[infobox style=’regular’ static=’1′]Established in 1995, Kanodia Technoplast Limited (KTL) has come a long way to become one of the biggest and most integrated flexible packaging companies in India. With a combined packaging industry experience of key management being over 150 years, KTL is today among the top business houses in the country servicing clients around the globe across diverse FMCG and industrial segments like snacks, tea, coffee, salt and spices, biscuits and confectionery, noodles, ice creams, bread, engine oils and lubricants, shampoo and detergents, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fertilizers, pet food etc. The Packman’s Pranay Mathur recently caught up with Dhruv Kanodia, director of KTL, for an exclusive interview. Here are the excerpts:[/infobox]
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Kanodia Technoplast continues to grow biz at 13-14% EBITDA
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Pranay Mathur (PM):What are the top strategic priorities for Kanodia Technoplast Limited currently?
Dhruv Kanodia (DK): At KTL, our priorities have always revolved around service to our customers, innovating new products and strategically backward integrate to maintain the quality of our end product. We continue to work towards making these strategies our priority.
PM: What would be your focus area when it comes to improving revenues? What shift in strategy can be expected at KTL in order to gain market share?
DK: Our focus area in the recent years has been R&D and innovations. Our tag-line – Innovation in Action – entails the importance we give to developing new products. Our efforts in this direction have been evident by four India-Star and five SIES-SOP-Star awards bestowed upon us this year for our various path-breaking innovations in packaging. We further plan to add value to our packaging and our customer’s products by developing new and unique solutions for them.
PM: At KTL, what is the expected earnings growth in the coming two to three years?
DK:We have maintained a constant growth trajectory in the past years. We expect to continue the EBITDA growth rate at about 13-14% in the coming years.
PM: Please tell us about your new plant coming up in the NCR region.
[quote style=’2′ cite=”]Recently, Kanodia Technoplast was awarded one of the most prestigious awards in the packaging industry – the World Star Award 2018 for its path-breaking innovation in packaging. The award was presented for the KANlock Reclosable Mini-Pouch for BABA Elaichi. KANlock is a special reclosable shaped pouch developed by Kanodia Technoplast that contains self-fusing micro-reclosability that need not be perfectly aligned while closing. It responds to little pressure while opening and closing by consumer hence making it the most user-friendly reclosable pouch in the world. The pouch provides sensory feedback to consumer through touch & sound that is reassuring and also generates confidence in the product as well as the brand.[/quote]DK: Since our foundation years, we have always invested in the best of equipment available and have always been the first to embrace new technologies. The same ethos would be represented by our new upcoming plant in NCR. The plant would focus on increasing efficiency and achieving new standards of quality in the flexible packaging industry.
PM: Please share with us the two key trends that most impact your packaging work today.
DK: Two of the most apparent trends these days impacting our packaging is the requirement of anti-counterfeit solutions as well as innovative and clutter busting solutions with shelf space getting more and more crowded. FMCG industry in India has been flooded by spurious products and the companies are running pillar to post in order to protect their brand and the hard earned goodwill attached with it. Hence we have been very active in this space and have developed many innovative and effective solutions for our FMCG partners to save their products from counterfeiting.
PM: How exciting is the Indian flexible packaging market right now? What are the growth pangs that may need to be addressed?
DK: I believe the Indian flexible packaging industry is at a very crucial stage. It is moving out of infancy and entering maturity. There are immense growth opportunities and we need to be ready to grab them. However, with the rising demand, one would need to focus more and more on efficiency. It has been proved time and again that there is survival only for the fittest. Hence there needs to be equal attention given to the bottom line vis-a-vis the growth of top line.
PM: Sustainable packaging is a threat or opportunity? Faced with pressing issues of over capacity, low prices and high raw material costs, should sustainable packaging be a top concern for packaging senior executives?
DK:Every change in an existing scenario is a threat for some and opportunity for the other. The difference is only of the vision and perception. Sustainable packaging is definitely an opportunity that should be grabbed with both hands. Its not everyday that you are presented with an opportunity to become a more responsible organization without casting a shadow on your revenue. Sustainability in packaging should be pursued as a responsibility rather than a mere business opportunity. As a plastic packaging manufacturer it our responsibility to develop sustainable forms of packaging that have the least amount of impact on the environment. Only such developments can keep this industry afloat in the longer run.
– Printed in the January-February 2018 issue of The Packman, now on stands
