PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2017

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 05/17 www.petpla.net 18 Indian PET packaging - Growth journey and beyond By Rajesh K. Gera, Reliance The move to PET packaging in India began in the mid 1980’s. With the introduction of PET bottles for household containers (jars) and edible oil (EO). In moving away from conventional use, PET packaging in India started with PET jars and kitchen wares aided with spices, pickles, edible oil, etc and kept the PET packaging market trickling. The market expanded to include bottled water, CSD, alcoholic beverages, fruit drinks, wellness drinks, personal care, agro-chemicals in the 1990s. The next decade saw energy drinks, fortified water and RTDs added to the PET packaging portfolio. PET moved forward through healthcare to personal care, confectionary, alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages. Today all the milk variants (fresh, flavoured, UHT, Chaas, Lassi) and beer are also packaged in PET in India. Indian PET evolution India’s specific PET evolution began in the 1980s. The use of PET for health care, alcoholic beverages especially for mass class segment were growth drivers in the non-CSD market, which otherwise was growing organically. PET growth got reinforced with personal care and confectionary using more PET. Water was pick- ing up (mushrooming local brands), so even non-CSD kept PET pack- age primed up. A clear shift to PET in beverages is continuing as a primary driver even today. The emerging PET applications in India include fresh/ flavoured milk, chaas, beer, paint, bulk edible oil packs. In addition to the sparkling clear packs, opaque PET use is also growing due to glossy pack finish in the edible oil and other sectors. Value-positioning is today shifting more literage in PET and gave opportunity for non-Cola beverages on health-wellness platform resulting in the introduction of variants of fruit drinks, flavoured water, nimboo paani and other beverages in PET. Soft drinks Indian consumption is moving from ‘class to mass’, resulting in a boom for PET demand. Coke has launched CSD in a 250ml barrier PET bottle for the first time in India. There is a grow- ing interest in small size PET packs by regional majors in PET who suc- cessfully launched 250ml and 300ml packages across India. The Indian 250ml PET coke bottle with an internal coating of Plasmax by KHS Juices The trend for health and fitness is catching up fast and is buoyed by growth of juice drinks in PET bottles. There is now a growing interest in PET for 100% juices and increased aware- ness among potential end-users on economic aseptic filling systems primar- ily to suit Indian market requirements. Water This sector has the maximum PET usage in India (200KTA) with increased usage in bulk water too. The latent potential for regional water variants is leading to new usages. Different sizes of PET water bottles available in the Indian market Milk The success story of PET packag- ing for milk in India is driven by brand- owners and supported by RIL jointly with machinery suppliers. Gowardhan Dairy, a leading Indian dairy is using MATERIALS Special