Pacific Group, a leading manufacturer and exporter of flexible laminates, BOPP pouches, and preformed pouches. has placed a confirmed order for Webtech International Machineries’ Aeroflex S4, a 10-color, triple servo, 670mm inline flexographic printing press, specifically engineered for short-run pouch printing. A facility that has long operated at scale with rotogravure and solventless lamination is now adding on-demand, short-run flexo capability to its portfolio.
According to Anand Goyal, director, Pacific Group, the move is well-planned as the Indian flexible packaging market has fundamentally shifted. FMCG brands, D2C companies, and regional food manufacturers now demand faster turnarounds, lower minimum order quantities, and the ability to change packaging designs at a pace that conventional long-run gravure economics cannot support. Pacific Group’s investment in the Aeroflex S4 is a direct answer to that market reality.
“At Pacific Group, we have always believed that scale and speed must coexist. Our rotogravure infrastructure has served us well for high-volume work, but the market we serve today is fundamentally different from the one we entered. The Webtech Aeroflex S4 is our answer to that shift. What convinced us was not just the machine’s specification, but its philosophy, short-run pouch printing without the use of gravure cylinders, with precision from the first meter, and changeovers that do not penalize us for running smaller jobs. That is the economics of the future. Our investment in flexo is not a diversification. It is a deepening of our commitment to serve every segment of that market, at any quantity, without compromise on quality or turnaround time,” said Goyal.
The Aeroflex S4 operates at speeds up to 250 mpm with SCADA-IoT integration for real-time production monitoring. Its triple servo drive eliminates gear marks, while features such as pre-register and pre-pressure setup ensure faster readiness and precision. Designed with a common base structure and built using German and components from other European countries, the press offers reliability alongside ultra-low wastage.
With capabilities such as unlimited job recall, rapid job changeovers, and flexible print formatting (change of repeat lenght) between 5–10 mm, the Aeroflex S4 – 670, the company says, reduces operational costs by eliminating cylinder expenses while enhancing efficiency and print consistency. In the short run, where every meter of startup waste is a direct margin hit, this is the difference between a profitable job and a costly one. The 670mm print width is optimal for pouch format versatility, wide enough to maximize substrate utilization across the SKU range Pacific Group serves.
Shivvnandan Singh, director, Webtech International Machineries, said, “Pacific Group’s decision to choose the 10-color, 670mm configuration is a reflection of how seriously they think about future capacity. Ten colors is not just process printing, it is extended gamut, brand matching, and the ability to say yes to any client brief without a second conversation. 670mm is the sweet spot for flexible pouch formats at maximum substrate efficiency.”
According to him, converters who invest in short-run flexo capability today are the ones capturing the high-margin, high-frequency business of tomorrow. The brands driving India’s next consumption wave, regional FMCG, D2C, agri-inputs, and pharma, are not coming with lakhs of metres orders. They are coming with SKU proliferation and a 10-day delivery expectation.
He adds, “Webtech’s mission is to ensure that every Indian converter has the technology to serve that demand profitably. This installation at Pacific Group is not just a sale, it is a benchmark.”
Pacific Group’s machinery portfolio already includes three high-output Pelican rotogravure presses with ARC and turret winders, two multilayer LDP blown film lines, two Pelican solventless lamination lines, one extrusion coating line, multiple slitter-rewinders, and 34 high-speed pouching machines. Film extrusion, printing, lamination, slitting, pouching — all in-house. The Aeroflex S4 completes the short-run circle.
