PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2019

PREFORM PRODUCTION PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 12/19 www.petpla.net 22 From household products to preforms - and beyond! Diversity in plastic conversion by Kay Barton April, 2019 We met: Mr Alok Parakh, Director The National Group, which is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is engaged in several areas of plastics processing. National Polyplast undertakes the production of preforms; the group also manufactures beverage crates and IML containers and produces a wide variety of plastic parts for white goods, consumer electronics, the IT sector and leading brands in the automotive industry, at a total of 12 plants across India. For organisational reasons, we met with Director Alok Parakh to talk about the company’s PET activities at Nation- al’s automotive plant, which is situ- ated approximately 55km southwest of Chennai city centre. It is this kind of expertise, across different segments, that has contributed significantly to the success of this 100% privately owned company over the past decades. The history of the family business goes back a long way. The “National” brand, one of the first plastics proces- sors in the country, was founded as long ago as 1951 by Mr B.R. Parakh. Due to the superior economic opportu- nities in the south of India at that time, he decided to move from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu where, until then, there had been no real plastics industry. From there, Mr Parakh started producing PS and PE household goods for the whole of India and later, in the 1980s, National manufactured plastic frames for tube TVs. In 1990, the company began to manufacture plastic beverage crates for glass bottles for PepsiCo, the soft drinks giant. When the PET boom hit India, the company jumped on the bandwagon, establishing the National Polyplast segment. As it turns out, it was the right decision. Alok Parakh remembers the beginnings. “We started preform production in 2003, with our first 48-cavity Husky machine, and shortly thereafter suc- cessively made the popular Alaska pre- form neck for water applications. It is now omnipresent in India,” he said. “At the time, PepsiCo needed a preform type at very short notice and we had three months to offer a finished solu- tion. We ultimately secured the order. Over the years, we have grown closely together and we now develop best in class preforms jointly with PepsiCo R&D, in India and USA.” While National Polyplast was initially completely dependent on PepsiCo, new customers have gradu- ally come on board. Today, PepsiCo accounts for a healthier proportion of 20% of sales. As well as bottles for water and for Pepsi beverages, a Husky unit also produces aseptic pre- forms for Amul, in a clean chamber. The plants are equipped with Husky systems exclusively; 96-cavity machines are currently in operation in the three facilities. The moulds are supplied by Husky & MHT, and alter- nate from plant to plant, which allows Parakh to get the most out of his machines. National Polyplast’s product range in India has changed, from mass market to individual bottle sizes. For example: Pepsi beverages were origi- nally packaged in three bottle sizes: 0.5 l, 1 l and 1.5 l. Today, there are 0.25 l, 0.3 l, 0.4 l, 0.6 l, 0.75 l, 1 l, 2.0 l and 2.25 l. This expansion of the range demonstrates that the company has to be much more flexible as a converter than in the early days. The service life of a preform design has also reduced considerably. The weight of preforms for still water has decreased, from 22 to 18.6g. Seven years ago, a CSD bottle weighed 27.7g, today it is 21.5g. These changes require continuous investment in production equipments. Their latest project is IML (in-mould labelling) for containers. Although thin- wall injection with label inlays is still not, currently, very common in India, the packaging industry is increasingly insisting on it. As a result, National Polyplast now has three IML units operating at the PET plant. A new facility, being built right next door, will provide space for 10 preform and 20 IML machines. This investment dem- Tour Sponsors: Alok Parakh (left) and team in front of his 96-cavity Husky machine in Silvassa Alok Parakh (left) interviewed by Kay Barton