– CHIEF MARK BABATUNDE, CHAIRMAN/ CEO – JPAAC PRINTING AND PACKAGING LIMITED
Not many printers dare venture into specialised light packaging printing especially pharmaceuticals, perfumes and cosmetics due to the technical and highly security-inclined nature of the business. That is why WHERE To Print sought out a veteran in the profession – Chief Mark Babatunde who is with over 4 decades experience in the business. In this no hold bare SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW, the Jpaac Printing and Packaging boss shares his experiences, thoughts and advice to all. The exclusive interview is excerpt below:
LET’S START WITH THE OBVIOUS, WHY DO YOU CHOOSE THIS HIGHLY SPECIALIZED LIGHT PACKAGING PRINTING OF PHARMACEUTICAL, COSMETICS AND PERFUMES SEGMENT?
Well, I think that is informed by my training background. What do I mean by that? When I was with Daily Times of Nigeria – from the newspaper division, I was moved to the very first indigenous packaging manufacturing industry, if you allow me to say, in the whole of West Africa – and that was Niger Pack. Then we were the one producing for Lever Brothers, PZ Industries, Cadbury PLC, to mention just a few. Another reason why we choose this segment of print business is for the fact that light packaging in this part of the country is still far behind in terms of international standard except for few of us that have invested in sophisticated light packaging equipments and our skilled people to meet up with the best and acceptable international standard.
HOW HAS THE SECTOR FAIRED SO FAR?
Without mincing words packaging is quite interesting and to an extent – we do not regret being in light package manufacturing. And for those of us who are in it – we do understand that quality is important, and we are not finding it quite interesting. It is very tasking as it takes a lot of your time; you have to design – after that – you take it to your customer to make their input and approve. You come back, make corrections and at the end of the day you arrived at something very good that can measure up with international standard.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN THIS SPECIALIZED PRINT BUSINESS?
The challenges are very enormous. Light packaging is capital intensive and the government is not helping matters because a lot of raw materials used in light packaging are imported at very expensive cost. As at today except you are really rugged you may not be able to produce for your clients. Prices are going up and if you want to keep your customers; you have to cut down your profit margin. These are some of the challenges we are facing. We are not even getting the right quality materials from abroad. A lot of our importers cut corners; if you want 300grams of folding box board, what you get is either 270 or 280, in some cases 250. They import it into the country and say it’s 300. That is just to talk about the materials. I have imported and discovered that what I bring in is far better than what it’s being sold here. Reasons for that I don’t know. I think the importers are in the best position to talk on that, but I will rather say that in a situation like this; importers should bring in the right material and sell it at the right price. Whoever believes in quality will buy it. And the industry will be better for it.
THEN HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES?
I would not say I have overcome the challenges. The challenges are there and will continue to be there until importers change their attitude. The only difference is that as far as I am concern I will always let my clients understand that; ‘even though they are asking for 300grams but what is available in the market is not up to 300grams’. We have to be honest and dialogue with our clients who belief in quality before we can produce for them, and they understand too. Before now, some of the boxes we make with 300grams, our clients will say no, make it with 400 grams because they have discovered the 300grams is never 300 grams. I think our importers ought to change their attitude. Some importer, import items that are not standard only to want to sell them for the price of the standard it is very unfair. For instance an importer will go to China and import sticker paper that has expired or near expiration and sell it for the real price; when you print with this sticker paper and your clients find them not to be good, they are returned to you – and that will not augur well for the relationship. The only way to overcome these challenges is to get our importers to import correct media and consumables.
NO DOUBT THERE ARE OTHER PLAYERS IN THIS SECTOR, BUT CAN YOU LET US KNOW WHAT MAKES JPAAC PRINTING AND PACKAGING DIFFERENT – IN TERMS OF TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE AND SERVICE?
