Nilanchal Packaging, which specializes in poly propylene (PP) flute boards and corrugated sheets, is a leading name in its space. The company fabricates these boards into boxes, crates and many other products that are customized as per the client’s requirement. Vinod Bakshi, a first generation entrepreneur, founded this company a decade ago when the industry was still at a relatively nascent stage. He began operations with a fabrication unit but soon found out that it was almost impossible to scale up with mere fabrication work.
Integrated production
Four years of fabricating PP sheets into custom-made products for the B2B segment gave Bakshi new insights into the business. His business took a hit when he began experiencing difficulties with the quality of the sheets and inconsistent delivery by the suppliers. To overcome this hindrance, Bakshi set up a PP extrusion plant minutes away from the fabrication unit in Surajpur Industrial Area, Greater Noida.
The PP extrusion plant has a production capacity that far exceeds the requirements of the fabrication unit. Bakshi says, “Here, a lot of manual processes are involved and we cannot keep pace with the production capacity of the plant. Almost 60% of the production capacity is consumed by our fabrication unit and the remaining is exported to the Middle East as well as for sale in the open market locally.” The PP corrugation sheet is a single extrusion product with thickness varying from 2 mm to 8 mm. The entire product is extruded as a single unit having a width of 1.52 meters. The shape is derived from a die through which the melt flows and gets extruded on the line.
Evolving market
Bakshi forayed into the industry after receiving a specific inquiry from an automobile major for PP corrugated sheet boxes. “Earlier it was not common for automotive sector OEMs to use such boxes to pack the spare parts they produced. However, nowadays both the automobile and electronics sectors are increasingly using PP corrugated sheet boxes for packing spare parts, which are then sent to the main assembly unit. Thereafter, the boxes are returned for repacking a new batch of items and the process continues,” shares Bakshi.
The boxes are reused for around 2-3 years; at the end of 8-10 such cycles, their packing cost comes down to zero. Even eCommerce majors are turning to PP corrugated boxes to protect the shelf life of their products over longer duration in the warehouse.
As one of the better organized companies in this segment, Nilanchal Packaging has seen the sector evolve even it continues to play a major role in the industry’s growth. In addition to the OEM supply chain, the demand for packaging solutions using PP corrugation is emerging from other unlikely sectors as well. The defense sector, for instance, came up with an inquiry for personal hold-all type boxes for soldiers to replace the unwieldy metal boxes that are in use now. Nilanchal has successfully completed the sampling process and is now looking forward to process the order soon. Bakshi also has even received an inquiry from the construction industry wherein the latter is looking for PP corrugation sheets to protect newly tiled flooring that is otherwise prone to damages while finishing work during house construction. Similarly, there are many other application areas in the B2B sphere that offer excellent opportunities for this rapidly growing segment.
