The Elite global summit, spanning two days, is a barometer of change. An annual gauge reflecting the state of the global and national economy, the packaging industry, and finally, the health of the flexible packaging industry. It is a good place to evaluate both the progress in plastic and waste regulation and compliance. In addition, there is the perennial search for the magic bullet – innovation and solutions that will show the way to improve margins in a competitive marketplace with thinning margins.
The brand owners say they are caught between the price pressure from consumers and the rising cost of packaging materials, especially if they are to be sustainable and recyclable. And the packaging converters say they are caught between the rising costs of technology and raw materials, and the brand owners who take advantage of the competition between them. Nevertheless, each year, technology, raw material, and equipment suppliers return to promote their products to the brand owners and converters who attend in large numbers – in the hope of gaining a glimpse of the magic bullet and meeting the ‘right person’ to help them grow their business.
Although some presentations are sales talks, several contain windows to tech change and innovation. Most of all one encounters progress – the revelation of a problem solved by an early adopter company that is ready to share its development knowhow with other brands simply because it sees the benefits of sharing. For instance, the wider use of a new film, adhesive, or coating may lead to bringing down the price of an innovative process or laminate. It will also most likely lead to further innovation.
This was demonstrated by Robert Cotton, the R&D director of PepsiCo who we also met in his previous visit to Elite several years ago, and whose validation on the use of monomaterial laminates for food packaging we wrote about. On the first day of this year’s Elite Summit, Cotton spoke at first about some of the challenges of paperization and then more extensively about biodegradable films, which are still controversial in some regions for lack of clarity in the standard of biodegradability, and for which, in India, there is no accelerated test or certification.
Cotton spoke about developments using biaxial PHA and PHA-rich blown films. The benchmark was that they should be 90% biodegradable within six months, after which they should continue to disintegrate. In addition, these materials need to be non-ecotoxic as far as land and water. Cotton ended his presentation by saying, “We are sharing our innovations by making our patents available to anyone in the industry. The better the scale of innovation, the better the efficiency. We are advocates for the industry. Join us on the journey.”
Each year’s Elite Summit contains a morning keynote by a senior banker or investment head that addresses the Indian economy. Siddhartha Sanyal, chief-economist and head of research at Bandhan Bank, was surprisingly circumspect despite the government’s numbers showing a remarkable 7.8% GDP growth in the first quarter (April to June) of the current financial year. He spoke about the overall robustness of the economy, which is still consumption-led and in a relatively good situation as far as public debt as a ratio of GDP (India is at 81.3% in comparison to Japan at 236.7%, the US at 120.8%, and the UK at 101.2%).
While showing a graph of how the combined global public debt had far exceeded IMF forecasts made before the pandemic, Sanyal warned that this was a structural problem that in combination with trade and tariff wars and slowing fertility could have “enormous implications for innovation, consumption and growth.”
While wary of the global situation, Sanyal pointed out, “Indian economic growth has come from discipline and fitness – and not from steroids.” Pointing to the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which is forecast to continue to decline, the recent moderation of inflation, an expectation of interest rates moderating further, and the improvement in the current account deficit, he said, “I’ll not be surprised if in the coming years we may see a current account surplus.”
Data sets, consumer perceptions and opportunities
There were at least five or six outstanding presentations and panels over the two days of the global summit, which we will continue to discuss in the coming days. Amongst these are Mani Vajipeyi’s presentation outlining Banyan Nations’s recent entry into the recycling of flexible films and the US$ 4 billion opportunity this presents to the industry at large and the recyclers in particular, in the next five years. Several outstanding panels addressed the outlook of brands and converters on the new regime of compliance with waste management regulations including Extended Producer Responsibility, the questions of viability of sustainable packaging, coatings, and adhesives for monomaterials, and sustainable food packaging. An instructive and inspirational panel had five startups discussing their exploration of capital markets.
What emerges from the 12th annual Elite global summit on flexible films and packaging is the relative resilience of the Indian economy and its industry’s willingness to tackle the necessity of innovation, in a world beset by the death and destruction of genocide, tariff and proxy wars over global dominance, and the foretold perils of climate change. As Jacob Duer president and chief executive officer of the Alliance to Plastic Waste said at the end of his comprehensive and balanced presentation on the recent and inconclusive Plastic Waste Treaty 5.2 deliberations in Geneva, “India is a country that will lead waste management, plastic pollution and the circular economy.”
