With back-to-back investments totalling nearly USD 115 million across its Taloja and Sri City facilities, Ball Beverage Packaging is making a clear statement about India’s role in its global and Asia-Pacific strategy. In an interaction with The Packman, Manish Joshi, regional commercial director – Asia, Ball Beverage Packaging India, explains the rationale behind these investments, the evolving beverage landscape, and how aluminum cans are poised to play a transformative role in India’s sustainability journey.
Mahan Hazarika: Ball has committed nearly USD 115 million across Taloja and now Sri City. What are the key drivers behind making these back-to-back investments in India?
Manish Joshi: India is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in Asia, with beverage can demand projected to experience strong annual growth. Categories such as beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, and ready-to-drink beverages are expanding rapidly, supported by premiumization and at-home consumption trends. At the same time, dairy-based beverages are gaining traction, enabled by retort technology that preserves shelf life and quality.
Beyond meeting this strong local demand, India is not just a growth market – it is a strategic hub in Ball’s global roadmap, reinforcing our ambition to lead aluminum packaging and advance a world free from waste. These investments create a future-ready platform that combines scale, innovation, and sustainability to serve customers today and set new standards for tomorrow
Mahan Hazarika: How do these expansions align with Ball’s long-term strategic roadmap for the Asia-Pacific region?
Manish Joshi: The expansions in Taloja and Sri City strengthen Ball’s momentum in Asia-Pacific, where demand for sustainable aluminum packaging is accelerating. India’s shift toward fully recyclable, high-performance formats enhances our ability to serve this growth with scale and advanced capability.
These investments position India as a center of excellence and a cornerstone of our strategy, creating a future-ready manufacturing base that supports regional growth today and raises packaging standards for tomorrow.
Mahan Hazarika: Can you elaborate on how these investments will strengthen Ball’s local supply chain and reduce dependence on imports?
Manish Joshi: Increasing domestic capacity through the Taloja and Sri City expansions significantly reduces reliance on imports from our network plants to support the market demand and enables faster, more reliable service for our customers. Local production of retort-enabled cans also supports categories that previously depended on external supply, improving operational flexibility and deepening partnerships with Indian suppliers.
At the same time, these investments integrate India into Ball’s unified global supply chain, enhancing resilience and efficiency across the value chain. This approach reflects our culture of continuous improvement and ensures customers benefit from Ball’s global scale, operational excellence, and commitment to delivering sustainable packaging solutions.
Mahan Hazarika: What new manufacturing capabilities or technologies will be added to the Sri City facility with this investment?
Manish Joshi: The Sri City facility introduces retort-enabled can production, allowing dairy-based and ready-to-drink beverages to achieve extended shelf life while maintaining taste and nutritional integrity.
We would be adding capabilities in our backend which would help us gain additional capacity across packsizes in 500ml, 250ml and 185ml. Together, these capabilities establish Sri City as a future-ready manufacturing hub supporting long-term growth.
Mahan Hazarika: Are there plans to introduce advanced lightweighting or next-generation aluminum can technologies in India?
Manish Joshi: India is an important market for innovation, and our recent investments are designed to create the foundation for next-generation aluminum packaging. As demand for high-performance, fully recyclable formats continues to grow, innovation remains core to our strategy – from lightweighting to advanced can technologies – enabling brands to deliver premium experiences while reducing carbon footprint.
The expansions in Taloja and Sri City give us the scale and capability to bring these technologies to market in a way that meets customer needs and aligns with India’s sustainability goals.
Mahan Hazarika: India is one of Asia’s fastest-growing consumer markets. What growth trends do you see in the beverage and ready-to-drink segment that are driving demand for aluminum cans?
Manish Joshi: India’s beverage landscape is evolving rapidly as consumers seek more convenient, premium, and sustainable formats. Categories such as carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, and brewed beverages continue to grow, while interest in healthier, functional, and on-the-go options is accelerating. The ready-to-drink segment – particularly dairy-based drinks and RTD coffee – is expanding at pace, supported by changing lifestyles and rising demand for high-quality, shelf-stable products.
Retort technology plays a critical role in enabling these categories to transition to aluminum packaging by preserving taste and nutritional integrity, while offering extended shelf life. Brands increasingly view aluminum cans not only as a sustainable choice but also as a way to deliver a premium experience and stand out in a competitive market.
