MJ Global Pvt. Ltd. and MJ Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. are promoted by Rajiv Bhatnagar, a first-generation entrepreneur who started off way back in 1980. Today, his diversified business, known as MJ Group, is looking forward to a turnover of Rs. 100 crore in 2017-18, which is a milestone for any growing business. As Bhatnagar gained business acumen, he took bigger risks and managed to procure his first big printing and packaging machinery in 1988. Since then, there has been no looking back for MJ Group as they continue to gain expertise by optimally utilizing the self-created headstart in entrepreneurship.
Growth orientation
Today, MJ Group boasts of a zero-debt printing and packaging business, which suggests stringent and efficient fiscal control. For a manufacturing company worth nearly Rs. 50 crore, sustaining a zero-debt balance sheet has not been easy, considering especially the last three years—a period when the organization almost doubled its revenues. The company wholly owns three facilities—two in Noida and one in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh—and has strategic joint venture in three other packaging facilities in Noida and one in Baddi. Bhatnagar feels that these strategic partnerships provide him additional capacity, necessary for servicing more orders.
He is now looking at collaborations with overseas partners to bring in advanced technology and help MJ Group scale up capacity. The company currently rolls out over 800 tons of paper packaging and other products every month and Bhatnagar feels it is about time they broke out into a different league with much higher production. He points out that there needs to be better incentives for overseas companies to invest in the Indian packaging sector.
Creambell ice cream is one of the major packaged food brands serviced by MJ GroupCurrently, MJ Group’s product portfolio includes multi-colour Duplex board packaging, labels, corrugated packaging, tags, stickers, POP material as well as annual reports. The company has a strong customer base, which include Yum food’s KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in North India. Other major names include RJ Corp, Dominos, Costa Coffee, Café Coffee Day, Dabur, Creambell Ice Cream, Hawkins, India Glycols, Jagajit Industries, LNJ Bhilwara Group, etc.
Infrastructure
MJ Group has a wide range of equipment installed at its units in Noida and Baddi. Its Noida plants include CTP plate-making equipment, eight offset printing machines including 4-color Heidelberg Speed Master CPC, CD 102 sheetfed as well as 5-color sheetfed machines. The other equipment at the Noida units are diecutting machines including two from Bobst, two Cartonel automatic carton folding, gluing machines and embossing-creasing-index cutting machines.
The Noida Sector 59 unit, MJ Group’s corporate office, houses a large offset printing and corrugation setup with corrugation machines, an auto-flute laminator for 2-ply pasting, three printing machines including Flexo reel to sheet printing machines, auto cutters, Rotary machines, slotters, diecutting machines, pasting and stitching machines. In addition, each facility has state-of-the-art QA laboratory.
Despite the steady growth and impressive clientele, Bhatnagar feels there is a lot more that could be done if industry conditions improve. He says, “The present situation is not very positive as there is too much of capitalization in this industry. The raw material supply is still in the unorganized sector and is controlled by traders who push up prices frequently. Banks do not easily lend to packaging companies and do so only against substantial security mortgage. Funds will be hard to come by without government subsidization of capital cost. The other option is to provide incentives to foreign equipment manufacturers to invest in India.”
