RN Photo Coatings, makers of printable ceramic cups, sent out their first export consignment to the UK today. Catering to the fast-growing market of ‘giftables’, printed ceramic cups are a particularly fast growing segment, according to Varun Tripuraneni, Director, RN Photo Coatings.

The company, jointly promoted by AT Promotions Ltd of the UK and Tams Fine Ceramics Pvt Ltd, which is setting up a ceramic cup manufacturing unit near Tirupati, will target the domestic and export markets.

RN Photo Coatings has set up a pre-coating unit in the Sri City SEZ, about 70 km north of Chennai, near Tada in Andhra Pradesh. It is investing over Rs 30 crore to set up four production lines with total capacity of about 25 million cups.

The unit now makes about 2-3 million coated cups using ceramic cups imported from China. Once the Tams unit is ready, the ceramic cups will be procured from it, Tripuraneni said.

AT Promotions has exclusive access to a proprietary technology to make dishwasher-proof duraglaze coatings that makes the decorative cups durable and long lasting.

Millions of cups are in demand in the gift market, he said.

The first consignment flagged off by Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner in India, was of 75,000 mugs priced at about £900,000, according to company officials.

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