The
final touch
Binny
Sabharwal chats with Harish P Joshi, MD of Nichrome, to understand the
strategies that make the company globally competitive
What
are the various packaging options offered by Nichrome to the food processing
industry?
We
produce a number of packaging styles and products for the food processing
industry that are available in a variety of shapes and sizes of packs,
ranging from 1 g to 10 kg and 1 ml to 1000 ml. We have been serving
the food, pharma and dairy industry for more than 25 years now. Our
client base includes large multinationals, Indian corporations, dairies
and other food processing units.
Our
most successful and commercially viable brand is for the dairy and the
oil industry where we have had approximately 1,500 installations of
liquid machines. In the domestic market we enjoy a market share of 30-40
per cent and internationally we are continuously growing in size.
Is
there any new technology or machinery that the R&D department of
your company is currently working on?
Our
R&D department is continuously producing innovative technologies.
We are the fourth company in the world to launch the Aseptic Pouch Packing
System, which we recently showcased at the Anuga Foodtec, in Germany.
We have also recently introduced a Tamper Evident Sealing System for
packaging of dairy products. In the near future we also plan to launch
a new brick pack system and high speed fillers with automatic post packaging
systems.
Tell
us something about your new Tamper Evident Sealing System?
The
new Tamper Evident Sealing System was launched with a purpose of providing
a solution to the problems of the Indian dairy industry. The dairy industry
of western India, catering to the Mumbai market particularly, faces
a serious problem of adulteration in milk pouches. The leading dairies
approached us to develop a machine that would provide a solution for
this problem. Considering the big threat of adulteration, Nichrome took
the challenging assignment and developed the
system.
The
milk pouch was consistently tampered with at the horizontal seal area
by cutting the edge of the pouch horizontally near the seal area. Then
the milk was adulterated by addition of water and the pouch was re-sealed
manually. This tampering was not visible to the consumer as the hand
seal was almost similar to the original seal. Nichrome developed a special
horizontal sealing system. This new kind of sealing system produces
a broadband double sealing on the milk pouch making it impossible to
cut open the seal and re-seal it without being noticed. Two colour bands
are printed on the pouch on the seal area so that tampering with the
pouch can be clearly evident.
The
dairies were asked to switch over to panel printed film with special
colour band adjacent to the broad seal area for easy identification
of tampering at the sealing edge. Any attempt to tamper with this new
pouch results in breaking the colour band, which is then easily noticeable
by the consumer.
This
new system can be retrofitted on all existing Nichrome Filpack milk-packing
machines at a maximum cost of 1 lakh. The response has been very good
so far. A leading dairy supplier from Pune has test launched it and
many other big brand names have shown interest.
What
are the added advantages of the new aseptic machine? What has the response
been at the global level? The machine has not been launched in the domestic
market yet. Any specific reason behind this?
The
major advantage of the Aseptic Pouch Packing System is that it increases
the shelf life of the product and thereby helps in increasing the distribution
area of perishable foods like milk, in the absence of a cold chain.
Nichrome created a lot of interest internationally by launching the
Aseptic Pouch Packing System at the Anuga Fair. It projected us as a
global player, one of the four organisations in the world to develop
the Aseptic Pouch Packing System.
.....CONTD
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