South Asia was overwhelmingly represented by India at Pack Expo International, which was held in Chicago recently. Pakistan had a couple of companies exhibiting while Bangladesh had a sole representative at the event. Dhaka-based Pran Group had two of its group companies—Allplast Bangladesh and Packmat Industries—promoting their products at the expo.
Allplast manufactures a variety of bags such as inline ziplock bags, wave top bags and die-cut bags as well as stretch films. It has 60 extrusion machines and 45 bag making machines. Packmat, on the other hand, makes flexible packaging solutions such as 2-, 3- and 4-layer films for snacks, candy, noodles, etc. It also makes alu-foil packaging, co-extruded films, OPP/PVC labels, heat transfer foils, etc. It makes plastic solutions such as bottles, jar preform, jar caps, HDPE bottles, as well. Packmat also has a corrugated and carton division.
Pran Group’s packaging operations are undertaken from six plants across Bangladesh. According to Md. Muniruzzaman, COO of Packmat, the preform manufacturing capacity is about 3,500 tons per month while laminated film manufacturing capacity is about 600 tons per month. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are some of the big customers they cater to.
This was Pran Group’s second participation at Pack Expo. At the moment, Pran Group’s packaging division generates almost all its business from the domestic market but the company wants to change that. “We have been focusing extensively on expanding into the global market. Being at Pack Expo gives us an opportunity to meet potential customers from North America, which is a huge market for packaging solutions,” says Muniruzzaman.
He informed that for the US market they are looking to appoint distributors and are talking directly to end users as well. “We got some good inquiries during the four days,” he adds.