I don’t want to say we are different – it is a matter of choice and the clients you have. We have the equipment, but we still have some vendors who do few things for us and what makes us outstanding. It is not purely our making but that of our clients who strongly believe in quality and we have no choice than to give them that quality they want. Their products measure up with international standard and their pack must also measure up; after all it is the pack that sell the products most of the time. Most of my staff are happy because I make them comfortable. And in terms of training, we always give them the opportunity. And in terms of leisure or comfort we ensure they get it. For instance about 3 of them have vehicles bought for them by the company even though it is on loan and more of them will still get. We also make them to understand that the printing profession is not a dirty profession – that they must always be neat. They must always put on their overall whenever they are at work. My workers go on two weeks annual leave with leave bonus full month salary; they enjoy transport allowance, housing loan is always available to them and the company drivers dress corporately. The bottom line is this, you can see my environment, and except you hear the noise of the machines – you will not believe this is a press. Everywhere must be neat; the workers themselves are neat. That is my orientation and that is what I am passing on to them.
Technology wise, I think different to some of my colleagues; in fact I react differently. What do I mean by this, I have been to China to bring in equipments; equipments that are exported from China to Dubai, Brazil and South Africa and if you asked me again and again, I will tell you Chinese equipments are good. If you want them to make it good for you, asked them for the one that is exported to Europe, America or Asia and they will give it to you. And if you asked for the one for Nigeria it will be given to you and this is where we found ourselves in this country, their machines are cheap and I can assure you that they are good. I have Heidelberg machines too – placing them side by side machines made in China and I don’t think I have any regret. I have used Chinese machines for upward of eight to nine years without problem.
In terms of service to our clients; I wish some of my clients are here to answer that but if I must answer that question, I will say it loud and clear that we have never disappointed them. We print to their satisfaction and deliver on time to them.
YOU ARE ONE OF THE FEW PRINTERS IN THE COUNTRY WHOSE SON HAS TAKEN UP AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN YOUR BUSINESS THEREBY ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY NOT ONLY IN YOUR PRINT BUSINESS BUT ALSO IN THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE; WHAT CAN YOU SAY ARE THE HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSION IN PRINT BUSINESS AND HOW CAN WE AVERT THESE?
First is education; my son is a graduate and I am lucky he has taken interest in this. No matter how you look at it – that background is a plus. There are instances, apart from his educational background when I have to make him understand that the profession is not for a lazy person. You must be up and doing and you must carry your clients along at all times. You must be constantly thinking on how to satisfy your customers. This is the kind of training we must impact unto whomever we want to succeed you. When we talk about succession it must not necessarily be a young man, your son or daughter – it depends on how you train who is available and willing to carry on. And I repeat and will keep on repeating it; printing is not a job for an illiterate. If that person that must succeed you has not at least passed the Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), how will such a person be a good successor? That is one of the problems we have in the industry. Any young fellow who cannot pass at least SSCE and wants to go into printing – how will the person succeed in an industry like ours? When a lot of them cannot even read or write – how then can they take over this highly esteemed business? And that is why if you asked me – the time is ripe when we began to avoid employing illiterates. This is what I think succession means; it is a different thing when you don’t have someone to succeed you. Always integrate new generation into the profession; it could be your children or any of your staff. If your press is so dirty for instance – you know children of nowadays would preferred working in a clean environment and that alone can put them off; but when you make them understand that printing is as good as any other profession in the universe, they will take interest in it. After all, it is the printer that prints the books all other profession will read before becoming a professional in their various profession; so how can you do that successfully if you are an illiterate yourself.
WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE FUTURE AND PROSPECT OF LABEL AND PACKAGE PRINTING INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA?
The prospect is very rosy. The future of light packaging printing in Nigeria is very bright, because outside Nigeria we see how packs are being done. If we are able to acquire innovative technologies to satisfy our market – then our future is bright. Packaging is very profitable, light packaging especially. My candid advice to practitioners is to avoid cutting corners; ensure your clients are always happy with your services. When you cut corners and you cheat them, you think you’re wise but before you know it – they will know and pack you aside; as long as you learn how to do the right thing with the understanding that there is ethics. You must stick to the standard of printing. For instance; if you tell your clients you are going to use a particular type of paper, stick to it and don’t give them anything below the quality you promised.
