Flexible packaging - double wrapped Uflex

FLEXIBLE PACKAGING - DOUBLE WRAPPED

One of the packaging industry’s biggest success stories began in India in 1988 when Uflex Ltd. was established by Ashok Chaturvedi in New Delhi. Success followed quickly with the company achieving consistent growth of around 20 per cent per annum since it was founded. Today Uflex leads the field with innovative, sustainable products and solutions. Philip Yorke reports.

UFlex Ltd is India’s biggest flexible packaging company with extensive manufacturing facilities for the production of a wide range of plastic films and packaging products. These state-of-the-art facilities provide modern packaging solutions to clients across more than 140 countries worldwide. Today Uflex offers finished packaging for a wide variety of products from snack foods, candy and confectionery, to cereals, beverages, noodles, soaps and detergents. This is in addition to other major sectors that it serves such as shampoos, vegetable oils, cheese & dairy products, frozen foods and pharmaceuticals.

Flexible packaging has evolved over time to replace rigid packaging that today still includes metal cans, glass containers, paper board cartons, and rigid plastic containers. Flexible packaging also offers the key advantages of providing barrier properties that are essential for many product sectors. Here it can provide considerable advantages over rigid packaging in terms of its effective ‘doublewrap’ multi-barrier protection and tamper-proof product security.

Expanding global reach

Currently Uflex is looking at achieving significant expansion at home and abroad. The company is currently setting up its second production line of PET films with a capacity of over 30,000 tonnes per annum (TPA). This has involved the provision of an additional capital investment of USD 55-million, which will in turn aggregate to a total capacity of 56,400 TPA in Mexico, a country which is a part of NAFTA, thus extending Uflex’s access to the North and South American markets.

The first phase of the project with 26,400 TPA polyester film capacity has been successfully completed and already commenced production. The implementation of the second phase is also now complete.

With further global expansion in mind, Uflex is setting up a second phase CPP and polyester (PET) film project in Egypt. The company plans to be able to produce over 30,000 TPA of PET film & 12,000 TPA of CPP film in the second phase. This involves a total investment of more than USD 80-million.

Award-winning exporter

After pioneering the growth of the flexible packaging industry in India, Uflex has gained an unrivalled position in the market. Since its inception in 1988 it has turned into a multi-billion-dollar company that values quality and customer satisfaction above all else. With consumers spread throughout the world, Uflex enjoys a global reach that touches millions of homes every day. Uflex has state of the art manufacturing facilities not only in India but also in other countries including Dubai, Mexico, USA, Poland and Egypt. Uflex facilities all enjoy ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications and has FDA and BGA approvals for its products.

In addition, Uflex is also a part of the D&B Global Database and winner of various prestigious national and international awards including the top exporter of BOPET and BOPP films, and the Worldstar award for packaging excellence. Recently Uflex has also won FPA, AIMCAL and the Dupont Awards.

Focus on eco-friendly packaging

With the world’s attention turning to the problems of global warming, the company is focused on the production of a variety of ecofriendly flexible packaging materials, and value-added films such as BOPET, BOPP and CPP. This is in addition to Holographic/Metalised products, printing inks & adhesive, rotogravure cylinders, thereby providing world class flexible, sustainable packaging solutions to its customers globally at competitive prices.

Uflex also specialises in the manufacture of a wide variety of packaging machines like Vertical Form-Fill-Seal Machines, Horizontal Wrapping Machines, Special Purpose Machines, and High-Speed Pouch Making Machines.

According to Uflex’s CFO Rajesh Bhatia, the holographic division has grown over 400 per cent in the last four to five years and is set to grow even faster in the future.

Bhatia told Industry Europe; “Considering the encouraging demand for our brand protection and anti-counterfeiting solutions, we are in the process of expanding our holographic manufacturing capabilities in Jammu with a Capex of nearly Rs 150 crore’.

“Our holography business manufactures a plethora of technologically enhanced brand protection and anti-counterfeiting solutions, ranging from holograms (analog 2D/3D conventional), dot matrix (up to 24,000 dpi); non-diffractive litho (up to 120,000 dpi and e-beam; wide web holographic films. We can also supply UV embossing films, as well as high-refractive index films, and holographic pouches. Labelling solutions using foils and holographic effects are also available among many other options. Apart from packaging products, holography and films, we also have a major presence in chemicals and engineering.”

Being in the business of flexible packaging, eco-friendly practices play an important role in the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of carbon emissions through recycling and reprocessing of the waste materials, thus avoiding the need for land-fill. For further details of the company’s latest innovative eco-products and services visit: www.uflexltd.com n