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Tetra Pak opens `700 crore material factory at Chakan
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Saturday, 01 June, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Harcha Bhaskar
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fiogf49gjkf0d Tetra Pak South Asia,a leader in packaging and processing solutions, has expanded its operation by setting up a new plant with an investment of Rs 700 crore.
The new plant set up at Chakan,Pune,has the capacity to produce 8.5 billion packages a year, which is double that of Tetra Pak's plant at Takwe (also near Pune). The total area of the plant – which currently employs about 240 employees – is 1,80,000 sq m i.e. 45 acre of land.
Tetra Pak, whose India operations are headquartered in Gurgaon,started its operations in Takwe in the year 1987. But on the occasion of inauguration of its new packaging material factory,Dennis Jonsson,president and CEO, Tetra Pak Group, announced the closing of the Takwe packaging plant and shifting the operations to Pune.
Tetra Pak set up the new facility with the objective of providing packaging and processing solutions across India, South-east Asia and the Middle-East. The new plant will enable the company to tap more of the domestic market in India and also allow convenience to export for meeting the huge international demand. The environment has been taken into consideration at this facility, with machinery installed for the recycling of tetra-packs.
When questioned about the reason for venturing into India, Kandarp Singh, managing director of the company's operations in the South Asian markets said,“India ranks number one as a milk and milk products producing country. It is estimated that the dairy segment would be growing at double its current rate in the next five years.”
“This is where we find huge business opportunity in India. The tetra-pack solution will boost both Indian consumers and the company.
Currently there are four types of aseptic packaging that are mainly manufactured in the company. These are Tetra Brik Aseptic, Tetra Classic Aseptic,Tetra Fino Aseptic, and Tetra Wedge Aseptic. These are very much in demand by the beverage sector in India as well as other countries. These are used for products like milk, lassi,chaas, juices, spirits and wine.
“The Tetra Brik aseptic packaging for beverages is in demand currently,” said Kandarp Singh.
The new plant is state-of-the-art with units like converting factory with equipment like 2 printers,1 laminator,and 3 slitters. The factory compasses straw factory, product development and innovation centre,filling machine renovation centre, spare part store,and technical training academy.
Jaydeep Gokhale,director,communication and environment,Tetra Pak South Asia, said,“The main intention is to provide packaging in such a way that there is no further need to preserve or refrigerate. The convenience of storage and the distribution of the product have also been kept in mind.”
According to Gokhale, aseptic packaging technology is a technological advancement and boon to people of 20th century. This technology allows the food to retain is purity and natural health essence of the food, thus providing fresh and healthy products to the customers.
The packaging is manufactured by using 75% of paper and rest of non- paper components like polyethylene, and aluminium foil. This helps in maintaining balance of food safety and sustainability.
When asked about the sourcing of raw materials for its operations,Singh said, “Of total raw material used, 65 to 70% of paper raw material, is sourced totally from India and majorly from companies like ITC, but we find difficulty in finding the non- paper component of packaging. Hence, polyethylene, foil paper is imported from other countries.”
The company presently exports around 40%of its production. The India- based plant accounts for 10-12% of its revenues worldwide and was growing at an annual rate of 15-20%.
Currently, the company exports to 29 countries. Vietnam and Indonesia hold the major shares of the market for Tetra Pak's offerings. India is in the list of the 10 fastest-growing markets.
The current converting factory capacity enables the production of 8.5 billion packages a year with a provision to ramp up to 16 billion package per yea.
The power for the factory would be generated through a 100-kVA solar power plant for non-critical power load in offices. The energy that is conserved would be utilised to run the air-conditioners at the facility .
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