Meerut Packaging, which specializes in carton-based corrugated packaging, has a mega plant spreading over 22 acres in Mussorie village, 20 km outside Meerut. Established in 1996, Meerut Packaging has a Fosber line with Thermex boilers from Germany for corrugation as well as Bobst lines for coverting, folding gluing and die-cutting along.
In the course of our recent visit to the plant, the company’s director Sandeep Agarwal says the company enhanced the plant’s monthly capacity by 6,000 tons to 9,000 tons in 2020. It is currently utilizing 45-60 % of the capacity to produce approximately 4,000 tons of corrugated packaging for its FMCG customers.
The plant’s location on NH 34 makes the company’s access to the Delhi-NCR and Haridwar in Uttrakhand easier, although it ships to customers in a 500 kilometer radius as far as Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir. Agarwal says, “Being strategically located just 20 km outside Meerut, we don’t face any issues with land availability or space constraints.”
“We have an ultra-modern plant at par with international standards. We use minimum manpower with no water pollution or air discharge. We have a solar power system in place to reduce electricity consumption. We use biomass as fuel which is 100% environment friendly.”
As reported by Packaging South Asia earlier, Meerut Packaging has an effluent treatment plant and a Hyperion treatment plant for filtering and reusing wastewater. According to director Mahavir Agarwal, the company follows all government norms and regulations pertaining to sustainability, solar energy and green fuel.
Meerut Packaging uses its own trucks to provide dust-free shipment of master carton-based corrugated packaging to FMCG companies, with closed containers provided by its clients.
Sandeep Agarwal said the company uses battery-operated forklifts imported from Toyota, Japan, as diesel forklifts have higher chances of catching fire. The kraft paper used is from FSC-certified mills such as Dev Priya paper mills and other nearby units. The brothers say the corrugation plant will take two years to reach 100% capacity utilization.
Expansion to litho-laminated and monocartons
Both brothers say that competition in the packaging industry is high. Nevertheless, they are building a monocarton plant in the same premises to provide multicolor e-flute, b-flute litho-laminated and monocartons to their FMCG clients. Having participated in drupa24 online, the brother are planning a visit to Germany to finalize the machines for this expansion.
Corrugated cartons for fruits & vegetables
India’s big economy has a thriving fruit and vegetables market. According to Sandeep Agarwal much of the produce is wasted due to improper packaging and storage facilities leading to high seasonal inflation. With the demand for better storage and transportation of fresh produce, the corrugation industry is likely to grow faster, he said, not that infrastructural development for packaging seasonal produce will go a long way in improving its shelf life.
To participate more fully in the fresh produce supply chain, Meerut Packaging has its own warehouses in Himachal Pradesh, where it provides corrugated packaging for apples. Agarwal says the company supplies corrugated boxes for mangoes as well. The corrugated boxes for packaging apples and mangoes are customized to clients’ requirements, the brothers said, adding that they supplied 30 lakh corrugated cartons to Himachal Pradesh in 2024 for apples.
The company plans to supply corrugated packaging for guava, kiwi and sapodilla (chikoo). Additionally it is in discussion with Adani and Reliance for their needs in the fresh produce segment.
Meerut Industrial Pledge Park – packaging real estate
Sandeep and Mahavir Agarwal are collaborating with the UP government in a theme-based real estate development project called the Meerut Industrial Pledge Park. While the 50 acres belongs to the two brothers, the government is supporting them with infrastructure development in five phases. The first phase comprises 22 industrial plots and one commercial plot in an area of about 12 acres.
“The project aims to concentrate on one industry within one city in Uttar Pradesh, which is inline with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s idealogy of ‘one product one scheme.’ The first preference for the Meerut Industrial Pledge Park will be packaging companies. While 70% of infrastructure development for the plots is done, the remaining 30% will take another 30-45 days. The plots will handed over in February 2025,” according to the two brothers.
Both Mahavir and Sandeep Agarwal were looking forward to good inquiries for the sale of the plots of the first phase of the Meerut Industrial Pledge Park at the government-backed Meerut Mahotsav, held from 21 – 25 December 2024.
