Siegwerk Group has invested Rs 21.22 crore into the blending facility which was inaugurated virtually by Dr Nicolas Wiedmann, CEO, Siegwerk Group, Ashish Pradhan, president, Siegwerk Asia and Ramakrishna Karanth, CEO, Siegwerk India region. The facility will have a blending capacity of over 13,500 metric tonnes. Earlier, the solvent-based warehouse had an initial capacity of 150 MT; now it is 700 MT.

As per a company press release, "The facility runs on sustainable power, through its roof top solar panels with an installed capacity of 301 kWp." The facility has an automated fire safety mechanism, with automatic addressable fire and smoke detection system for fire detection and fire walls and foam sprinklers at the dispensing stations for firefighting. There is also a hydrant system all around the plant including a water monitor and hose reels.

Ashish Pradhan, president, Siegwerk Asia commented, “Siegwerk’s path-breaking innovations and developments in our production technology has made us industry leaders. The packaging ink industry in Asia has grown by more than 10% in the past two years and there has been an over proportional increase in the flexpack business which has boosted our confidence in expanding our manufacturing capacities in the India region."

In the past year, Siegwerk has built a lot of customer-first offerings and the ink major intends "to build on this robust momentum in 2022, starting with the blending centre".

Siegwerk, a sixth-generation family-owned company has invested Rs 21.22 crore into the facility

Speaking about the expansion Ramakrishna Karanth, CEO, Siegwerk India said, "Siegwerk has always been dedicated to providing safe printing inks and coatings solutions to customers.  The current capacity expansion move with the induction of the state of the art blending centre reaffirms our commitment to keep innovation alive and to keep our customers contented. We now have a blending capacity to suit the growing needs of our customers in the India region."

Readers of PrintWeek and WhatPackaging? magazines will recall nine months ago, Siegwerk inaugurated a blending centre - spread over 65,000sq ft - in the Dhaka region in Bangladesh. The centre which employed 50 people in Bangladesh reduced inventory costs to customers and allowed Siegwerk to provide technical support to local customers.

The operations for Siegwerk in Asia are headed by Ashish Pradhan, the president Asia, Siegwerk with Indian operations led by Ramakrishna Karanth as the CEO of Siegwerk India.