Cosmo Films readies for Drupa with focus on luxury packaging and special applications

In an exclusive conversation with PrintWeek India, Pankaj Poddar, the Chief Executive Officer of Cosmo Films stated that the additional capacities will come on board from early 2017. A new production line will boost the company's BOPP production capacity by 42%, from 140,000 to 200,000 tpa by early 2017. Cosmo Films (Hall 3, A31) will launch its new range of premium lamination films at Drupa, which is scheduled to be held from 31 May to 10 June 2016 at Dusseldorf., Business

07 May 2016 | By PrintWeek India

Poddar said that 2017-18 onwards, the benefit of its expansion will be on show. That's when the Rs 1,700-crore top line company could grow revenues to a peak and in the next five years, the aim is to reach at Rs 4,000 to 5,000 crore revenue.
 
The company, which is involved in making polypropylene and thermal films, is concentrating on its research & development (R&D) and spends 0.5 percent of its sales on R&D. Poddar said, “We would be spending about Rs 8-10 crores to enhance our R&D capabilities in Aurangabad.”
 
Poddar further added by saying, “The Indian customers are shifting more and more towards luxury packaging. Therefore, a product packed with nice aesthetics adds a lot to packaging manufacturers’ bottom line as well as to their sales.” He also said, “We are focused on the end user engagement and helping them understand how our products can add value to their products”.
 
This is one of the reasons why Cosmo has seen “a growth in value-added speciality products from 25 per cent of all sales few years back to 37 per cent.”
 
Established in 1981, Cosmo Films boosted its export-oriented unit (EOU) which is located at Shendra, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, to its second phase of expansion. With this, Cosmo has finished installing two additional lines in 2015. 
 
Poddar mentioned the four initiatives – “The first one is to be a customer centric organisation and look at each and every touch point that we have with the customers. At Cosmo we make sure that we can create an excellent experience for them whether it’s a sample product, customer visit, delivery of the product, quality or technical write-up or research on new products to meet their unmet needs.”
 
 
The second thing, Poddar said is, “We are trying to increase customer recall by connecting with them more often. He added, “The third thing is, we want to make sure that any product we have is simply the world class. Whenever we launch our product it has to be the top of the class.”
 
Finally Poddar said, “The fourth is, we do our work very systematically and follow a Kaizen methodology. We have made tremendous reduction in power costs and wastages. This makes the Cosmo manufacturing lines more cost effective. Our new line will be also one of the most cost competitive and can give the most competitive lines a run for their money.”
 
The Cosmo team from India and overseas will be present at Drupa along with Pankaj Poddar, S Satish, the Global Head-Sales & Marketing, Dharmesh Zhaveri, President of Cosmo East Asian operations and Sushil Dhar, Global Head- Lamination Films.
 
Highlighting the presence at Drupa, Poddar said, “We are the largest player in the European market for lamination films. During the 11 day show, our team of 20 plus with our European channel partners would try and make customers experience our new range of premium lamination films.”
 
This includes three products within a bouquet of lamination films. These are:
Velvet Films add a velvet finish to the printed surface. Engineered on a special matte base film, these films are ideal for giving a premium finish to premium/luxury liquor, perfume, watches and jewellery packs/boxes. The films can also be used for laminating coffee table books, high-end magazines, brochures, manuals etc. The films have a strong bonding property with a nice touch and feel to them.
 
Scuff Free Matte Films provide resistance to scuff marks which could develop during production, transportation and handling of the pack. The matte surface of these films is ideal for post laminating procedures such as UV spot coating, hot foil stamping, embossing etc. Apart from the luxury packaging applications mentioned earlier, these films are best suited for laminating packing boxes of electronic goods like mobile phones, tablets, power banks etc. 
 
Digital Films have been specially engineered to provide excellent bonding to digital printed surfaces, along with providing excellent optics and protection. These films are available in both gloss and matte varieties as well as in velvet and scuff free matte finishes and work well with the range of digital toners with high bond strength.
 
Giving an overview of other products on display, Poddar said, “We would also be displaying special application lamination films for insulation, lidding applications and encapsulation films for ID cards etc. Our latest launch of lidding film can bond with different surfaces made from Polypropylene, PET or Polystyrene and has an easy release feature.”