Indian consumer packaging market in 2017 was valued at 12.0 billion USD and is expected to grow at 11-12% in the next five years. Currently, the total premium packaging board domestic annual consumption is at 7.5 lakh tonnes. "The key driving industries for the premium packaging are pharmaceuticals (25%); personal care (12%); food and beverages (10%); wine and liquor (five percent); paper cups (20%); and educational segment (eight percent) that make up for 80% of the domestic premium packaging  board consumption," said Rajesh Kapoor, deputy general manager for sales-packaging boards at JK Paper.

The company's manufacturing capacity of packaging board stands at 90,000 tpa from its overall capacity of 4,55,000 tpa that also consists of manufacturing of uncoated paper, coated paper and saleable pulp. It has a market share of 12% in packaging board.

Packaging board is the fastest growing segment in paper and paper board industry. "Indian per capita consumption of paper and board is 13 kg as against 26 kg in Asia and 57 kg globally. The projected growth for 2021 is pegged at 8.3% for overall packaging board in India as opposed to the global growth of two per cent," said Kapoor. “The virgin fibre based board will witness a growth of 12.9% whereas the recycled fibre based will be at 7.1%.”

JK’s packaging board machine only manufactures virgin fibre based boards and is located in CPM Songadh, Gujarat which "is in the heart of West zone, the major consuming market. The time of delivery to the North and South market is merely two to three days," said Kapoor.

JK Paper entered paperboard production in 2007. The company's premium packaging boards consist of a product line of JK Tuffcote, JK Ultima, JK Tuffpac, JK IV Board and JK Endura.

“In the future, food and beverages will be the biggest contributor to the growth of virgin fibre based boards. Increasingly the lead taken by bigger companies in using food grade paperboards is having a cascading effect on the mid-level and small manufacturers,” concluded Kapoor.