Ahmedabad: Austria based Constantia Flexibles- the globally third largest producer of flexible packaging material today opened its ninth Indian plant in India near Ahmedabad in Gujarat which is the first facility in the world to produce a new kind of lightweight packaging material which can be recycled nine times.

The plant situated near Moraiya village in Sanand taluka of Ahmedabad district was inaugurated by the Austrian ambassador to India Ms Brigitte Oppinger Walchshofer.

Talking to newsmen, CEO of the company- which has a total of 38 plants now in 16 countries including India where it has nine plants including two in Gujarat, Alexander Baumgartner said that the start of the plant has in fact marked a new era in flexible packaging.

‘The patent product in the new facility EcoLam, is a lightweight Mono-PE laminate suitable for a variety of packaging applications. Due to its mono-material structure and its lower carbon footprint, approximately 32% lower than that of comparable products, it was fully recyclable. The greenfield plant is opening after more than two years of intensive preparations. It has an area of 24500 square meter and direct employment was over 200. The other plant in Gujarat situated nearby and which was the first one of the company in India has employed 650 people,’ he said.

The CEO said that the company which started the test runs of the new facility in September itself would export the new product to South Africa and several European countries. The product would later be duplicated in other plants of the company also.

The Euro 1.6 billion company’s CEO refused to divulge the tune of investment in the latest facility in Gujarat. He said that Several big names like Hindustan Unilever, Britannia, Nestle, Amul, Kellogg, Real, Zydus pharma, Torrent Pharma were clients of the company in India.

To a query he said that the company would like to expand the capacity of its existing plants in India rather than going for new acquisitions.

He said that the company has no plant in China and has no plans either to move there. It was more focused on its India operations which was growing at 14 to 15% CAGR since its entry in the country almost five years ago. The growth was higher than that in any other country. Last year the Indian turnover of the Vienna based company was Rs 950 crores. The policies of the Modi government with regard to plastic and its firm resolve in this regard were also good for the company which plans to make 100% of its products recyclable by 2025. This percentage currently was 56%.

DeshGujarat