Constantia Flexibles aims to double its sales in India within the next five years, thanks to the acquisition of a majority stake in Creative Polypack and plans to expand subsidiary Parikh Packaging.

 

Constantia Flexibles is already India’s third largest flexible packaging group and is expecting to reach the €200 million (INR 1,600 crore) sales mark in 2022 through market growth and ongoing investments. The flexible packaging market in India is expected to grow by more than 10 percent in the next five years, driven by urbanization and expansion of the retail sector.

 

India has become the third largest economy in the world after the United States and China, with high single-digit GDP growth, major infrastructure projects in roads and ports, a simplification of the tax system and rising private consumption, especially among the burgeoning middle class.

 

“We are proud to be here in India today to announce our ambitious growth plans in the fastest growing flexible packaging market worldwide,” Constantia Flexibles CEO Alexander Baumgartner said. “Our production footprint allows us to cover the whole of the Indian subcontinent and bring the latest innovative and sustainable packaging solutions to our valued customers.”

 

Baumgartner was joined at a press conference in Mumbai by Pavan Parikh, managing director and founder of Parikh Packaging; B. K. Maheswari, managing director and founder of Creative Polypack; and his son, Giriraj Maheswari, joint managing director.

 

Founded in 1986, Creative Polypack Limited pulled in about €75 million in sales during the year ending March 31, 2018. The company has about 850 employees at eight production sites in Baddi, Kanpur, Kolkata, Assam and Puducherry, in northern, eastern and southern India. 

 

Creative Polypack manufactures film-based flexible packaging for the food and home and personal care industries (HPC), as well as paper-based soap wrappers. The company serves the leading domestic and international consumer goods companies in India.

 

Creative Polypack intends to invest on average €6 million per year (INR 50 crore) in new production capacity, as well as in other infrastructure improvements, at its Kolkata, Baddi, Kanpur and Puducherry sites in the coming years. Above all, it plans to double its capacity at the newly-established Assam site.

 

Before the acquisition of Creative Polypack, Constantia Flexibles was a leading supplier of film-based flexible packaging for the Indian market after acquiring Ahmedabad-based Parikh Packaging in 2013. It has more than 500 employees and achieved sales of €35 million in 2017, serving the food and HPC industries.

 

Parikh Packaging is investing millions of euro in a new greenfield site in Ahmedabad, which will be home to a polyethylene blown film extruder, high-definition Flexo printing press and laminators that will produce high barrier laminates that can be fully recycled. The extra capacity will come online in 2019.

 

Major FMCGs are demanding the highest level of sustainability for their packaging material and the new investment will help them to comply with upcoming Indian Plastic Waste Management (PWM) regulations that promote only fully recyclable flexible packaging. The investment also fits in well with the Indian government’s campaign Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to clean the nation.