PET remains a favourite amongst manufacturers and retailers a like due to its ease of handling in distribution and retailing. The Indian market for PET bottles is said to be around `4,000 crore and growing at 20% annually. Liquor and pharma companies are increasingly switching over to plastics as a more convenient and cost effective form of packaging than glass. It is unbreakable, occupies less space, and is liked by consumers. New techniques like flip open caps and better and more attractive closures work in the rising competition of modern retail environments.
A wide and lustrous portfolio
Delhi-based Varahi, a leading manufacturer of high quality plastic bottles, caps, jars and containers offers a one-stop solution to major FMCG and pharmaceutical companies. With a strong presence in the north with six production units — three in Baddi, and one unit each in Delhi, Noida and Pantnagar and 162 machines operational across the country, the company is known for its Qua brand of mineral water along with the recently launched Ula which is supplied to air line majors like Air India.
Pradeep Khare, head business development at Varahi, says, “We are involved in providing all kinds of moulding activities like injection moulding, extrusion blow moulding, injection blow moulding, injection stretch blow moulding and compression moulding amongst many others. Our major focus is to reduce the use of plastic while retaining the rigidity and strength of the container and to pass on this benefit to the end customer.”Weightreductionhasbeenamajor area of concern for the rigid packaging industry which has often come under the scanner due to poor recyclability of such products. Talking about its current array of machinery, Khare says that for blow moulding, the company has multiple companies like Electronica and CMP while the injection stretch blow moulding machines are from ASB and compression moulding machines are from Italian giant Sacmi.
Promising times ahead
Khare is optimistic about the growth potential of the plastic packaging market in India. “The market for our products is growing and the next five years will see an increased focus on FMCG products which will be the biggest market for bottle, jar and container manufacturers. Packaging for all products like grocery, bakery and various edible products, which are largely sold loose, will be packed in plastic containers which will make them shelf ready.” Varahi plans to enter the form fill-seal market as well and will be introducing FFS machines for juices soon.
The company was present at the recently concluded Indpack 2014 in Delhi. “We have been participating in both the Mumbai and Delhi editions of events organized by the Indian Institute of Packaging along with many other similar packaging exhibitions held in Dubai, Bangalore and Mumbai. The biggest advantage of this exhibition is that highly focused customers visit us with genuine enquiries and product knowledge. They are either existing names in this segment, or are willing to enter this segment. This enables us to better demonstrate the strengths of our products as we know that many of these visitors will turn into customers in the near future.”
Changing consumer tastes, due to the growing and richer middle-class will ensure that the growth in the packaging industry will be sustained in the next few years while only companies with significant scale will be able to leverage the growth opportunities, feels Khare. Abigadvantageofthepackagedwaterand juice segment is that all the existing production capacities or those being created will continue to be utilized fully as there is considerable latentdem and that continues to drive growth.
