PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2019

PREFORM PRODUCTION PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 11/19 www.petpla.net 16 How a preform and bottle producer from Bangalore is stepping on the gas Five years on and still going strong by Kay Barton In the western district of the southern Indian city of Banga- lore, the Bafna family, led by Pankaj Bafna and his nephew Nishant Bafna, has successfully been producing preforms, bottles and jars for the Indian market for five years. The special thing about the two directors’ concept is, undoubt- edly, their uncomplicated enthusiasm for what they do. Their products’ rather broad target market, which extends from small to large customers and includes everything in between, has enabled them to grow to roughly 30 times the company’s original size - within only six years. April 2019 - Nishant Mouldings Pvt. Ltd. We met: Mr Nishant Bafna, Director Mr Pankaj Bafna, Director With an outside temperature of 40 °C at the time of our visit, it was a relief to find ourselves sitting in Mr Nishant Bafna’s air-conditioned office, listening to him explain how the family company became successful. In 2001, Pankaj and his brother, Mahendra Bafna, founded a producer of PET jars for household goods under the brand name “FortunaPET” – a company that is still going strong today. The household goods sector is a specialised ‘niche’ market and it quickly became quite saturated with suppliers. The brothers still wanted to expand, however, and they identified the FMCG markets as offering oppor- tunities to be tapped. This step proved to be the pathway to further success. “The final breakthrough arrived in 2012, when we had the idea of pro- ducing our own preforms and founded Nishant Mouldings,” explained Nishant Bafna, who was appointed as a direc- tor of FortunaPET in 2008. He ran his finger down the company’s portfolio, which incorporates approaching 200 different designs, from 7.6 g to 735 g and 25-120mm neck sizes with PCO 1810, 1881, Alaska ROPP or CTC finishes, among others. Its full prod- uct range extends to over 500 units, including bottles and containers. Its current markets are diverse, with cus- tomers in almost all sectors. “Our active base of regular buyers numbers around 600 companies. If we add the irregular buyers to that, then we are probably at around 2,000 cus- tomers,” he said. As well as beverages, the com- pany’s products are used for cook- ing oils, pharmaceutical products, sweets, dairy products, spirits and home care applications. The cor- porate strategy involves being as close to the customer as possible. Nishant Mouldings operates two factories in Bangalore and two in Dadra, Silvassa, north of Mumbai, house a total of 39 preforming, 17 blowing, and four closure lines with an annual output of more than one billion pieces. The factory in Dadra has been completely rebuilt and went into operation in 2018. The company has 60 preform moulds at its dis- posal, with more than 1,500 cavities. 80-85% of the products are preforms, the rest are PET bottles, jars, and closures - exclusively wide-mouth. Total capacity for material processing is 30,000 t annually; utilisation is cur- rently running at around 90%. Twenty warehouses, strategically located across India, hold stock levels amounting to between 50 and 100 t of material, in order to keep their respec- tive regions appropriately supplied. Nishant Mouldings has a market share of around 2-2.5% and had a turnover of US$ 33 million in 2018. The target for 2019 is US$ 43 million. The company recently acquired its own HGV fleet, which (it says) has improved logistics enormously. The company’s annual growth over the past few years has been constant at 60%. It regards Manjushree Tech- nopack, Sunpet (TPAC) and Chemco as its competitors. “We produce in India for India,” said Nishant Bafna. Exports account for less than five per cent of sales. Nishant Moulding as a whole has a workforce of around 500 employees, Tour Sponsors: Meeting in the office area with (f.r.t.l.) Nishant Bafna, Pankaj Bafna, Kay Barton and Ajith Sivakumar, Husky PET Sales Account Manager