Avery Dennison headquartered in Mentor, Ohio in the United States, with reported sales in 2021 of US$ 8.4 billion (approximately Rs 66,000 crore) commenced operations of its fourth plant in India in April 2022. Operating in 50 countries with more than 35,000 employees, the company has said that the Rs 250 crore investment is part of the company’s overall strategy to reinforce its commitment to India’s growth and better serve its markets and customers.
A phased transition will take place for the facility and employees based out of the company’s Gurgaon plant over a period of time. However, the corporate office of the company continues to be in Gurgaon. We had the opportunity in the last week of July to visit the plant and to see for ourselves what the company intended when it said that it was building a highly automated label stock line.
The state-of-the-art coating and lamination machine is managed by sophisticated automation for producing the finished jumbo reel of pressure-sensitive label stock and for evacuation to the high-speed slitters and sheeters in the finishing section of the enormous factory. Spread over an area of 12 acres, the new state-of-the-art plant will produce technologically-advanced, pressure-sensitive materials for the labeling and packaging industry and would incorporate best practices available across Avery Dennison globally.
In April, Saurabh Agarwal, senior director and general manager, Label and Packaging Materials, South Asia for Avery Dennison said, “This move is the culmination of the customer’s increased demand, as well as potential India, holds as a region. I’m extremely pleased that this achievement has taken place in the same year Avery Dennison is celebrating 25 years of doing business in India.”
We took the opportunity for a brief conversation with Paramasivam K recently appointed as director of operations for the South Asia Region. A veteran of the global FMCG industry in the country, with an engineering and management background, Param as he is known, is expected to bring best-in-class reliability and good practices to the plant. He said, “We need to be responsive to our customers and the ultimate customers’ needs for reliable materials delivered well in time.”
It is also apt at this time to mention Avery Dennison’s reaction to the governments decision to implement the one month old ban on single-use plastic from 1 July 2022. Saurabh Agarwal, senior director and general manager, of LPM South Asia, Avery Dennison, said in early July itself, “It is a welcome move since it supports the green initiative of curbing pollution and health hazards and leads to environmental sustainability. However, in order to make this decision a success, we would need to look at the replacement of plastic products with environmentally-friendly substitutes and more viable alternatives. Also, we would need to significantly invest in research and development and look for more innovative technologies to develop alternative products in future.”
This article has been slightly modified by the author on 22 August 2022.
