Speaking with The Packman, Vinay Bhardwaj, vice president – flexible packaging and tobacco, Siegwerk, India speaks about Siegwerk’s stand on food safety and sustainability compliance as well as the company’s continuous move towards a toluene-free work environment and products. Here is an excerpt from the interview.
Mahan Hazarika: How do you see the growth of the flexible packaging market in India and what are the trends driving the growth?
Vinay Bhardwaj: The flexible packaging market in India has seen robust growth and will continue to grow at 11% CAGR in the 2021-2025 period, as forecast. The growing retail sector and investments in food processing sectors are considered the major growth drivers for this segment in India. At Siegwerk, we believe that inks and coatings can function as key enablers in the path towards creating new, efficient and environmentally friendly designs in flexible packaging. We believe that new functionalities and enhanced efficiencies driven by innovation in inks will be essential contributors to the growth of the flexible packaging segment.
Mahan Hazarika: Siegwerk’s stand on food safety compliance…
Vinay Bhardwaj: Food safety has been a topic of discussion among the packaging industry stakeholders for a while now, with everyone from the regulatory agencies to the ink and substrate manufacturers and the converters waking up not just to the importance of safe packaging for food items, but also the legal implications of it. Siegwerk has been at the forefront of food safety in India, and has proactively banned the use of toluene for solvent-based inks at its Bhiwadi-based manufacturing facility, over two years ago, much before the regulatory ban on toluene in India was implemented.
Siegwerk has established itself as a market leader for packaging inks, and also in the field of sensitive applications including food, pharma, hygiene and cosmetics. Packaging inks are usually formulated with different chemicals to meet the packaging demands, ranging from resistance against diverse foodstuffs over mechanical and temperature stability, and from deep freeze to retort applications to facilitate the runnability of the printed material in the industrial packaging machines. These chemicals can have toxic and carcinogenic effects if they are not properly chosen or carefully formulated as suitable food contact material (FCM) inks. Siegwerk has built systematic processes that allow the selection of suitable raw materials and implement Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), to supply the safest inks to its consumers. Most importantly, Siegwerk is the only ink manufacturer that completely operates in a toluene-free facility, thereby protecting its workers as well as consumers.
Mahan Hazarika: Siegwerk’s stand on sustainability compliance…
Vinay Bhardwaj: We believe in leading sustainability initiatives and providing safer, worry-free packaging solutions to the nutrition, pharma and hygiene (NPH ) packaging segments. Our consistent efforts have made the ink industry completely toluene-free today, much before the stringent FSSAI regulations and brand owner specifications came into place. Even today, Siegwerk is the only ink manufacturer that offers exclusively toluene-free ink solutions. We have gained expertise in converting many small and large converters from toluene-based to toluene-free inks. We guide all our customers who switch to toluene-free solutions, to do so efficiently and effectively.
We have taken a strategic decision to build and strengthen the circular economy in the packaging industry. Our target is to become a circular and digital packaging solutions company as part of our strategy for 2025 – the New Horizons 2025. Towards that, we have embarked upon several initiatives at all our global businesses, revolving around the concepts of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We are partnering with our converter customers and others in the packaging value chain – from film producers to brand owners – to come up with innovative ways of promoting sustainability in the world of flexible packaging.
Mahan Hazarika: What are your expectation as an ink manufacturer from the supply chain especially brand owners and converters?
Vinay Bhardwaj: At Siegwerk, we believe that transformational change in functionality, efficiency and sustainability can only be brought in through collaboration among multiple partners in the value chain. We offer not only high-quality toluene-free inks and coatings that meet or exceed current packaging requirements but also guide and support customers in designing and choosing appropriate solutions. We also provide print support services, through which we aim to leverage our global expertise to support our printing customers’ needs in India. We have built a track record of successful partnerships with brand owners, to effectively contribute towards advancing their global and local design efficiency and sustainability targets.
With our capabilities, we expect our customers and brand owners to engage with us in the early stages of their projects, so that all perspectives can be effectively considered from the start and can be efficiently implemented within the stipulated timeframes. We have developed certain innovative technologies such as special effect coatings, functional lacquers, etc. which can be considered towards designing a sustainable, cost-effective packaging solution for many products.
Mahan Hazarika: Your assurance to brand owners and converters…
Vinay Bhardwaj: Siegwerk has always assured high-quality products and responsive support services to all its customers. We leverage our global expertise through case studies and technology exchanges and bring in our rich experience through state-of-the-art solutions to our customers. Siegwerk always strives to be at the forefront of evolving global regulatory requirements and brand owner specifications. We also guarantee transparency in the regulatory compliance of components used in our products by providing a detailed Statement of Composition for all our products. Siegwerk has a strong commitment to product safety and transparency in the supply chain.
Mahan Hazarika: Your products that are best in the market…
Vinay Bhardwaj: Siegwerk provides best-in-class inks and OPVs used in Flexo printing processes in all packaging segments, especially in Nutrition, Pharma & Hygiene (NPH) packaging segments. Our flexo printing ink solutions minimize costs by decreasing downtime and set-up time and also maximize performance attributes such as chemical resistance, scuff resistance and bond strengths.
Our toluene-free printing solutions for gravure applications are well established in the industry and are known to provide excellent efficiencies, printability, and trouble-free and consistent performance. Our printing experts have guided many customers in the NPH segment, to switch smoothly from toluene-based to toluene-free solutions thereby complying with the changed Indian regulations.