WHAT EFFORTS ARE YOU MAKING TO ENSURE JPAAC REMAIN ONE OF THE FORCES TO BE RECKONED WITH IN THE INDUSTRY?
The efforts so far are constant update of all our equipments; ensure that our staff and clients are happy; ensure regular training and retraining of my staff. I believe print technology is not stagnant. New equipments also evolve every now and then – and the technology is changing everyday and for you to be in the business you must keep up with the trends. It is not easy but you just have to. You must update and upgrade your business – that is very important.
AS AN IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDER RUNNING A VIABLE AND FLOURISHING PRINT BUSINESS IN NIGERIA; WHAT CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) PROGRAMMES DOES JPAAC HAS FOR ITS STAKEHOLDERS?
I belong to CIPPON and ASSPPON – owe a lot to printers in Shomolu axis. That question is a bit tight because for now we don’t even believe that printers have any form of social responsibility to ourselves as stakeholders. If I want to precisely answer that question in Shomolu as it is today – we have established a multipurpose cooperative society where stakeholders can get loan to buy some materials and pay back without much hassles. We have made a point that we must always help ourselves; I will give you another instance. If a colleague of mine gets a job and he is not in position to fund it and he approaches me I should obliged if I’m in position to. If I can’t help him financially I can as well allow him do the work in my press. These are what we owe ourselves. Unfortunately why that question is dicey because there are a lot of mushroom printers in the industry, so to what extent can we operate when we talk of CSR to stakeholders; we have a lot of freelance printers all around that have no professional justification for being in the industry, we owe such people nothing. But to those of us who are professionals and members of CIPPON we are doing a lot though we have just started but we believe with time, things will change. There is also a plan in the pipeline to buy consumables from importers and sell to our members at discounted price. The way I conceived it I wish others will buy into the idea. We must help other printers to get to the level we are or carry others along – it’s a very wide profession, a big field for everybody to play.
BEING A FOUNDATION MEMBER AND AN INFLUENTIAL FELLOW OF CIPPON; CAN YOU SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW PRINTERS WILL BENEFIT FROM MEMBERSHIP OF CIPPON?
I am a member of CIPPON, how influential is another question, but I can assure you CIPPON is actually doing a lot. As it is today, they have been fighting very hard to ensure government jobs are not printed outside the country. We have printers in this country who can print better quality than what they are getting outside the country whether security printing or anything within the range of printing. The time has come that printers in this profession must be registered members of CIPPON to enjoy whatever CIPPON has to offer. CIPPON is doing a lot to the best of my knowledge; they have organised seminars and even training outside the shore of this country. The institute is still young but so far so good – we are not doing badly but CIPPON needs the support and encouragement from all of us.
SIR, WE WANT TO KNOW YOU BEYOND YOUR OFFICIAL BUSINESS SCHEDULE; KINDLY TELL US MORE ABOUT YOURSELF, FAMILY, SOCIALS AND IMPORTANTLY – HOW YOU RELAX?
I am a Nigerian. A typical Lagos man; I am a chief of Ikeja land and happily married with children. I am a workaholic but still find time to relax and the only way I do that is to travel out of the country on vacation. I’m a very strong member of my church and I try as much as possible to help people around me. I attend St Agnes Church. I’m an old parishioner of that church. I’m only 70 years two months ago and people do say I don’t look my age and I say that it is the Grace of God.
FOR THE RECORD SIR: PLEASE WITH US YOUR BRIEF ACADEMIC PROFILE?
I schooled in the East; did my post secondary and secondary education. Worked briefly before I came back to Lagos when the civil war broke out. I was luckily to have joined the Daily Times Nigeria. I was sent to U.K as a management trainee by the Daily Times to study Printing Technology with specialty in light packaging; when I came back – I was seconded to Niger Pack – a subsidiary of the defunct Daily Times. I also attended Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM) and Fields International, UK to study production planning and control.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME SIR
You’re always welcome.
