Vijayshri concludes investment phase with 500 Kva solar power plant
Indore-based carton and corrugated specialist Vijayshri Packaging has completed its Rs 12 crore investment phase in the first quarter of Financial Year 2022-2023. The company installed and commissioned a new Komori GL 637 plus coater offset press, two LK-800 die cutters of 23.5X31.5-inch size from Zhongke, and a DGM Technofold 1100 folder gluer. In addition, Vijayshri has commissioned a 500 Kva solar power unit to boost its captive power production.
The latest investment phase comes almost a year after the earlier one in FY 2021-2022, in which the company installed a Komori GL 640 UV press, a Brausse die cutter, a Wenhong die cutter, a corrugation line including a Wenhong 3-ply high-speed flute laminator with flip flop unit, a Lamify 5-ply flute laminator and the H&S Speedliner window patching machine.
“The aim of the two recent investment phases close together was to ensure that we provide the best quality with predictable lead times to our customers. Also, we phased out some older machines and replaced them with new ones,” says Ayush Jain, director of Vijayshri Packaging.
While Vijayshri’s packaging plant is located on a land parcel of 10 acres, the recently built factory building is 20,000 square meters with a separate administrative building of 5,000 square meters. It moved to these premises in 2016.
The company has a paper and paperboard converting capacity of 1,800 MT which translates roughly to 36 million cartons of various sizes each month. Vijayshri makes monocartons, litho-laminated cartons, and shipper or transport cartons. It now has four printing presses, five die-cutting machines, six folder gluers, and a large number of ancillary equipment.
In its latest expansion phase, along with the new print and converting equipment, Vijayshri commissioned a 500 Kva solar power unit at its plant to become more self-sustaining in energy. “We had two objectives in mind when we planned the solar power unit. The first was to increase our captive power production capacity so that we become increasingly independent of the grid and secondly, to become more sustainable in our operations. With the new solar power unit, we now produce half of the power required in-house. We have not only increased our power independence, but we have also reduced the load on the grid,” says Jain.
The Indian economy has been recovering from the shock of the pandemic and the resultant lockdowns in the 2020-2021 financial year. According to Jain, in FY 2021-2022 the economy, the packaging industry, and Vijayshri recovered sharply – as lockdowns and restrictions were gradually eased and then lifted. The 2022-2023 financial year has begun on a very optimistic note for the company.
“I would not like to disclose details but let me tell you that Vijayshri has had its best quarter in Q1 of FY 2022-2023 as the Indian packaging industry is recovering and expanding fast. We are very bullish about the growth prospects of the Indian packaging industry. Yes, the recent raw material price inflation has been a challenge. More than the price increase it is the unpredictability of supply that is a bigger concern. The deliveries that took two weeks now take four, six, or even eight weeks. But these are short-term issues and things look very positive from the long-term point of view,” he says.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.
The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.
Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.
As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.
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