Reifenhauser (India) Marketing Ltd. represents some of the world’s leading
brands in plastics extrusion, flexible packaging, converting, injection molding and labels solutions headed by Manish Mehta. Despite disruptions in the economy in the form of demonetization and GST tax regime, the company grew and supplied some very interesting and innovative solutions to some of India’s leading converters last year.
“We being in the capital goods business were not severely impacted by demonetization. However, after GST came into force, there were disruptions, but things had settled down by early-December. So, we really did not face any such problems. In fact, were have grown by over 15% last year,” says Manish Mehta, managing director, Reifenhauser (India) Marketing Ltd.
Last year, the company supplied some innovative solutions to leading names in the flexible packaging and label converting space. There were many highlights like Reifenhauser India supplying an inline flexo press from Bobst Firenze to Gurugrambased Kapcones. They also supplied 7-layer blown film line from Reifenhauser Group to Gujarat-based IDMC (earlier IDMC already had a 3 layer BFL) and Hyderabad-based Shrinath Rotopack. Some other highlights of last year were installation of Alox metallizer from Buhler at Jindal, laser perforation solutions at IDMC and Uflex, shaped pouch and retort pouch making solutions at HPPL and Uflex from Totani and injection molding machine from Nissei at Varroc & Rinder.
Emerging trends
“People are able to get more out of the resins. For example, if earlier they were
able to get 80 meters, now they are able to get 88 meters,” Mehta says.
Growing awareness about environmental issues is greatly influencing the packaging industry. “Not only is the final packaging being impacted but a lot of technology and solutions are being developed to make the manufacturing process of
packaging material more environment friendly,” Mehta argues.
Mehta also spoke about some of the emerging trends that are expected to gain
traction in the coming years. According to him, aseptic packaging will gain much
popularity in the coming years along with retort pouches. Digital printing will
gradually become more prominent in the packaging and label industry. Flexo
technology will continue to enjoy prominence in India, he says. “Investment in
flexo has been very encouraging in the last two years and this trend is likely to
continue in the next 3-5 years as well, as the base is still low.” According to Mehta
there are about 60 wide-web flexo presses in India varying from 1 meter to 1.4
meter width. In labels, anti-counterfeiting and security solutions will continue to
gain popularity.
2018: A year of consolidation for Reifenhauser India
Last year was a good year for the company as it brought in a lot of new and innovative technologies to India.
“We are not planning to be very aggressive this year and will look to capitalize
on our successes of last year. We will also focus on improving the company’s
productivity and upgrading skills of our workforce,” he says.
In terms of solutions, the company will focus on digital printing and anticounterfeiting solutions.
