Avon Pacfo Services, a startup in the packaging and shipping materials segment, offers products and services to customers with big and small orders alike. Unlike most startups that go through a process of uphill task during the initial years, Avon Pacfo began on a strong note with adequate investment and infrastructure. The new venture is a division of Faridabad-based Avon Containers, a leading converter of corrugated shipping and packaging material, founded by Gaurav Agarwal, managing director of Avon Containers and Himanshu Bhansali, former general manager at Umex Packaging .
The Avon Pacfo portal is projected as a one-stop solution for all kinds of packaging and shipping material requirements where buyers can procure cartons, BOPP tapes, polypacks, pallets and a range of packaging and shipping material. They have a calculator integrated to every product display to show the exact price of the product as per industry norms. There is also a 3D animated option showing how a particular box is folded. A customer can obtain an estimate by typing in his requirement and then make an informed purchase decision. Overall, this makes every deal absolutely transparent.
machine can print just one box and
prevent wastage
The main target group comprises SMEs and eCommerce companies including big players like Amazon. However, there are also thousands of other companies, mainly startups, with interesting packaging ideas who are looking for quality and consistency in supply of small order quantities. Bhansali says this has opened up an entirely new segment between B2C and B2B. Avon Pacfo ensures the same level of service for small orders as they do for slightly bigger ones or for bulk orders. They have a strong focus on digital marketing to enhance their online presence.
Avon Pacfo has a wide range of products like boxes, wrapping rolls, tapes, bags, edge-protectors, core pipes, strapping and pallets in addition to customized products. The company has no minimum order quantity policy. It intends to aggregate all the small order quantities from the small-scale industries where the requirements range from 100 to 300 boxes.
Avon Pacfo leverages the vast and advanced production and storage inventory of its parent company, Avon Containers. They have two 5-ply automatic corrugation machines and three high-speed flexo presses with slotter and diecutter—. In addition, they have four automatic bundling machines, die-punching machines, 20 stitching machines, automatic flap-pasting and gluing machines (speed – 9,000 cartons per hour). To add to that, the company has a fully equipped testing lab where they check thickness, puncture resistance, bursting strength and many other attributes of the sheets that can impact quality.
Bhansali, during his tenure at Umex Packaging’s Kansas City unit in the US, came to know about Uline, a packaging and shipping material supplier that had an online business model. Uline was doing well, shipping 2.5 million boxes (25 lakh boxes per day). A large chunk of this demand came via online orders, which Uline managed to service quite well owing to its excellent logistics and offline infrastructure like huge warehouses and superior shipping.
Bhansali knew this kind of a business model had great potential in India where a large number of startups run by young entrepreneurs are looking for optimum packaging solutions. He already had good expertise in plastics (laminates) and now he was looking for partners who could bring in other kinds of expertise, mainly paper. It was at this point that he met Gaurav Agarwal, his present partner and co-founder of Avon Pacfo. Agarwal’s company, Avon Containers, now has one of the largest manufacturing capacities for corrugated boxes in a single location in India. Bhansali’s idea and Agarwal’s setup provided the ideal environment for Avon Pacfo to take off on a winning note.
