PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2018

BOTTLE MAKING 15 PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 01+02/18 www.petpla.net Growing PET market in India for edible oil by Kay Barton India’s market for PET bottling of edible oil has been boom- ing, across the country, for over five years. More and more brands in this segment are investing in PET packaging, both from outset in new sites and in conversions from other pack- aging types. PET preform and bottle giant Manjushree Tech- nopack, from Bangalore, already cooperates with leading local edible oil players and sees significant growth in PET market share, from its current 25% level up to 30-40% in the near future. As well as being India’s only national producer of a two-litre bottle with handle for edible oil, the company is working hard on material reduction, new designs and cost optimisation. We discussed market trends and emerging developments for edible oil in India with Manjushree’s Man- aging Director Mr Vimal Kedia, who gave us an impression of the current and future shape of this segment of India’s food market. PETplanet Insider: Mr Kedia, apart from the attractive appearance of PET bottles, what are the main rea- sons PET is becoming more and more popular in the edible oil segment? Vimal Kedia: PET bottles have been popular in the last five years because of evolving consumer prefer- ences, the growth of retail industry, the eco-friendly nature of PET bottles, and government regulations that will ban multilayer pouches in the coming years due to problems in the recycling streams. PETplanet Insider: The overall share of edible oil packaging for Man- jushree is 10% of its turnover. What does this mean in terms of current outputs of preforms and PET bottles produced by Manjushree for this seg- ment, and how many tonnes of PET are converted for this? Vimal Kedia: Edible oil is a very important section for Manjushree as it is one of the fastest-growing mar- kets in the industry. Our production of edible oil packaging is currently 5,000t/a; we have been investing in new moulds and machines for provid- ing various types of rigid packaging for the edible oil industry and we esti- mate that this will form a significant part of our production capacity. PETplanet Insider: Which equip- ment do you primarily use for the production of preforms, bottles and closures? Vimal Kedia: We use multi-cavity moulds from ASB and Husky plat- forms to produce PET preforms for the edible oil industry. We use ASB machines like PM 70 with 24 cavi- ties and Husky 48 cavity all-electric machine to produce the preforms. We also use injection moulded machines to produce larger size preforms, including 5l, 20l, and so on. We also make injection moulded closures for CTC caps. Manjushree has devel- oped a patented super-short neck preform for edible oil packaging, which can be very economical for that market. The super-short neck pre- form in 26mm, which can be used in a 1l pack, can weigh as little as 18g. The closure for this, a single piece compression moulded cap, can bring about substantial savings in weight of both preform and cap. The design of the neck, which is suitable for vari- ous shapes and designs of bottles of 200ml, 500ml and 1l capacity, was a result of Manjushree’s strong focus on research and development – as well as fire in the belly for innovation and cost consciousness! Our capacity for production is 300 million super-short neck preforms and caps, in high- speed ASB and Husky systems. PETplanet Insider: Smaller vol- umes, like 500ml or 1l, are becoming more and more popular. How is the market structure in terms of edible oil PET bottle volumes and what are the overall shares in India today? Vimal Kedia: The edible oil market in India is estimated at 7.66 million tonnes, according to GGN International, one of India’s largest research firms. Presently, PET pack- Manjushree’s MD Vimal Kedia