Modern Technocrats

About The Company

In the beginning

Modern Traders was established in 1957 in a small town of Rajkot, Gujarat. Our founding proprietor Mr. Keshavlal Bharadia had an innate interest in mechanics. He started by manufacturing machinery which includes soap making units, air coolers, fridges and water coolers.

Very soon he came in contact with local dealers of photography equipment who suggested him to manufacture photography cameras and enlargers. Being a photographer himself, Mr. Keshavlal soon developed his own models of cameras and enlargers. They were distributed by dealers under ‘MODERN' brand.

In 1965, Modern Traders bagged its first biggest supply order for Modern Viewmatic Cameras from government regional purchase department and soon it started distributing its products to the major states in India. During the same time Modern Traders launched two range of quarter size black & white Modern Enlargers.

Agfa-Gevaert with was then a collaboration between two major foreign companies dealing in photography equipment had its operation and distribution channel in India. In 1967, Mr. R. L. Narayanan, then chairman of Agfa-Gevaert, heard about Modern products and visited our premises and it didn’t take him too long to recognize the quality and craftsmanship of our products.

In 1967, Mr. R. L. Narayanan and Mr. Keshavlal Bharadia agreed upon terms under which, Modern Traders would be supplying full production of Modern Enlargers to Agfa-Gevaert who would distribute them all over India through its 9 branches.

The Indian Photographers, Agfa-Gevaert and Modern Enlargers

Having found a partner to distribute our product across India, Modern Traders started concentrating on quality improvement and increasing its production of Modern Enlargers. In 1973, Modern Traders shifts its workshop to its Bapunagar unit.

In 1976, Mr. Keshavlal visits Photokina Photofair in Germany and brings in a vast knowledge to enhance our product design. Subsequently, Modern Traders launches two range of 2B size black & white Modern Enlargers, one range of 3C-2B size color enlarger and dry mounting press for album making.

All of our range of Modern Enlargers was distributed by Agfa-Gevaert which had then changed its name to Agfa-Gevaert India Ltd. (AGIL). In 1985, the production of Modern Enlargers peaked at about 2500 a year. Over next 10-15 years, Modern Traders concentrates on manufacturing best quality enlargers for the Indian market. Change knocks our doors.
In 1993, the Indian market opened its doors to Japanese process labs. With ever increasing demand for photographs and for faster processing equipment, the digital labs slowly started replacing enlargers across the major Indian metros and then to smaller towns.

In 2003, Modern Traders, owing to the decreasing demand for enlargers, started sidetracking its production and assembly line for Modern Enlargers.

In 2006, Mr. Kamlesh Bharadia, eldest son of Mr. Keshavlal Bharadia, took over as the company proprietor. Modern Traders started to venture avenues for manufacturing other photography equipment. We introduced a series of infrastructural changes to adapt our premises, workshop and assembly line to the requirement of manufacturing new products.

New products, new approach, and a very new beginning

Subsequently, Modern Traders decided to manufacture studio accessories. In 2008, it has started by manufacturing two range of motorized backdrop support stand.