him."
This article was originally published on Harveer Sahni's blog.
Hari is proud of his Indian heritage and firmly believes in the oneness of being an Indian rather than be recognized as a part of separate religious or caste-based segment of the society. Many years ago, Hari’s parents had moved residence to Mumbai, where he grew up. They lived close to the airport in Santa Cruz. He did his schooling from Kalina Education Society and university in Parle College. He followed this accomplishment with a Masters in Organic Chemistry from Bombay University. Finally, he completed his MMS (Master of Management Studies) from Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.
Post education in 1989 he along with a few others were hired by Suresh Gupta, former Chairman Huhtamaki-PPL, which at that time was Paper Products Limited (PPL). PPL was promoted by the late Sardari Lal Talwar and his family. PPL was later acquired by multi-national Huhtamaki.
Sardari Lal Talwar’s son-in-law, Suresh Gupta, joined PPL when it was facing tough times. Suresh Gupta, fondly called SG, was in the process of transforming the company from purely owner-driven to professionally managed. An elaborate program of in-house training was put in place. The program was designed by SG and his colleagues to suit their specific needs, may they be technology, sales, customer or people handling. They were transforming the company to project their acumen in offering the latest in packaging. So, he hired these youngsters and trained them. They were initially trained in flexible packaging, learning every part of the process, including slitting. Hari mentions, “SG had long term vision.”
SG achieved success by implementing his ideas. These new incumbents included six or seven people to be groomed as his core management team. Hari Nair was one of them, and he considers Suresh his mentor and remains in awe of his capabilities to transform a company that was just Rupees 35 Crores when Hari joined. However, under SG’s leadership, PPL blossomed and crossed Rupees 2300 Crores when SG retired.
Hari started his career at Thane (Mumbai) plant of PPL in the flexible packaging division. When SG introduced shrink sleeves 1993-94, Hari was sent to Fuji seal Japan for training. In 1997 he was appointed general manager of the Hyderabad plant of PPL. Hari arrived in Canada in 2001 from his last posting in India at PPL Hyderabad. When asked why he moved to Canada, he says, ”I always thought it would be good for my daughter, plus I was fascinated by the West.”
Each time he visited these countries on his business trips, he was in awe of the infrastructure, roads and facilities. Comparatively, he felt India was always a "work in progress." In his lifetime, he never imagined that coming to fruition in India. He yearned to live in these countries and drive on these roads, though today he says these were "stupid reasons." His vision for his daughter, Mythili, getting better education has worked well, he acknowledges, as she has become a doctor. When they moved to Canada his family had no clue what they were going to be up against. When they arrived in Toronto, the family was holed up in one room of a townhouse in which four families were living – sharing a kitchen, among others. It was an extremely challenging situation from the life they led back in India.
On landing in Toronto, he tried looking for jobs for which he would be qualified. Sandeep Lal, then owner of Metro Labels, called him for an interview. In response, he felt Hari was overqualified and he did not have a position for him at that time. For a full year thereafter, Hari did not get a break and he was so distressed that he even sent a message to his mentor SG that he might want to come back to PPL. The experienced mentor and a professional management leader that he was, SG advised him that while he was welcome to return, he did not want Hari to regret later and feel as if he did not try hard enough. SG advised patience. That was the motivation coming from a mentor that made him hang on, and it was the encouragement that changed his mind. A year later, while he was contemplating moving out of the packaging industry, he saw many youngsters joining banks as the jobs were there on offer. On a suggestion from a friend, he did a course in financial securities hoping to get a bank job. He was then living at Kingston, Ontario, and met almost all the bank manager there, looking for a job.
