At PlastIndia 2026, correspondent Priyanka Tanwar met Thimmaiah NP, MD & CEO of Alternicq to discuss the company’s 40-year-plus legacy, rebranding to Alternicq, key strategies to stay relevant in India’s FMCG, food and pharma space, AI-driven manufacturing and consolidation in India’s packaging sector.
Edited excerpts:
Packaging South Asia (PSA) – For over 40 years, Manjushree Technopack has evolved from a small operation to India’s largest rigid plastic packaging company. What has been the single most critical turning point in this journey?
Thimmaiah NP – Manjushree Technopack is a four-decade-plus organization and a market leader in the rigid plastic packaging space. There isn’t a single turning point; it’s the combination of things we have done that has made us India’s largest rigid plastic packaging company.
One is our scale of operation. We are present in 30 locations, with 30 manufacturing sites all over India. Proximity to customers is one of our key focus areas. The second is our operational performance, whether quality, delivery, cost, or safety. Third comes our solution-providing ability and the fourth is our one-stop solution approach.
We are present in Bangalore, Vizag, Guwahati, Baddi, Pantnagar, Silvassa, and Hyderabad, among other locations.
PSA – How does Manjushree Technopack maintain its competitive edge over organized and unorganized players while maintaining quality?
Thimmaiah NP – Manjushree is the only professionally run company of this scale in the rigid plastic packaging sector. We recently launched a production system in our operations and manufacturing setup. Our priority is to deliver the highest level of performance to our customers, whether it is quality or delivery or new product launches, and this is our differentiator.
We have rebranded the company to Alternicq from Manjushree Technopack. Alternicq means ‘alternative way of thinking’ that involves thinking differently to provide a differentiated product to customers. How do we drive innovation as a key theme of our organization? I think the new name reflects the innovation pedigree and what we want to drive. The logo has two rectangles, one each for customers and one for us, coming together to form a diamond, which is like a differentiated product and value to the customer.
We want to provide innovative solutions to customers to solve their complex problems. We give them solutions from the packaging perspective.
PSA – What strategies have allowed Manjushree Technopack to be a trusted partner in FMCG, pharma and food?
Thimmaiah NP – Manjushree is into multiple segments—home care, personal care, agrochemical, nutraceutical, industrial, pharmaceutical, or beverages.
Nobody has the kind of products we offer, whether containers, preforms, closures, pharmaceutical packaging, or pumps and dispensers. Â
We have an in-house recycling capability. We collect waste and used packaging from aggregators. We grind it, segregate, granulize and reuse it to enhance the overall circularity of a product.
We provide design solutions. We ask the customer what they want to pack and how much, and tell them to leave the rest to us. We do the entire end-to-end packaging, design, development, and execution for customers. We turn concept into reality.
PSA – With PAG acquiring a majority stake and valuing the firm at nearly $1 billion, how has the strategic focus shifted, particularly regarding the move from an IPO route to a PE partnership?
Thimmaiah NP – Alternicq’s strategic pillars are profitable growth, innovation, professional leadership, employer of choice, digitization and best-in-class operations. These pillars drive our strategy and provide overall value to the stakeholders. That’s how we have become a trusted partner.
PSA – How are you scaling up high-margin specialized segments such as pharmaceuticals and personal care to drive profitability?
Thimmaiah NP – High focus segments going forward are nutraceuticals, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and pump and dispensing, where we design, develop, execute and provide one-stop integrated solutions for customers.
India still imports pumps from China. We are working toward developing such products to help reduce dependency from China and use that opportunity to grow in that particular space.
We are doing the same in the pharmaceutical sector. There are multiple requirements in the pharma sector that nobody addresses and we are eyeing that segment.
PSA – Manjushree has over 50 patents and works with names such as Husky, Sacmi and Reifenhauser. How are these investments in automation and AI-driven manufacturing impacting operational efficiency?
Thimmaiah NP – There are three things here.
The number one is that our innovation center, called Avinya in Bangalore, provides differentiated offerings. Here, too, there are three key themes. One is blue sky innovation, which is solving complex problems through innovation. Two is a customer-led innovation called project Optima. The third is Project Earth, which is recycling plastic material.
The second factor is that we, as an organization, are driving operational efficiency and improving productivity through AI. We have signed up with an AI partner to implement artificial intelligence in the enterprise. In the next two years or so, we will probably be the only company in this space to have implemented AI to drive overall operational efficiency and productivity.
The third factor is automation. We make significant investment in our factories to enhance automation, both in terms of productivity improvement and quality enhancement.
We are probably one of the best in India and in the world in terms of ESG compliance in our sector. Standard & Poor’s rated us as one of the top five in the world in rigid plastic packaging in terms of ESG compliance.
Around 30 people work in our innovation center and we plan to increase its strength.
PSA – As a leader in rigid plastics, how does Manjushree Technopack stay ahead of consumer trends demanding smarter, more aesthetically pleasing and functional packaging?
Thimmaiah NP – We always look forward to providing innovative solutions. We go to end customers and brands to find out what problems they face in terms of packaging. We try to know the new trends. We go back to the drawing board and see what solutions we can offer.
We can do this because investing in people, operations and innovation requires scale. In our industry, we are the only ones to have that kind of scale. That’s why we are very upbeat about our future.
PSA – How is Manjushree leveraging the consolidation in the Indian packaging sector?
Thimmaiah NP – Manjushree is the largest rigid plastic packaging company in India and still, we have only a 7% market share. That shows how fragmented the industry is. In the last 4-5 years, we have been acquiring at least one company a year, including Varahi Polymers, Pearl Polymers, Hitesh Plastics, National Plastics, and Oriental Containers. We are looking at what else we should do to consolidate and drive growth. We will continue to evaluate inorganic growth opportunities. If we get a good asset, we will look at acquiring them.
PSA – Please tell us about your experience at PlastIndia 2026?
Thimmaiah NP – It was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our overall capability and connect with stakeholders, both suppliers and customers, to see how we can work to enhance the overall value chain.
