The Hindu Business Line : Nichrome packs a punch

Nichrome India is all set to launch the country's first indigenously developed aseptic pouch packing system for the dairy and beverages industries. It is also making a number of value-additions to these systems.

LIFE'S all about packaging these days and who should know it better than the Joshis of Pune, whose Nichrome India has been dressing up the goodies for a veritable who's who of the retail business. In an age where FMCGs and retailers have to fight tooth and nail to grab consumer eyeballs on retail store shelves, take a look at all the dressing up that the Joshis have done for some of them - Milkman products, Tata Tea, Nescafe, Amulya milk, NatureFresh and Pillsbury atta have all been packaged on machinery made by Nichrome India.

And now, the company is all set to unveil what it claims is the country's first indigenously developed aseptic pouch packing system as an integrated solution to the needs of the dairy and beverages industry. The company is also currently driving growth through a number of value-additions to the pouch packaging systems which will drive retail growth of major corporates, says Harish Joshi, Managing Director.

The new indigenously developed aseptic pouch packaging system is right now being tested at the plants of at least two manufacturers - a greenfield mango pulping project where the pouches will replace the conventional tin packaging of the pulp and an Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk project where the manufacturer is foraying into plain and flavoured milk in aseptic pouches.

The company has entered into a tie-up with Italian UHT business major Reda whose processing plants it will market and service in India. The UHT plants, incidentally, will go into Nichrome's aseptic pouch packaging system, according to Joshi. He points out that for the manufacturer adopting aseptic pouches will mean lesser cost in comparison to aseptic brik packaging and elimination of the cold chain in distributing perishables to distant areas in addition to eliminating the need for refrigeration at the point of sale for the retailer.

For the customer, the aseptic pouch will mean getting a high quality product with an assured shelf life and an economical price, he added. For instance, UHT milk in aseptic brik packaging, currently available for Rs 20 upwards, can be made available for Rs 14, he asserts.

The aseptic pouch has been under development at the company's R&D facilities in Pune for the last couple of years and the system has been designed with technology inputs from German consultants.

"With worldwide packaging trends going the aseptic pouch way, we hope to join the only two other players in the world in this business," an enthusiastic Joshi says.

Nichrome's tie-up with Reda, meanwhile, will see the company's aseptic pouch packaging system enter the large China market where the latter is a major player in the market, says S. V. Joshi, Executive Chairman, Nichrome, and the man who built the company from scratch. Under the agreement, the company's systems will also get into the partner's traditional markets in Europe and South East Asia, among others, as part of the Italian company's package. Nichrome already exports its packaging machinery to over 36 countries and has been growing at 35-45 per cent for the last two years (last year exports touched Rs 6 crore).

The company is also expanding its range of machinery to include a whole range of aseptic pouch packages, all with the low price plus quality principle in mind. On the anvil are, for instance, packages with zippers for user-ease.

The Joshis are right now excited about their machinery for `Q pack', a laminated aseptic package for solids that they maintain will add immense display value to the corporates opting for it, thanks to its four-dimensional visibility on retail shelves.

The company has already bagged orders from FMCG major Hindustan Lever which is believed to be switching over to Q packaging for its premium products. The company is also simultaneously working on developing machines for a laminated aseptic `standipouch' for liquid packaging which it expects to commission by the end of the current fiscal, according to Joshi.

Meanwhile, the mechanical liquid packaging machine that Nichrome designed and launched in January this year to tide over the recession in the market, which saw their order book position drop sharply, has evoked enthusiastic response from the industry, according to Harish Joshi, who says they have already bagged orders for 40 such machines, especially from dairies in the South.

The fully mechanical liquid packaging machine helps units save up to Rs 3.5 lakh in power costs annually and recover cost of investment within a year, he said. Among the dairies which have opted for such machines are Hatsun Dairy, Arunachal Dairy, Pune's Chitale dairy and a host of dairies from Maharashtra's co-operative sector. "With power costs shooting up sharply, the trend is for all major players in the field to switch to such machines," Joshi said. "This year we will get revenues of over Rs 6 crore from this alone."

Nichrome is also aggressively growing the business by developing a range of machines for small sachets to cater to the needs of corporates which are launching their products in small packs. The company's high speed (300 packs/minute) machines have already found takers, including the likes of multinationals Nestle, Coca-Cola and Cadbury's which have launched products like their ready-mixes in small sizes recently. With consumers lapping up everything in the `rupee pack' and everyone from Indian companies to multinationals cashing in on the trend to rake in the volumes, Nichrome is sitting pretty.

Having already sold 20 small sachet machines, the Joshis are already planning value-adds to the product in the form of increasing the capacity of machines by providing larger number of lanes. "Volumes is the name of the game if companies are to stay ahead in the race and we are planning to develop machines from capacities one to ten lanes."

The sachet business is set to take off in a major way, according to the duo, who say they have already bagged orders worth over Rs 1.5 crore this year. "And with the Indian arms having proved that small works beautifully in the market, the parent companies too are now talking to us for machines to be used in their markets abroad," says Harish Joshi.

The UHT aseptic pouch packaging system, the Joshis claim, is one that is just right for the domestic market, especially for milk, and fruit juices and pulp , because of the variety available in various seasons.

"With the transformation in Indian food habits and a huge demand for fruit juice and pulp, what is required is for these products to be made available at affordable price points and this will come with aseptic pouches," says S. V. Joshi.

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