It was 1967, Box-makers then in Madras were few. Jayant Packaging Industry Private Ltd., Packwell Industries Private LTD., Chettiar Industrial Corporation, Siva Packaging Industry and Madras Paper Converters and Industries, led those few. The Industry was in its infancy. Till then, boxes were imported. The industry developed, with more box-makers joining those first few. Box imports stopped. The early box-makers were so good that their boxes were import substitute and saved foreign exchange!
The four leaders of the time, in their persons, Sarvashri M.K.Ramasami, H.P.Arora, T.R.Batra and K.P.Ramalingam, formed the Association, South India Corrugated Box Manufacturers’ Association, this SICBMA for short and abbreviated. Their aim was merely to strike a sense of unity among those few Corrugated Box-Makers and to bring them together into a cohesive body. Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala box-makers had no associations in their regions and so they came within the fold of Madras Association. ‘South India’ was therefore the name this association assumed. Sri S.S. Raju, Sri Maheswari (Andhra), Sri AL.Muthiah, Sri A.C. Ajmera (Bangalore) and Sri Rajendran, Krishnaswamy Reddiar (Kerala) were from those regions.
SICBMA even at its formation had to grapple with excise law regulations which applied to box-making industry. It was a continuous struggle for years and it was in 1978, box-makers were freed from excise grip when Shri M.K.Ramasami was President of Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers of India.
Box-Makers of the period in 1967 chose Sri M.K.Ramasami to be founder president of SICBMA (1967-69). Sri. H.p. Arora was president in following years (1969-74), Sri. K.P.Ramalingam (1974-78) and Sri T.R.Batra (1978-81). SICBMA stood on strong base within a short seven years time when in 1974, it sponsored and hosted the annual conference for its apex body, FCBM.
There was no looking back since then; SICBMA strode in gait with more box-makers joining it as the industrial units increased in number. In its Silver Jubilee Celebration SICBMA had 121 members on its rolls, in Madras City and around it nearby, and in Tamil Nadu.
Paper was scarce in period 1974. Box-makers and more of them had come in the country and their units starved for paper, the principal raw material. Sri.H.P.Arora, then President of FCBM, put in an indefatigable effort in the matter and secured a “quota” of paper for newcomers, And Arora is from SICBMA.
In later years, youth, inspired by the lead given them by seniors, took over, managing the affairs of SICBMA and serving the fraternity.
Walking through memory lane, members assembled in the beginning at regular meetings in one another’s places as guests. SICBMA has now its own premises in B 28, PA Apartments, 6th Floor, 869, EVR Salai (Poonamallee High Road), Kilpauk, Chennai. It acquired absolute ownership to this property by purchase on 11th April 1988, registered as document No. 299/88 in the sub-registry of Saidapet- Madras. Members contributed liberally as donation for its purchase. Mrs. Prabha Manjunath’s of her late husband whose name the premises bears, deserves special mention.
In the beginning, there was only one unit managed by a lady-the resourceful Lady Maggie Amirtharaj of Magchand Industries. Now, there are about ten women entrepreneurs in the industry, among them as proprietrix and as managers.
One more attribute to SICBMA. A few box-makers are wholly participants in export trade. SICBMA has its members who are foreign exchange earners.
SICBMA misses some of the members in their person, like R. Ramachandran, K.Manjunath, P.Balakrishnan, T.R. Batra, G.Rajendran; A.K.Batra and KP Ramalingam, who were called to Eternity. We pay our homage to them and any others.
SICBMA successfully hosted the 37th FCBM conference in Chennai during December last year. Mr. Anil Kumar Reddy took over as the FCBM president during this conference. |
