Cleena Industries Pvt Ltd. boasts of its fully-automated calendaring flex manufacturing plant at Roorki in Uttarakhand, which is equipped with most advanced manufacturing technologies from Germany, Korea, Taiwan and China. The company claims to have established a very healthy working environment through efficient methodologies ensuring maximum productivity of human workforce to manufacture excellent quality products.
With all this Cleena is very-well placed in the Indian flex industry. We, at Sign & POP World, came in contact with Avnish Gautam, the company’s MD to know how is Indian flex industry fighting competitions and how Cleena is making its way forward. Here are the edited excerpts.
How do you see the state of Indian flex industry and its competition from Chinese stuff?
No doubt that China is the only country where flex is manufactured in bulk to feed the international market including India. They manufacture all kinds of flex to cater to the requirements of all market segments at almost every price bracket. Now that for Chinese cheap products, the anti-dumping duty is already in place, there is hardly any fear of cheap imported stuff entering India.
At the same time, India is quite capable of producing high-quality flex. Further more, we have the same machines that the Chinese manufacturers are using to manufacture flex. But we have better and very competent man-power than China as of now. We can produce any type of flex as per the demand from the market.
How do you see the invasion of fabric to take over flex in signage?
Right now, there is no danger to flex from fabric as the former is much lower priced. In textile/fabric, the raw material very costly, which leave people with flex – the cheapest way to opt for outdoor advertising. Also, since India is a developing country and still at a stage where people are not much concerned about environment and chose the one that fits the pocket. Moreover, the durability of fabric is also at a questionable stage when compared with flex. Keeping all this in view, for a decade or two, there is no any damage expected for flex from fabric or any other media.
How has Cleena been catering to the needs of the market?
We are present across the country irrespective of regions – north, south, west, and centre. Every market has its own requirement depending on the demography and the market nuances. For instance, in north it’s the lower GSM which is asked for the most because the region is highly price-sensitive. In south and west, the quality is regarded and people usually demand high-quality material i.e. higher GSM. In centre, the supply is market driven i.e. the products are supplied according to the demand. In west, high-quality branded printing machines are installed, and therefore, good quality flex is in demand as people don’t want to waste the machine’s efficiency and quality.
Where your factory located and what is its capacity?
Our factory is in Roorki, Uttrakhand with a monthly capacity to produce 1200 tonnes. The area is spread across 30-40 bigha.
What makes Cleena different from the league?
For us, we have set strong parameters – relationship with customers, transparent trade policy, consistency in quality, timely delivery of the consignments. Almost all the manufacturers have the same parameters, and each of them tries his level best, but the success is counted on the point that how many of them are going to succeed in their efforts. This, however, depends on the company policy. What makes us different from the league is the strict adherence of all these parameters and fulfilment of promises that we make to our valuable clients.
What is your distribution model?
We do not have direct presence, but through our dealers. As of now, we have 70 dealers associated with us. However, we have plans to approach corporate directly and then after getting the product approved, we pass on the trade to the nearest dealer in that area. We supply as per the demand from our dealers from any part of the country.
What is your USP?
We offer good pricing for various GSM, and hence, good trade margin. We follow a 30-days credit policy. Today, it’s a buyers market, seller can’t decide the move. Buyers come, compare and then chose the one supplier with most of the benefits. We do manufacturer products to meet the requirements of a particular buyer depending on the trade volume.
What keeps you as the front-runner in the Indian flex industry?
Our manufacturing operations are categorised into various verticals – R&D, production, quality management, marketing strategy, warehousing & packaging. We have a very robust R&D to facilitate us adapt and follow the best practices and evolve through – different permutations and combinations for production. The facility itself is well-equipped with all the advanced machineries which are designed to produce efficiently.
Our entire process from procurement of raw material to delivery of finished goods passes through requisite checkpoints to ensure the best quality standard. This is further backed by an adept team of professionals regularly engage and collaborates with the markets. We do have warehousing in our facility to be ready to feed the market in no time.