TCPL hits 95,000 ton capacity in cartons

TCPL Packaging is one of the largest Indian manufacturers of folding cartons,
litho-laminated cartons, blister packs, shelf-ready packaging. A carton
producer using both sheetfed offset and web gravure presses, the company in
recent years has also entered flexible packaging with specially configured
gravure press. With over 1,600 employees the company which is listed on the
Bombay Stock Exchange registered a turnover of more than Rs. 800 crores in
2019. TCPL recently opened a 1.65 lakh square foot packaging plant in Goa
where it installed TCPL’s seventh K&B Rapida 106 sheetfed offset combination
UV press.

The Rapida 106 8-color press with double coater was inaugurated by the
Kanoria family at one of TCPL’s two Haridwar plants on 7 August 2019. Saket
Kanoria, managing director of TCPL Packaging said, “Basically, this is a 8-color
double coater press but we can run 7-color double coater or we can run 7-
color, coater, printing followed by the last coater. The press has a printing unit
between the two coaters and that is the uniqueness of this press. It has two
curing units including an IR dryer before the first coater and an extended
delivery with UV curing after the second coater. We have a similar press in
Silvasa as well. This press can print 18,000 sheets an hour.”

Inline gloss & matt coating combinations

“This press will help us in achieving an extremely good matte + gloss finish
inline with great precision. We’ll be able to do a matte varnish over a gloss
varnish inline with better registration with this press. For instance, it is ideal
for achieving a combination of drip off and matt coating to produce a leathery
texture finish. The fine elements of coatings cannot be achieved offline – you
need an offset plate.
“The register with this press is perfect. We can also measure and monitor the
UV intensity of the curing lamps. This press will help us do conventional UV
with primer and then gloss. It has seven UV cassettes altogether and which
are all interchangeable in both interdeck and end of press positions. There is
an IR dryer after the seventh print unit to accelerate the ink drying process,”
Kanoria adds. Though the capex is a little higher, the gloss and matte coating
combination is an extremely unique feature of the press which gives an
unparalleled ROI when compared to investment in additional equipment
especially for these special coating effects. The new Rapida 106 contains a
high level of automation and quality features.

TCPL’s print and post-print equipment

The new K&B 8-color with double coater is the fifth sheetfed offset press in
TCPL’s two Haridwar plants. There are altogether three K&B and two Mitsubishi
presses at Haridwar. The TCPL plant in which the new highly configured K&B
has now been commissioned contains another K&B Rapida installed in 201l and
one of the Mitsubishi presses. There is a cast and cure machine as well as
sheetfed gravure for metallic overprints in the plant. This plant contains six
Bobst diecutters and five folder gluers. It also contains the Masterwork.

The second TCPL Haridwar plant which produces litho-laminated cartons and
special foil, holographic and 3D lens effects contains TCPL’s first K&B 8-color
plus coater press with an inline cold foiler mounted on the first two units as
well as a Mitsubishi 6-color plus coater press. This plant has four diecutters
and three Bobst and Paktek folder gluers.
Using the inline foiling unit, cold foil is applied to a UV curable adhesive image
using a standard offset printing plate. The foil, usually silver, is picked up the
printed adhesive, creating a mettalic image prior to the application of printing
ink by the following press units. When foil is applied inline, a major benefit is
that the registration between the applied foil and the overprinted inks and
varnish is precise. Generally silver, the foil is also available in a limited pallette
of gold, stock diffraction patterns and custom holographic designs.

In our previous discussion (reported in the April 2019 issue of Packaging South
Asia), Saket Kanoria said that though TCPL has a number of carton press

The new carton converting plant in Goa now has two fully-equipped lines and
so does Guwahati. TCPL’s Silvassa plant has four offset lines, and three
gravure carton and one gravure flexible films printing line. Including the two
plants in Haridwar with 5 offset lines, TCPL’s overall printing and converting
capacity across the country is 95,000 tons in a year.
Kanoria spoke about the challenging situation of the economy adding that it is
all fixable if the government makes the right moves. “Measures need to be
taken to revive the economy including the reduction of GST which is too high
presently. For us, FMCG is the focus market and its growth is down to 6% to
8%. It is under pressure and at the same time rural distress continues.
Government has to help to make the products cheaper in order to revive the
industry.”

Akshay Kanoria, executive director of TCPL, added, “There is, currently, a huge
opportunity with the US-China trade war. Right now, it is being en-cashed by
Bangladesh and Vietnam. Why can’t India take advantage?”
“To sum it up in simple words, the government has to create a feel good factor
and if the rural distress is reduced, the market can bounce back. Even our
numbers are affected thanks to all this. The margins are under tremendous
pressure. In order to keep investing, we need to grow anywhere between 10
to 15%. If we can average that number for the next five years, we’ll be quite
happy,” says Saket Kanoria.

“We see a lot of growth for us in flexible packaging. While we are currently in
an innovative niche segment we are planning a major expansion in flexible
packaging that is likely to begin next year.” Kanoria concludes.