Indian manufacturing industry has evolved comprehensively in the past 70 years. Ever since India's independence. Industry has played an intrinsic role in the growth and development of the Indian economy. As per an analysis, the manufacturing sector is estimated to contribute about 25 per cent to the GDP by the year 2025. In fact, at the current stage the Indian manufacturing discipline is striding towards becoming a global manufacturing hub. However, the credit of this furtherance should rightly be assigned to the manufacturing leaders, who have built and buttressed this space to an extent that it facilitated not just numerous other pioneers, but levered the stance of the whole ecosystem.

Founded in the year 1920, MG Shahani and Co Delhi Pvt Ltd is one such establishment, that has been leading Indian industrial enterprise for one hundred years. The company is known for its versatile endeavours in three distinct verticals, namely - Manufacturing, Warehousing and Distribution. It has been in the spotlight for years as a premier contract manufacturer of a variety of personal care and home care products. The end products manufactured by MGS are available in sachets, tubes, bottles, jars, and other variations formed on the requisite of the clients.

"Our journey began in pre-independent India. It all started in the year 1920, when Late MG Shahani set up a partnership firm. At the beginning, MG Shahani and Co was a trading company, and by 1940 had a presence across undivided India from Burma in the east to what is now Pakistan in the West. It was after independence that MGS' operations were relocated to Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta. At this time, the business was segregated, and incorporated as three separate companies in these cities. The responsibility of taking the business to the next level was undertaken by MG Shahani's son, Mr. Ranjit Shahani. It was he who

constituted MGS as a Manufacturing firm in the 1960's, and in 1985 MGS started taking contracts to manufacture personal care products for leading companies such as Colgate Palmolive at its Faridabad unit," says Dr. Rajesh Thadani, Managing Director of MGS.

Today, the legacy of MGS is carried ahead by Rajesh Thadani, who is the grandson of the founder, and the third generation to head MGS. A forest ecologist by training, Rajesh worked in the development sector, and headed a large Himalayan NGO before joining MGS. He has brought in new perspectives, and his breadth of view has worked wonders for the company. He instituted two factories in Uttarakhand, which have enabled the company to increase production ten-fold over the past 15 years, to over 3,000 tonnes of shampoo, liquid soaps, creams and lotions per month! Till date, the organisation has served numerous clients coming from diverse business environments. Some of the top-wheels of the industry, who are leveraging the facilities provided by MGS include - Colgate Palmolive, Dabur, ITC, Wipro, Marico, Godrej, Happily Unmarried, Kama Ayurveda, and many more. True to its nature, MGS observes a collaborative approach in order to understand and measure up the requirements of the clients. "We pride ourselves in having capabilities across packing formats, including bottles, jars, tubes, sachets and doy packs. In fact, we were among the first to produce sachets in the country and currently produce 200 million units per month," says Rajesh. MGS' products range from liquid soaps to creams, lotions, speciality oils and waxes. The company also has warehousing operations in four different provinces of the North India, and manages modern logistics spaces ranging from 25,000sq ft to over 150,000 square feet in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

MG Shahani and co Delhi is one such establishment that has been a keystone in Indian enterprise for the past 100 years ­ providing services that help other companies flourish and grow

Being mindful about the disruption digital marketing created in the business world, MGS initiated a distinct vertical known as the `Emerging Clients vertical'. "We initially planned this to hand-hold emerging, mostly digital marketing players, and providing a one stop solution from product development to material sourcing and final production and packaging with quick turnaround times," says Rajesh Thadani. "But soon, we realised that our existing multinational clients could benefit greatly from these added facilities, which enabled them to quickly develop and launch products in niche sectors," Throughout its existence, the company has innovated new measures and techniques, that benefitted its clients. This remains the focus, and in the future MGS aims to move up the value chain and provide its customers a greater range of services, from becoming an integrated third party logistics provider in the warehousing vertical ­ to a contract manufacturer with a range of product development and sourcing capabilities in Manufacturing. "We see ourselves as a foundation on which other companies can build their businesses ­ a keystone in the Industrial ecosystem, which has enabled myriad other companies to flourish and grow," says Rajesh. This year marks the hundredth year of MGS providing a strong foundation and a valuable service to India's industrial growth.