Aditya Ghosalkar (AG): What is the USP of the 92,500-sqm Optima plant?
Manish Bhatia (MB): The Optima plant is designed to be an integrated site, which will serve the need for future expansion, as the space in our existing plants gets saturated. We have made phase-one, which covers approximately 45% of the area. We already have plans to introduce new products and expand their manufacturing with phase-two, which is already on the drawing board.

AG: How will the 10,000 metric tonnes of ink per year enhance the customer experience for the Indian flexible packaging industry?
MB: The new plant will have a training centre, which will be used to train our customer’s representatives and employees. This will enhance partnership with our customers. The plant has flexible manufacturing technology to serve customer needs more efficiently.

The plant will soon receive green certification, which will enable our customers to enhance their commitment for a circular economy with reduction in greenhouse gases.

AG: What is the procedure followed by the Optima plant to achieve green certification?
MB: Green building certification is a three-stage process including design and construction; implementation and verification by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and lastly inspection and audit. And once pre and final audits are cleared with the scores on the activities, certification is recommended and awarded by the committee.

AG: What do the life-cycle analysis (LCA) studies for various ink systems suggest?
MB: At DIC, we understand the environmental impact of all stages of commercial products. Our focus is on adopting technologies which use raw materials which are accessible; on improving our processes by reducing water and energy consumed per tonne of ink thereby generating less waste. Both from product design and production process stages, we aim to reduce adverse impact on the environment via life cycle assessment.

AG: What are the requisites to manufacturing sustainable ink solutions?
MB: In manufacturing sustainable inks, the recipe plays a vital role. The raw material should be quantitative; with minimal impact on the environment. The manufacturing process should focus on lowest consumption of resources to ensure sustainable operations, which are part and parcel of sustainable inks manufacturing.

AG: What are the initiatives that DIC India has taken to enable brands to adopt toluene-free inks?
MB: In the flexible packaging segment, DIC India has five series of toluene-free inks, which are solvent based and three series of water-based inks. We actively work with our customers to understand their needs and do value selling to ensure the value our products bring to them.

The Optima plant has a strong commitment of DIC towards sustainability. We are committed to remain focussed on delivering on three Ps-  people, planet and profit.

AG: Looking forward: The next 12 months?
MB: We are committed to connect with our customers, by our partnership and customer service and ensuring they have winning pockets with products which deliver value.