Kaushik Shivakumar, a Final Year Engg. Student Steps into the Family Biz of Snab Graphix India
02 April 2022: Kaushik Shivakumar, son of H M Shivakumar, has stepped into the family business of Snab Graphix (India) (P) Ltd., although he has yet to complete his study and at the most difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Kaushik is studying in his final year of Mechanical Engineering. He has completed two years of his stint in the family business.
Snab Graphix (India) (P) Ltd. is a top-notch company, sourcing and supplying raw materials and consumables to the automobile industry, home appliances, electronic industry, solar industry for the past 25 years. Founded by H. M. Shivakumar and Kavitha Shivakumar, Snab Graphix was started in 1996, as a typical dealer of screen printing materials in Bengaluru.
Later, gradually the company introduced many items, sourced from leading global brands in the industrial printing segment. The company’s success could be gauged from the fact that it has now four branches, viz, Bengaluru, Chennai, Haryana and Delhi. In 2005, the company was renamed as Snab Graphix (India) (P) Ltd. The company not only introduces new products, but it takes the responsibility of training its customers on material use.
Snab Graphix (India) is the authorised distributor for 3M, Nitto, Engineered Materials Systems, Inc. ECKART, Bizlink Sunbolts, Products For Solar Industry, Nittoku, Ulano, Sericol, KIWO, Murakami, Bayer Material Science, Avery Dennison, TACO, Tessa, etc… the list of principals is too long to mention here.
In an online interview, the next generation entrepreneur – Kaushik Shivakumar, said “While many of my classmates are already doing their internship in different companies, I rather decided to step into the family business, both to gain experience as an intern as well as to help the parents in the business and to take the family business to the next level. Although one has to take little pressure, there is certainly a great advantage of working in the family business. It’s all about time management.”
He adds “During the Covid-19 pandemic, I joined the family business, as it was a ready platform because Snab Graphix (India) is mainly into high technology-oriented screen printing sector such as PCB, electronics, automobile, solar etc. So, being a mechanical engineering student, it made sense to get into our family business and I am getting into every aspect of industrial screen printing.”
He says that the Covid-19 pandemic has created a huge payment crisis. “Since we source and import a lot of products from global brands, owing to logistic difficulties there was a shortage of raw materials. As per my analysis, from January 2021 to 2022, there was a steep rise in logistic costs. I feel this is the time to cooperate and collaborate. We have to work together as an industry. I do not think we can work alone in isolation,” he added.
Giving details of the emerging markets, Kaushik says that despite the pandemic, the automobile sector is doing good. “Overall there is a good business in the industrial sector. Now, the solar sector is very promising since it is the Govt. of India’s pet project. We are developing business in this segment. Another sector is electronics and PCB. We supply materials to these segments. Coming up next is the electric vehicles (EVs), yet another promising sector. We are developing business in this sector as well since EVs are also strongly supported by the government.”
The company has two branches in Delhi-NCR. “To avoid logistic hassles, we have opened two branches in Delhi and Bahadurgarh in Haryana. As a result, we can reduce delivery time and reach out to the clients easily,” he adds.
www.snabgraphix.com
