Constantia Flexibles is aiming to double its sales in India within the next five years, the company says. This is the result of its recent acquisition of a majority stake in Creative Polypack and its group companies, as well as expansion plans of its existing subsidiary Parikh Packaging.

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

India has become the third largest economy in the world after the USA 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.

Alexander Baumgartner, Constantia Flexibles’ CEO, says, “We are proud to be here in India today to announce our ambitious growth plans in the fastest growing flexible packaging market worldwide. 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, along with his son, Giriraj Maheswari, joint managing director. Creative Polypack Limited was founded in 1986 and is one of the leading flexible packaging groups in India. It achieved sales of about 75 million EUR in the business year ending March 31, 2018 and currently has about 850 employees at eight production sites in Baddi, Kanpur, Kolkata, Assam and Puducherry, in Northern, Eastern and Southern India. It manufactures film-based flexible packaging for the food and home and personal care (HPC) industries, as well as paper-based soap wrappers. The company serves  domestic and international consumer goods companies in India.

Creative Polypack intends to invest, on average, six million euro per year (INR 50 crore) in new production capacity, as well as other infrastructure, 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.

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 (SBA) to clean the nation.