Huhtamaki India Ltd

History of Huhtamaki India Ltd

Huhtamaki India Limited is India's leading manufacturer of flexible consumer packaging and labelling solutions. With 15 state-of-the-art, fully integrated manufacturing plants, five customer support centres and a team committed to making packaging accessible to all, the Company stay true to the purpose of protecting food, people and the planet while merging innovation with design for over marquee clients. The Company develop fit-for-purpose packaging and labelling solutions to the specialised needs of several industries such as food and beverages, healthcare, personal and home care, and pet care. It also manufacture tube laminates for the beauty care, oral care and pharmaceutical industries. Huhtamaki India Limited was formerly incorporated as 'Paper Products Limited' on June 12, 1950. The Company name was changed to 'Huhtamaki PPL Limited' from 'Paper Products Limited' on May 27, 2014 and later, changed to 'Huhtamaki India Limited' on November 11, 2020. The Company founded by Sardari Lal Talwar was originally started as a partnership concern at Lahore(now in Pakistan) in 1935 and was shifted to Delhi in 1947. Later in 1950 it went public. PPL became a 51% subsidiary of Huhtamaki Van Leer, a European Pakaging major, when the later acquired 51% stake in PPL through an preferential allotment of equity shares in 1999. During 1999 Huhtamaki Van Leer the packaging group with worldwide operation and having leadership positions in consumer and industrial pacakaging b ...ecame the 51% shareholder of the company through preferential allotment of equity shares. The company is taking all efforts to become a debt-free in the near future. PPL which commands a 65% market share in the high end flexible packaging in India and its clientle includes some of the heavyweights of Indian FMCG players like HLL, Colgate, Nestle etc. Some of its overseas clients include subsidiaries of Unilever in Srilanka and Bangladesh. Eventhough PPL doesnot face any immediate threat from competition, the demand growth is inextricably linked to the demand growth in the FMCG and the food segment. The company has technology-transfer agreements with Dennison Manufacturing Company, US, for heat transfer of labels on plastic containers and with Fuji Seal Company, Japan, for shrink sleeve technology for labelling. PPL raised Rs.10.29 crores through an rights issue of 14% PCDs(FV of Rs.100) in the year 1995 to part finance its Rs.28 Crore Plant for packaging material at Silvasa, Maharashtra. PPL is increasing the production capacity of its Silvassa plant at a capex of Rs.18.5 crores. The commercial production of the expansion project is expected in March 2003. It has also redeemed its entire preference capital in the current year. PPL has divested its entire stake in PPL Feedback Packaging Ltd (PFL) to Brown Paper Technologies Ltd on Jan 29, 2002 and hence PFL ceases to be a subsidiary of PPL. The company was awarded the Worldstar For Packaging 1994 by the World Packaging Organisation. In 1994, it also won the Kelkar Memorial Award for Technical Research, instituted by SICOM. During the year 2009, the Company sold the assets of its Nagpur factory which had ceased manufacturing in April 2008. During the year 2011-12, the Company acquired 51% Equity stake in Webtech Labels Pvt. Ltd., which costed Rs. 3879 Lacs. Pursuant to the approval of the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, erstwhile subsidiaries of the Company viz., Positive Packaging Industries Limited and Webtech Labels Private Limited, merged into the Company effective 1st April, 2017 and all key functions like Marketing, NASP, Procurement and Supply Chain Management have been fully integrated. The Company established two new manufacturing units in North East India - in Guwahati for Flexibles and in Sikkim for Pressure Sensitive Labels, which consequently went into commercial production from March 2017. During the year 2017-18, the Company acquired the entire business of M/s Ajanta Packaging (India) as a going concern, on slump sale basis, effective on June 1, 2018. The Company acquired the flexible business of Mohan Mutha Polytech Private Limited (MMPPL) on 10 January, 2020, by way of a slump sale, during year 2018-19. In 2021, Huhtamaki Oyj acquired Elif, a major supplier of sustainable flexible packaging material. In April 2023, Company launched three mono material flexible packaging solutions, all optimised for recycling. In 2024, it commissioned the blueloop manufacturing facility in Silvassa, thereby enhancing sustainable packaging solutions.