PR Packagings accelerates its corrugation business with Ample Graphics

Vishesh Gupta, director, PR Packagings, says, “We have added a two-ply corrugation line, and a high speed fully automatic flute laminator to accelerate our printed flute cartons business." This means, the Faridabad-based factory can convert 9,000-m an hour.
Along with an increase in production from 5000-m an hour to 9000-m an hour, our efficiency has increased and consumption of electricity has been reduced.”

Gupta adds that the company’s existing five corrugation machines used to consume a lot of electricity with limited output. “Initially, we deployed a LPG infrared burner retrofit on the existing rollers but the equation was not viable as gas prices increased by 70% within a span of six months. So, we opted for a new corrugation line with thermic oil heating,” he points out.

Gupta says he evaluated a similar kind of setup with two more vendors, the proactive and enthusiastic approach of Sachin Kala from Ample Graphics and his "genuine guidance" were the keys to selecting the machines. “We visited one of Ample’s customers in Ahmedabad and witnessed the machines live and found the user feedback to be good. Also, we solicited feedback from the market about Ample Graphics and found the response excellent. Those were the reasons to go with Ample Graphics,” he says.

For the moment, the PR Packagings is manufacturing corrugated boxes for outer packaging for in-house consumption. Gupta says in the next six months, we will start manufacturing for the market too."Right now, our focus is on value-added printed packaging - hence to use the newly constructed plant for printed fluted cartons. We can produce A, B, C, E, F and G-flute sizes with our corrugation setup." This is rare in a GMI, Lowes-certified print-shop.

PR Packagings has a diversified offering plus it has an equitable distribution of clients. The clients include, key brands in the mobile and electronics, beauty and wellness, pharma, and packaged food. Gupta says the company doesn’t increase the production share of the segment by more than 25% of its total production. This ensured risk mitigation and helped the organisation survive during the pandemic. After Covid, the company became lean and increased its operational efficiencies. It put strict control on manpower and pruned its manpower from 400 to 350.

“With the new corrugation setup, our output has increased more than triple with the same manpower and lower consumption of electricity. Thus, we can save on both — manpower and electricity. For heating the rollers, we had two options — thermic oil or steam boilers for heating. We opted for thermic oil because the anticipated product mix of fluted cartons is not as high to justify the installation and operational cost of a boiler,” Gupta says

Right now, the company is producing mono cartons, printed fluted cartons, corrugated boxes, lamitubes, rigid boxes and literature for pharma packaging. Gupta said the company would like to establish itself as a one-stop solution provider which can cater to the packaging requirements in key segments.

“We want to offer our clients multiple packaging solutions, especially sustainable ones. We have a 260-kw solar energy system which fulfils 20% of our electricity requirements. In the future, the solar power infrastructure and production will be increased. We have ETP and STP in-house and it made us a zero-discharge production facility. In the future, if we opt for rigid plastic and other segments, we will take a good hard look at the PCR content,” Gupta says.

He added that for the company, sustainability means reduce, reuse and recycle. “We want to be a single-point contact for our customers — which reduces a lot of documentation and follow-ups — if say, they were to deal with two different vendors for tubes and cartons. Also we have established a design and development studio which offers innovations like printed electronics,” he says.

Gupta believes that there are four pillars for each entrepreneur — clients, suppliers, employees and investors. “Private equity is not a good idea in an industry like ours where most of the businesses are family run and entrepreneurs have to monitor the day-to-day operations. Quicker decision-making without multiple hierarchies leads to lower overhead costs and personalised service - which is appreciated by most larger buyers. Sustainability is and will be in greater focus, and existing kit and technologies will be either redundant or retrofittable. No one knows what kind of technology will be there in the market after five years but the packaging future is always bright. We will focus on a mix of mass production and short-run with high margins jobs,” he signed off.

PR Packagings is a USD 15-mn, 30-year-old packaging manufacturer who are specialists in printed primary, secondary and tertiary packaging. Located on nine acres of land, the company offers a one-stop solution for clients looking to source from India. With a team of 350 people, the turnover at PR Packagings is Rs 100-crore with a CAGR of 8-10% per annum.n