Forecast for 2017: Kapil Gupta

As a trading company, we strive to bring the best grades of papers to the market so that our consumers can use them to create better products for their end customers. We are promoting our concept of ‘amazing media for awesome products’ where we have a basket of innovative products ranging from wood to cork to non-tearables, specially targeted for the digital print market.

Future for paper
The growth in organised retail and improved packaging standards will drive paper demand. There are tremendous opportunities in the FMCG segment. The more consumers use Amazon and Swiggy, the more packaging is consumed. The more cards are swiped more thermal paper receipts are generated.

Paper import
I feel imports will see an increasing trend both in commodity as well as specialty grades. Due to the capital intensive nature of the paper industry and lack of policy around forestry, we are not seeing the global scale investments in the industry. India continues to strike a balance between promoting Indian papers and imports.

Myths around paper
The problem with our industry has been that there is a lack of effort to dispel the myths around paper. There are international organisations like twosides.info which are making concentrated efforts to correct understanding about paper. We need to undertake a mission on a massive scale to understand the benefits of paper in books or packaging.

Digital print
Sadly, for many paper producers and consumers in India, digital means photocopy. I feel digital is going to grow in the times to come. I am bullish about this segment. The numbers may not be very huge compared to other segments, but the value is tremendous. It will continue to be a niche segment delivery with premium value and profits to the entire value chain.