Uflex gearing up to capture the Chinese market with Asepto

Talking about the potential that the brand holds, Ashwani Kumar Sharma, president and CEO of New Business Initiatives, Uflex, said, “This show, considered to be the carnival of processing and packaging technology industry will help us showcase ASEPTO’s holographic excellence in the untapped Chinese packaging market. We want to make a dent in the market by reaping the first-mover advantage.”

He added that Asepto is uniquely positioned and has all the capabilities for strengthening the market share of beverage manufacturers around the world, especially large markets like China. “Holography has not yet been explored by the Chinese. Our dynamic range of holographic packs, which is our USP, has the ability to grab a substantial market share in this segment,” Sharma added.

The Chinese premium aseptic carton segment is growing at an accelerated pace, which several food companies intend to penetrate into by exporting their products in metalised packs. “Here, Asepto has a clear strategic advantage to establish itself as the front-runner,” Sharma said, adding, “The brand with its unique UHT metalised/ holography packs happens to be the perfect and preferred choice in the significant six layer aseptic packaging market of China. As a matter of fact, Chinese consumers are increasingly looking for a premium appearance for their brands. This is where Asepto fits in.”

Metalised packages are not being sold by any aseptic packaging supplier locally in China, and only a couple of Chinese companies, apart from an international brand, are supplying metalised packaging material.

In China, portion packs and family packs with volumetric range from 200ml to 1,000ml are quite popular. However, that is not holographic packaging.

In the context of the market size, some Oceanian companies export almost 200 million metalised packs per annum to China. This outlines the market potential that India could capitalise upon. Hence, the introduction of an Indian brand providing holographic metalised packs will offer a greater degree of value-addition and protection to customers as compared to players who are presently not offering such premium packs. Consumers would cherish the high perceived value of the premium packs. The value proposition for retailers will be no less enticing either. Holographic packs will provide outstanding shelf performance to attract quality-focused consumers — leading to higher sales volumes thereby driving profitability.

Furthermore, holography as a feature only available through Asepto packs — is not restricted to just one kind of design; it opens up a plethora of options for retail beverage companies to choose artworks of their choice that best describe their product’s proposition to customers and further enhance the look and feel at the Point-of-Sale (POS).

Therefore, Asepto offers a compelling USP for beverage manufacturers dealing in dairy, juices and distilled beverages allowing them to evolve all new product lines/ brands by bringing about startling and strategic changes in their packaging.

Being fully integrated flexible packaging solution company that Uflex is, Asepto is complemented by the Aseptic Filling Line called Asepto Smart 78, the first-ever fully Indian aseptic filling machine with a capacity of Forming-Filling and Sealing 7,800 packages per hour for sizes ranging from 100, 125, 160 and 200 ml slim packs.

The machine comes equipped with special tools for superior and optimised operations. It has several significant features such as advanced integration with PLC, lesser electronic parts, better human interfacing making it operator friendly in addition to delivering highest production speed than any other comparable machines. The machine is low on maintenance which is a big advantage for the company’s clients as it will bring down the total cost of ownership. In this category, most of the machines generally process 7,500 packs per hour unlike the machine by Uflex that has a capacity of processing 7,800 packs per hour.