Huhtamaki PPL Limited (formerly The Paper Products Ltd), a part of the Finland-based Huhtamaki group that provides consumer and specialty packaging solutions, plans to invest
about Rs 65 crores for expansion and modernization of projects for its flexible packaging and labels businesses in the North East region. While the company will set up a flexible packaging plant in Assam, its subsidiary, Webtech Labels Pvt. Ltd., will build a production facility for labels in Sikkim.
“Huhtamaki PPL Ltd. is setting up a new flexible packaging manufacturing unit in Assam, which is likely to be commissioned during the first half of 2017, to better service its customers based in North East India,” said the company.
Similarly, Webtech Labels’ new label manufacturing plant in Sikkim is expected to come on-stream during the first half of 2017. Meanwhile, Huhtamaki PPL has also decided to relocate the main label manufacturing unit of Webtech Labels, located at Mahape (Navi Mumbai), which primarily caters to pharma companies, to a new stateof-the-art facility in the Greater Mumbai region by the end of 2017. Webtech Labels, which is in business of printing self-adhesive labels in roll form, is one of the largest manufacturers of labels in the country with a production capacity of over 5 million labels per day.
As per Amar Chhajed, managing director of Webtech Labels, “We did not have presence in North East and even our Group has moved there. Many of our customers are now located in the region. So shifting there made a lot of sense for us. The facility will have one printing line with inspection system from AVT. The whole country will be supplied from the plant.”
The flexible packaging industry has been witnessing robust demand due to the fast-growing consumer goods market in the country. Generally, the flexible packaging sector grows in sync with the FMCG sector growth, which grows somewhere between 1.8 and 2 times of the GDP.
To tap this segment, Finnish segment Huhtamaki has been consolidating its presence in the country through acquisitions and expansions in the last few years. While it recently took over Val Pack Solutions—the supplier of a comprehensive range of paper cups—to enter the food service packaging market in India, it acquired Positive Packaging Industries—one of the leading players in flexible packaging sector—for Rs 2009 crore in July 2014.
With annual consolidated revenues of EUR 300 million, Huhtamaki PPL Ltd. is one of the largest manufacturers, in terms of volume, of finished flexible packaging in Africa and Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan). In India, the company has 14 fully integrated manufacturing facilities in locations such as Ambernath, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Khopoli, Navi Mumbai, Parwanoo, Rudrapur, Silvassa, Taloja, Thane, etc.
