Constantia Flexibles have decided to expand their production capacity in their Indian subsidiary Parikh Packaging, by investing millions into the site, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Operations are set to commence in 2019, and will serve a notable growing demand from food and beverage multi-national companies.
India’s flexible packaging market is expected to show double-digit growth in the mid-term, which is being very much driven by the expansion of the retail sector and the megatrend urbanisation.
Anurag More, Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA India (part of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association) has claimed that the packaging industry in India is worth a whopping $17bn, and this in turn constitutes close to 4% of the world’s packaging industry.
“Over the last five years, the industry has seen an annual growth of 15% and the development of packaging machinery is on an upward trend,” he said.
“Both primary and secondary packaging have tremendously grown over the past few years. The Indian packaging industry is expected to become the fourth-largest packaging market in the world.”
Over 80% of total packaging in India is made up of rigid packaging, while the remaining percentage comprises flexible packaging. There are between 600-700 packaging machinery manufacturers, and 95% of these are in the small and medium sectors.
More than 60% of Indian imports are processing equipment for foodstuffs, such as beverages, bakery, confectionery and fruit and vegetables.
Stefan Grote, executive VP, Food, Constantia Flexibles, claimed that major FMCGs are insisting that the top level of sustainability is hit for their packaging material, and that they will have to comply with the upcoming Indian Plastic Waste Management (PWM) regulations, which promote only fully recyclable flexible packaging.
