The Hindu Business Line : Tinplate to provide packaging solutions

AS part of its endeavour to expand the domestic market for tinplate, Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL) has taken upon itself the onus of providing "cost-effective packaging solutions" to end-user industries.

Besides using thinner grades of steel for cost-effectiveness, the initiative also seeks to focus on innovation and design of containers with a view to enhancing their "shelf appeal." Towards this end, a case study is being conducted in association with the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Stating this in an interview to Business Line, the Managing Director of TCIL, Mr Bushen Raina, said the company has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy that would eventually help enlarge the domestic market for tinplate. "We wish to drive downstream members of the value chain to come closer to our customers' customer," he said, and added that the objective in this regard was to ensure consumer convenience.

"Besides wanting protection of the products that are packed, consumers also want convenience in handling them, in terms of open end and peel off options, among others," he said.

Mr Raina said TCIL was focusing on innovation, design, printing and graphics to enhance the shelf appeal of the containers.

"Innovation in can-making leads to the enhancement of brand equity. We are trying to grow the market by enhancing the shelf appeal of the products. Packaging has to be at the heart of any marketing strategy," he said.

Finally, for cost-competitiveness, TCIL has adopted the double reduction route for manufacturing lighter and thinner tinplate. "In this case, the steel consumption is less and, hence, it is cost-competitive."

Manufacturers of edible oils, beverages, juices, food & dairy products and paints, among others, would be explained how innovation and cost-effective tinplate containers could help grow the market for tinplate in the long term.

The size of the domestic market for tinplate has been pegged at Rs 1,200 crore. Nearly 50 per cent of the tinplate consumed in India is imported. As such, there is great scope for companies such as TCIL.

According to Mr Raina, the annual per capita consumption of tinplate in India was 0.3 kg compared with one kg in China and 8-9 kg in developed economies.

"With the Government providing incentives for processed foods and rural India taking to the consumption of packaged food products, tinplate manufacturers have good scope for growth," he said.

At present, tinplate accounts for merely five per cent of the overall market for packaging material and it has to compete with glass, cardboard, tetrapacks, HDPE, PET and PVC.

TCIL, which exports 25 per cent of its production to , South East Asia, the EU and West Asia, recorded a turnover of Rs 310.55 crore in 2003-04. Exports during the last fiscal stood at Rs 100 crore even as the export target for the current fiscal has been pegged at Rs 120 crore, according to Mr Raina.