Avery Dennison, a manufacturer of pressure sensitive label and packaging materials, has completed a major expansion of its production facility in Pune, India that will significantly enhance the company’s production capacity to meet the growing demands of the Indian market. The expansion, housed in a 100,000 square-foot site adjacent to its current facility, includes a new state-of-the-art, high-speed materials coating machine, which together with finishing equipment and coater, comprise a full production line.

The ISO-certified Pune facility produces technically advanced pressure sensitive materials for labeling and packaging and is one of Avery Dennison’s most advanced operations. According to Anil Sharma, managing director of label and packaging materials, Avery Dennison India, “With this latest expansion, we continue with the next big chapter in our development in India. Our customers across India and South Asia have been our primary focus since we first established operations here in 1997. By expanding our Pune facility, we will be able to better serve the increasingly discerning requirements of this fast-growing market.”

The move further underlines Avery Dennison’s commitment to India, bringing the company’s total investment to date in the country to approximately US $55 million. The plant has undergone three phases of capacity expansion since the plant opened in 1998.  This fourth expansion puts the facility at 130,000 square feet – four times its original size. The investment is in response to the rapidly growing Indian market demands for label materials as retailers increasingly recognize the importance of packaging and branding to differentiate products and drive consumer choices.

Avery Dennison’s label and packaging materials business is a manufacturer of pressure-sensitive label materials in India, and has seen year-on-year double-digit growth since its inception in 1997. According to the company, the business is able to better serve customers thanks to its national footprint, which includes the expanded Pune plant, two plants in Gurgaon and a recently commissioned distribution center in Bangalore.

During the official inauguration ceremony, Dean A Scarborough, chairman, president and CEO of Avery Dennison said: “We are delighted to officially open this new production line to contribute to the growth of India. The speed, quality and timeliness of the installation demonstrate Avery Dennison’s world-class execution capabilities and reflects the talent and drive of our India team. Through our investments in technology and people, we are committed to delivering world-class support to our growing Indian and South Asia customer base.”

Avery Dennison also announced two more significant developments in India with the establishment of a new innovation center in Pune and a knowledge center in Bangalore. The innovation center will be the third of its kind for Avery Dennison, which has existing centers in the US and China. It will provide dedicated research and innovation development services for Indian converters and original equipment manufacturers, while simultaneously providing growth opportunities for India’s pressure-sensitive labeling industry. The Pune innovation center is expected to be operational by mid-2012 and grow significantly in terms of dedicated resources over the next two years.

To help nurture and grow the industry in India and South Asia, Avery Dennison is creating a label and packaging knowledge center in partnership with original equipment manufacturers. Expected to commence operation in Q2 of 2012, the knowledge center is intended to provide training and knowledge transfer on all major aspects of labeling technology from label production materials to pre-press, printing and converting. It will also address the business dimension, such as coating and inventory management, to deliver an effective and highly comprehensive means of knowledge sharing that will help foster the growth of the industry across South Asia.