An Interview by – Payal Agrawal
Ahmedabad-based Ocean’s Deep Printers has been in the printing business for four
generations. Managing Director of the Company Shripal Patel’s great grandfather had
started this business in the impendence era. In 1932, he established Honest Printery 1932,
which was later renamed Ocean Deep Printers. At the young age of only 22, Shripal Patel
took the reins of the company in 1995, and with a mission of ‘Fast and Accurate Printing,’ the
company is now one of the top players in the industry. The company makes packaging
materials with high-quality printing for Agarbatti (Incense) industry and it contributes to 70
percent of its packaging output. Along with packaging materials for Incense, Ocean Deep
provides its packaging products to the garments, foods, pharmaceuticals, and jewelry
sectors too. In conversation with Payal Agarwal of Incense Media, Ocean Deep Printers
Managing Director Shripal Patel reveals the journey and success story. Excerpts:
High-quality printing and packaging require a special set of skills, machines, and
infrastructure. How do Ocean Deep Printers meet these requirements, especially to manage
bulk orders?
We have approximately 80 employees who have a proven record of expertise and
experience. With the printing skills and infrastructure, we can provide world-class printing
with high quality. We have state-of-the-art machinery and in-house testing facilities. With our
6-color SM74 HEIDELBERG with UV drop-off machine, we can produce 1,20,000 sheets per
hour with matt and gloss effects. This is further enhanced by the SCODIX Digital Ultra Pro
machine, the latest and the most expensive machine in the printing industry for UV foil
embossing. In addition to providing very high gloss, it can print polymer heights of 250
microns. For printing, many metallic colors are used and each color is carefully chosen. With
advanced machines and technology, we have enhanced our capacity to meet bulk orders in
the quickest possible time with high quality. We have machines from China and other local
equipment as well. Our company is the only one in Gujarat that provides a demo with the
XEROX Color C60 Pro machine.
How do you make designs and customize your offerings?
The design process is chargeable for our customers, and they can sit with us during that
time. We will then create a dummy of the design and send it for printing once the customer is
satisfied. With all the digital machines for instance digital print using thermal lamination,
digital foiling with UV emboss and the last step is digital cutting. We can do it in any shape
box and then paste it and give the final product to the customer in hand. Our experts create
a magical printing effect. There are three units in Ahmedabad. The fifth generation of my
family has also joined this business. My elder son Vrund Shripal Patel is in charge of zipper
pouches and my younger one Shubh Shripal Patel is in charge of rigid boxes and canister
boxes (composite cans and tubes). In addition, we believe that every customer should have
a different, out-of-the-box, and unique design. Our services are quite innovative. Every day,
we design almost 30-50 designs.
We have now the 5th generation to run our business and they are taking it to new heights.
‘Fast and Accurate Printing’ is your tagline and vision. Do international brands need extra
efforts?
We strive to become the fastest printing setup in the world with ‘Fast and Accurate Printing.’
Having been involved in this industry for a long time, we feel proud to have achieved our
place on a national level. We serve around 6000+ clients in the incense market. While most
of our business is within India, we also supply packaging for some international brands. Our
A++ printing category enables us to sustain in international markets because of this type of
printing that uses specialized color combinations. Yes, ‘Fast and Accurate Printing’ is our
vision and growth driver too.
How important are Marketing and Sales Strategies for the industry?
There was a time when the packaging cost was around 20-30 paisa, then it increased to 1-2
rupees, then to 4-5 rupees, and now it is around 10 to 15 rupees. Buying a product for 200
rupees MRP and packing it in normal packaging might not work in the market. Now the latest
trend is to make products look attractive in packaging and this impacts the sale of any
company. Hence, printing and packaging have become equally important with quality to
push sales.
We support the packaging of premium products. All agarbatti manufacturers should choose
this premium packaging for their premium products. We provide many kinds of packaging
like paper packaging, regular packaging, premium packaging, and Economic pouches
manufactured by our budgeting zipper pouch unit. Additionally, we support rigid canister
packaging. Indian Agarbatti is getting bigger and bigger every day in the world market with
our marketing strategies and world-class packaging and we want to make it the main product
for exports to countries such as Europe and the United States.
What is your main success Mantra for young entrepreneurs?
Young entrepreneurs including our own should be aware that pricing and rates will fluctuate
with time and scenario. Hence, they need to pay attention to client retention. You will be able
to keep the client if you provide good service and meet all their requirements. We work on a
50 percent advance before delivery, so we collect 50 percent upfront. In this market, we are
providing all sorts of designs at a reasonable cost to newcomers who are starting their
businesses on a low budget. Client satisfaction is the key to success.
You lead a big business house today. Do you contribute to society in any other way?
Our employees including designers are selected from good colleges. Once talents selected
good colleges, we provide them training for one to two years to become the best designers
and experts in their fields of work. Going forward, with expansion and capacity building we
will be focusing on providing more job opportunities to our youth. Encouraging young
entrepreneurs with all kinds of support is yet another noble idea to contribute to society.