Mahan Hazarika: How is Ball engaging with beverage brands both global and homegrown to encourage a shift toward aluminum packaging?
Manish Joshi: We work closely with global and homegrown brands to help them transition into fully recyclable aluminum packaging. Our support spans technical expertise, design development and category insights, demonstrating how aluminum elevates product performance and sustainability.
Ball’s retort innovation technology plays a key role by enabling heat-resistant can designs. This capability opens new opportunities for categories such as dairy, where product integrity is critical. Recent launches by brands like CavinKare and other global players in RTD coffee, flavored milk, and fruit-based beverages illustrate how aluminum cans deliver both functionality and sustainability, while supporting innovation in flavors and formats.
Our approach reflects Ball’s global principle – co-creating solutions that elevate brand storytelling and sustainability credentials. This partnership ensures brands can innovate faster, stand out on shelves, and meet growing consumer expectations for circularity.
Mahan Hazarika: Do you see categories beyond carbonated drinks and beer increasingly adopting metal packaging?
Manish Joshi: Yes. India’s beverage landscape is diversifying, and brands in dairy-based drinks, Juices and RTD coffee are moving to aluminum for its quality, portability, and sustainability. Energy drink is another category which has shown acceptance and growing double digit in the last couple of years.
The most convincing conversations have been with brands seeking to protect sensitive products like dairy while expanding reach. Our retort innovation technology delivers extended shelf life without compromising taste or nutritional integrity. For example, CavinKare shifted popular milkshake flavors into two-piece retort aluminum cans, and global brands have launched RTD coffee in retort cans to improve product quality, convenience, and environmental performance.
Mahan Hazarika: Aluminum cans are said to have the highest recycling rate globally. How is Ball working with India’s recycling ecosystem to improve collection and circularity?
Manish Joshi: Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials globally, and circularity is central to Ball’s strategy. In India, we collaborate with suppliers, recyclers, and authorized partners to strengthen material recovery and improve traceability systems across the value chain. These efforts support compliance with India’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework and help advance responsible end-of-life management for aluminum packaging.
Circularity is at the core of Ball’s strategy – we aim for a 90% global recycling rate by 2030, embedding traceability and closed-loop systems in India. By promoting awareness around aluminum’s recyclability and partnering with industry stakeholders, we are building a foundation for a truly circular economy that benefits both brands and consumers.
Mahan Hazarika: What role will these new facilities play in reducing carbon footprint and supporting customers’ sustainability goals?
Manish Joshi: The expansions in Taloja and Sri City will significantly reduce carbon footprint by localizing production, shortening transport distances, and lowering reliance on imported formats. Both facilities integrate resource-efficient systems such as Zero Liquid Discharge and heat-pump technology, which minimize water use and energy consumption.
Beyond operational efficiency, these investments reinforce Ball’s global commitment to decarbonization and circularity, embedding advanced technologies to help customers achieve their climate goals and accelerate the transition to low-carbon, high-performance packaging.
Mahan Hazarika: What are the biggest challenges facing the aluminum packaging industry in India – be it raw material cost volatility, supply chain unpredictability or competition from PET and glass?
Manish Joshi: One of the key challenges is building reliable regional supply chains that can keep pace with rising demand across fast-growing beverage categories. Stronger supplier partnerships, expanded warehousing, and integrated logistics are essential to managing scale and ensuring resilience.
Another challenge is staying ahead of the shift toward advanced formats such as retort-enabled cans, which require continued investment in capability and quality so brands can transition confidently to fully recyclable aluminum packaging.
Ball addresses these challenges through a culture of continuous improvement, leveraging global best practices and operational excellence to deliver stability, innovation, and cost efficiency for customers.
Mahan Hazarika: With rising consumer consciousness about sustainability, where do you see the aluminum can market heading in India over the next 5-10 years?
Manish Joshi: Sustainability is becoming a defining factor in consumer choice, and aluminum is positioned to benefit. The beverage can market is projected to experience strong annual growth over the next five years as brands favor formats that combine performance, convenience, and full recyclability.
India mirrors global trends: functional beverages, premiumization, and sustainability – packaging is now a strategic tool for differentiation. Strengthening local manufacturing and improving supply chain resilience will accelerate adoption. Over the next decade, aluminum is expected to play a much larger role in India’s beverage landscape as environmental expectations rise and circularity becomes a business imperative.
