India is one of the most important markets in the Asia Pacific for DuPont Cyrel Solutions because of its growing packaging industry, officials from the company stated to Packaging South Asia on the sidelines of the recently concluded 9th Specialty Films & Flexible Packaging Summit 2022 held in Mumbai on 5-6 September.
“India has performed very well and has managed the Covid pandemic deftly. The Indian packaging industry is growing, and India is for us one of the most dynamic and crucial markets for flexo printing in the Asia Pacific,” said Jan Scharfenberg, business leader East for Cyrel Solutions.
At the 9th Specialty Films & Flexible Packaging Summit, Scharfenberg addressed the conference on the latest developments and trends in flexographic print forms. The Cyrel team hosted several customers and partners at the company’s booth at the event and highlighted the latest flexo printed samples including CI flexo surface printing on mono structure poly films, narrow web UV flexo reverse printing on laminated multilayer with ECG, and narrow web UV flexo printing on shrink film and BOPP film.
Tucker Norton, who is the global business leader for Cyrel Solutions at DuPont, said, “It’s clearly visible that the infrastructure in India in terms of flexographic printing is rapidly being built. The flexo value proposition is now well understood in India. We believe that the future of the flexo printing industry is very bright here. We are excited to grow in India and expand our partnerships”
Gururaj Kirsur, sales leader of South Asia for Cyrel Solutions, emphasized that the Indian packaging market has reached a point where the awareness about flexographic printing is now very high. “The maturity that we currently see in the Indian packaging industry is because of the willingness of the industry to accept different points of view and thoughts. The Covid pandemic gave a boost to flexo printing because of the rise in short-run and quick turnaround jobs,” said Gururaj.
Indian customers eager to innovate
Scharfenberg stated that Indian customers are eager to innovate and keen to know about new technologies. “The Indian printing industry is highly competitive but there is also a lot of cooperation. An example of that is the 9th Specialty Films & Flexible Packaging Summit. There were over 1,500 participants at the event and the response and interactions have been great. We have met many customers and partners here,” Scharfenberg.
Norton said that DuPont Cyrel Solutions is ready to further strengthen its footprint in the country. “We already have a strong presence in India and if we need to invest further to keep the presence strong, we will do that,” Norton said.
DuPont’s commitment to flexography
Reiterating DuPont’s commitment to flexography, Tucker Norton added, “Our flexo printing plates and equipment supplies continued during the pandemic. With our robust supply chain and manufacturing as the backbone, we were able to serve customers across geographies and managed production and delivery consistency.
“Our technical teams performed installations and provided on-site services for critical work like printing for FMCG goods that needed to be launched or replenished in the market urgently. As part of DuPont’s commitment to helping move the packaging and printing industry forward sustainably, we launched two major products in the last two years. So, even during the pandemic we continued to invest in R&D and innovation and came out with the Cyrel Fast 3000TD, a new solvent-less thermal flexo platemaking solution, and developed the Cyrel Lightning Plates platform, a tailored formulation for UV-LED exposure, supporting printing and operational sustainability objectives of brand owners and printers/converters,” he said.
