Reduce trust deficit, say brand owners and box makers

Kirit Modi, president of ICCMA kicked off a powered-pack panel discussion with 12 panelists who discussed "The challenges of moving to performance based parameters."

To ensure a 90 minute discussion, Modi and ICCMA had invited top brands like HUL and Godrej, paper mill representatives and corrugated box makers. Modi said, "the aim was to move from material standards to a performance based index.

Yeshu Kant of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) made opening remarks in which he stated the corrugated packaging industry in India is undergoing phenomenal transformation. Units are modernising and increasing number of players are switching to automatic process.

He said, even as automatic corrugated plants are on the rise, it is imperative that there is a leadership issue which drives this journey. It could be brands, it could be paper mills, or it could be box makers.

Mukul Kumar of Cargill said, "all stakeholders have to come together to build trust." He added, "there has to be harmonisation of standards." He struck an optimistic when he said "the situation was better than 18 months ago."

Sachin Chansarkar of Godrej also hoped that corrugation box manufacturing industry can standardise itself like the plastic industry.

Time and again, the representatives on the panel brought up the question, which standards must one deploy? Indian? ISO or Tappi? Many felt box making has immense constraints in today’s dynamic and volatile business environment. The complexities of compliance mandates, supplier and information flow is becoming more costly and making organisations more more and circumspect.

Lon Rollinson of MWV felt the entire supply chain is crucial. He said, there must be an attempt made to optimise measurements and tech specs. He felt the issues and challenges in the pulp and paper sector in India can be overcome to boost the performance of the box.

Raminder Chadha of Worth Pack said, "How does one share total cost of ownership of the box?". He felt, India still has a long way to go since the boxes are over designed." For instance, double wall for outers.

Krishna Mohan of International Papers, the world’s top paper producer said both materials and machines are vital. He spoke of how a packaging designer said he would lose monies if he created a low weight product.

He felt, "Standardisation and specifications are not the be all and end all. For example, RCT tested in one lab is not the same as one tested in another lab."

Mohan said the need of the hour is "leadership incentive in India for packaging design."

Ajay Patel of Laxmi spoke about creating a performance based box which works in "vast and varied weather conditions."

Sandeep Wadhwa of Wadpack spoke about the lack of continuity at the brand end. This was because people at mid management level keep changing. Therefore good packaging ideas get killed.

Amit Gupta of Dev Group spoke of sustaining brand image through safety standards and measuring specs like width of flute.

Ashish Khemka of KCL wondered why international companies don't bring international box manufacturing standards in India.

Muthusubramanium of HUL said, "We need to create boxes as engineering structures and not as a commodity."

He lauded ICCMA and said, "All the members should become co creators in creating beautiful brown boxes."

Kirit Modi concluded the session, stating, "all the stakeholders need to work on reducing the trust deficit; we need to work on standards together; and we need to make it mission indeed possible."