Gaurav Talwar, managing director of Brilliant Polymers, shares his views about the flexible packaging industry while expecting strong growth, resulting from increased demand in end-use industries, such as food, beverage, cosmetic, personal care, and pharmaceutical. He is all set to capture this growth by doubling his plant’s production capacity through planned expansion. Based in Mumbai, India, Brilliant Polymers is a leader in laminating adhesives for flexible packaging.
Mahan Hazarika: What is the impact of the pandemic on the packaging industry?
Gaurav Talwar: Businesses today are faced with unprecedented challenges as they continue to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the packaging industry is no exception. Market conditions have driven up the cost of many raw materials, and manufacturers continue to face cascading supply chain issues that have plagued the industry throughout the pandemic – shortages, bottlenecks, logistical concerns, and escalating oil prices have been pushing up prices of raw materials used in the production of laminating adhesives for flexible packaging.
However, the problem goes beyond that – the industry is dealing with increased energy and packaging materials costs, as well as sharply rising freight rates because of global logistics constraints. There has been an overall impact of over 50% on the cost of production of laminating adhesives. Although selling prices have risen over the past six months, they have a long way to go before reaching sustainable levels.
We see robust demand for flexible packaging in the coming year. However, with the SARS-CoV-2 virus continuing to mutate and variants causing localized lockdowns around the globe, we expect logistical challenges and resulting supply chain disruptions to continue for some time.
As the world adjusts to this new normal, Brilliant Polymers has been focused on rethinking strategies to drive resilience and emerge from this crisis stronger – from embracing digitization, strengthening our network of stock points to encourage regionalization of supply, thereby mitigating regional risks to maintaining an efficient feedback loop to drive strategic decision-making and quicken response times. We believe that future business success will depend on the ability to adapt and respond to the unexpected or improbable.
Mahan Hazarika: You are planning to increase capacity in Q3 2021. Why do you think it is the right time for investment, considering the current pandemic situation?
Gaurav Talwar: We expect strong growth in the flexible packaging industry in the coming years. Market studies forecast the global flexible plastic packaging market size to grow from USD 160.8 billion in 2020 to USD 200.5 billion by 2025 ( according to market report). This growth will essentially result from increased demand in end-use industries, such as food, beverage, cosmetic, personal care and pharmaceutical. With the planned capacity expansion set to double our output, Brilliant Polymers will be well placed to capture this growth.
Mahan Hazarika: Do you think the Indian market can absorb more capacity, at least for the next two years?
Gaurav Talwar: As the Indian economy rebounds, increased focus on hygiene, growth in modern retailing, higher consumer income levels, changing lifestyles, increased media penetration through the internet and television, and acceleration in e-commerce activities are likely to drive the momentum of the Indian flexible packaging market.
Mahan Hazarika: What trends have you noticed in food processing and packaging in India in the last one and a half-year? Do you think these are going to be long-term trends?
Gaurav Talwar: With growing awareness, the requirement for eco-friendly and sustainable packaging is steadily on the rise. The country is focusing more on sustainable solutions, which is increasingly becoming a business imperative.
Mahan Hazarika: Please comment on the food safety issues in general and particularly concerning packaged foods? What are your contributions to this?
Gaurav Talwar: We have a comprehensive food safety plan with regard to our laminating adhesives and comply with all Indian, European and US guidelines, to name a few. For the laminating adhesives industry, our food safety commitments come from the following key aspects:
- Compositional Compliance: All raw materials used must be on the positive list of the relevant food safety standards
- Migration Compliance: All our adhesives comply with relevant migration limits; this means that for any component with a specified migration limit (SML) or an overall migration limit (OML) as per the regulations, the value of migration if any, needs to be within the specified limits. In addition, we have a comprehensive testing protocol for testing migration both in-house and in partnership with third-party laboratories.
- Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP): All Good Manufacturing Practices are followed at our plant with a special focus on safety, hygiene and traceability. We can trace back all raw materials used in a particular product. Further, the main essence is that nothing in the adhesive should impact the taste or aroma of the food being packed in a flexible packaging material made with our adhesives.
These are the critical aspects of food safety concerning laminating adhesives.
Mahan Hazarika: Please tell us about your latest developments directed towards sustainability.
Gaurav Talwar: At Brilliant Polymers, we believe that we are responsible for delivering business growth while positively impacting people and the planet. We aim to be a business that delivers value to all stakeholders – economically, socially and environmentally. To achieve this, we have formulated the Brilliant Sustainable Growth Plan – this is our bold ambition to decouple our growth from our environmental footprint while increasing our positive social impact.
The use of solvent-free laminating adhesives has seen tremendous growth in recent years. By definition, these adhesives do not contain any solvent and hence have no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that escape into the atmosphere, unchecked in many cases. This makes solvent-free laminating the first step towards sustainability. Typically, solvent-based adhesives are run at 35% solids, which means 65% of the mixed adhesive is solvent which is evaporated into the atmosphere. In addition to air pollution, this process of solvent removal also requires heat input which is a further burden on the environment.
Further, with the precise dosing and application technology on today’s modern solvent-free laminators, adhesive deposition can be controlled minutely and maintained over time. This leads to cost, environmental savings and reliability over time. We have several new solvent-free product innovations that can deliver cost savings of over 50% over and above the ecological benefits described.
In addition to our innovations on solvent-free adhesives, we have launched several initiatives in collaboration with local NGOs aimed at reducing our carbon footprint and achieving the objectives outlined in our sustainable growth plan.
