Eastern India’s largest PET converter on sustained growth course
April, 2019, We met:
Mr Devendra Surana, MD
Mr Palash K Chakravorty, CEO
Mr Arnab Basu, Technical Head
It is not easy to impress seasoned PET insiders so the description of the way business is done at Magpet, Eastern India’s largest PET converter, as “highly professional” is praise indeed.
20,000 MTA of preforms and bottles
The group’s first foray into plastic, in 1983, was with flexible packaging; its journey in PET began in 1999 with the launch of Magpet, which now produces preforms, bottles and caps. Its main factory is located in Hooghly, about 55 km from Kolkata, and it has two additional factories in Guwahati, Assam which is the hub for fast-developing North Eastern region of India. With a total installed capacity of 20,000 t/a, it is the largest PET manufacturer in Eastern India. Magpet deploys ASB preform moulding systems, injection moulding machines from Windsor & Milacron, along with ASB single-stage and other two-stage stretch blow moulding equipment. It produces its own caps on a rotary compression moulding machine. More than 70 different preform designs are available, in weights from 8.7-700 g and 25-120 mm neck sizes, and a 5 gallon preform, too. Raw material is supplied by IVL Dhunseri (Aspet). Magpet’s wide customer base includes leading brands such as Adani, Bisleri, Diageo, Emami, IFB Agro and ITC.
Professional management team in place
Many private, fast-growing companies in India suffer from the problem that the organisational structure lags behind the growth; they remain locked into early-stage entrepreneurial business models, where the owner is involved in almost every aspect of the business. This is not the case at Magpet. The company, which is led by Mr Devendra Surana, has independent departments including Operation, Quality Control, R&D and Commercial Department, each led by its own head. Its SAP ERP system (enterprise resource planning) connects the different departments and provides comprehensive information and control over inventories, quality monitoring, efficiency and overall planning. Magpet’s embrace of this structure as the basis for high and sustainable growth has been justified by results. It has grown by an average of 30% annually since 2015, outpacing other converters in this region. A new production plant currently being built on its factory ground will add another 8,000 t of bottle and preform capacity by the end of 2019. With this increase of 40% the cumulative Installed capacity would stand at 28,000 t/a.
Lightweighting and bottle development
Magpet puts a strong focus on the development of new bottles for almost all applications and can be considered as the lightweighting pioneer in Eastern India. Magpet developments have been adopted by customers and competitors and have become standard design in the market. In 2006 it became the first company in Eastern India to introduce the 28 mm Alaska neck. Five years ago, Magpet played a leading role in the development of a PET bottle to replace glass for local alcoholic beverages. Magpet’s customer-focused approach is illustrated by the fact that it can supply the same preform model in slightly different shapes in order to match customers’ particular machine types, whether they are automatic or semi-automatic units.