While he was searching for a banking job, Hari stayed connected and following up with Sandeep Lal at Metro Labels. A year had elapsed and one fine day he got two calls, one from a bank offering him a teller’s job for $10 an hour and that too for just 10 hours each week, which was not enough to feed a family. The second job offer, however, came from Sandeep Lal, which Hari accepted and joined Metro Labels as an estimator. The job was entirely different from what he had been accustomed to in India, as the workload was heavy. One of the first lessons he learned was that in India if you are dealing with large customers, the price for a particular customer remains the same for all quantities of the same label. In Canada, each job is estimated and quoted separately. In 6-8 months, he became the plant manager for Metro Labels. A year down the line, he felt discomfort as the environment was a lot different from the time he spent working at Paper Products in Mumbai.
After having spent over two years there, he quit Metro Labels and joined another label company: Labelad. He joined as a supervisor and gradually moved up in the chain. He stayed there for the next seven years, too. While at PPL, he worked as a general manager and handled everything, from production to selling, more like an entrepreneur. But in Canada the work system was entirely different and here Hari worked completely in production.
During his tenure at Labelad, while he was attending a Fasson seminar, the speaker mentioned that there were two big opportunities in North America: flexible packaging and digital printing.
Sitting at a roundtable along with his colleague Chris Henderson, sales, Labelad, referring to digital printing, Hari said to Chris, “This is the future.”
They parted on that note and forgot about the encounter. Six months late,r Chris was at Hari’s office asking him if he remembered his comments on digital and whether he wished to start something. With an affirmative reply, both indulged, and Digital Labels was born. Chris had spent 14 years at Labelad, and the partnership was an ideal combination with Hari as the production person and Chris as the sales expert. From experience, Hari felt that the HP Indigo 4000 series could not sustain a business expense, but when the 6000 series came it became a different story. After that model had been launched for two years, they felt comfortable to buy the press. Within six months they came into contact with Charlie Maclean, president, ASL PrintFX, and decided to get into an association with ASL investing in Digital Labels, taking a small part of the ownership.
Since they also had interest in digital, it was a win-win situation as ASL could use the digital capabilities of Digital Labels, which could in turn have access to ASL’s sales network. ASL has grown and is very focused in high-end jobs like wine and spirits and for short runs and personalized variable print jobs. Digital Label’s capabilities have emerged as an important resource.
Digital Labels is into manufacturing all segments of labels, shrink labels and decals, but mostly concentrating on short and specialized runs. To start they had huge challenges as both partners were into service before and lacked a traditional business background, so banks were reluctant to fund them. Working capital dried up soon. Once they got over the initial hiccups and proved their capabilities it became smooth sailing. The first six months were tough as buyers did not trust them since they were new in the labels business. A stroke of luck came when a scented candle manufacturer, which was having trouble with current vendors of labels, approached them. That business came to them as a big savior. Once orders from that customer came in, they were operating better and later when ASL came into the picture, things changed for good.
Chris and Hari have worked tirelessly, and their efforts have been fruitful as Digital Labels has been growing in the last few years at around 25% each year. Their business now stands around $7 million, and the goal it to reach $10 million in the next 3-4 years from organic growth alone. They presently operate from a premises measuring 8,000 square feet, and the space is fully utilized. Due to shortages faced following the pandemic, they had to increase their inventory. They rented space around their present premises so that they could maintain enough stocks to service their customers well. Chris and Hari operate with 25 employees, presently working 8-10 hours basis. They are a slim trim enterprise that is very careful with expenses and very focused on growing the business. Commercial real estate in Toronto is expensive so they feel that for any expansion that becomes imperative, they will try to rework their present setup and increase the working shift for the time being.
Hari's wife, Surekha, whom he married in 1994, is from Goa. She is a social worker by training and since 2007 has been working for the social services division of the city of Toronto. Their daughter, Mythili, was born in 1995. Hari remains connected with all his friends in India. But has no business with India. He still remains in awe of Suresh Gupta, whom he looks at as a mentor and feels he has yet to meet anyone as smart, knowledgeable and professional as him.
Nostalgically and pensive in thoughts, he says, “Whatever I learned in my journey in profession so far, it has been from him."
This article was originally published on Harveer Sahni's blog.