‘Our business is driven by a huge effort on new product development’
Tell us about Piramal Glass and its current activities?
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| Vijay Shah |
Piramal Glass is into manufacturing of container glass which essentially acts as a primary packaging medium for cosmetics and perfumery products, pharma, food, liquor and beverages. We have a vision ‘To be among the top three flacconage companies globally’. Piramal Glass primarily manufactures three types of glass: Type III soda lime (alkaline in nature) amber glass— brown coloured glass commonly used for pharma products (syrups, tablets), chemical products (acids, solvents) and beer – basically products requiring protection from UV rays. Type III soda lime (alkaline in nature) flint glass – plain white coloured glass commonly used for cosmetics and perfumery products, pharma vials, food jars/bottles and Type I Neutral Glass (both flint and amber) – The glass is used for injectibles/life saving medicines where the contents should not have a reaction due to glass contact. Piramal Glass, besides a strong presence in domestic market, exports glass containers to close to 53 countries.
The company has an active presence in two different sectors; namely, pharmaceuticals and perfumery. Is there any similarity between these verticals?
The pharma and perfumery segments have different characteristics. While the pharma segment requires all the above three types of glass based on application, perfumery segment requires Type III soda lime Flint glass. The pharma bottle is sold to the customer as plain glass, while perfumery customers buy value added bottles with decoration (like coating, printing, foiling etc.). The perfumery segment is predominantly ‘made to order’ and the number of SKU (different shapes, sizes, decoration variants) is very large. This business is driven by a huge effort on new product development (NPD), while the pharma segment (whether Type I or Type III) is predominantly ‘made to stock’ with longer production run (compared to C&P) and more standard design bottles.
Who are your clients?
Some of our key clients are Cipla, Nitin Life Sciences, Macleods Pharma, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Merck in India.
What is the USP of your products? How does it differentiate you from others?
In the domestic pharma industry, Piramal Glass is recognised for its quality. The bottles in terms of design and packaging are common more like a commodity, and the key success criteria is to supply good quality bottles free of contamination, promptly to the customer because they are ‘made to stock’.
As per the company’s official website it has grown inorganically. Kindly comment on this.
Piramal Glass has presence in Sri Lanka and the US. Ceylon Glass Company listed on Colombo stock exchange was acquired in 1999. Renamed as Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC, it is the only glass container plant in Sri Lanka, with close to 95 per cent domestic market share and a substantial part of its turnover coming from exports to India, Africa, Australia etc. Piramal Glass US, erstwhile part of the Glass Group was a Chapter 11 company acquired in 2005. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Piramal Glass. We have turned around the performance of both these subsidiaries, within few years of the acquisition.
How many manufacturing sites does the company have? Do you plan to upgrade, expand or set up new facilities?
We have four manufacturing locations. Piramal Glass in India has two plant locations in Gujarat – Kosamba and Jambusar, where we have a total of nine furnaces. During the past one year, Piramal Glass has added one new furnace at Jambusar, and increased the capacity of one furnace through brown field expansion at Kosamba. Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC has one large furnace at Horana, while Piramal Glass US has two furnaces in Flat River, Missouri.
Does your manufacturing site meet the regulatory norms? Do you receive regulatory approvals?
Our manufacturing locations in India are certified for quality management system, safety management and social accountability. Our pharma customers conduct strict audits of our manufacturing sites, validating various aspects like the production process, chemical composition of the glass, glass bottle packaging and quality system.
Tell us about the issues that need to be addressed by pharma glass manufacturing companies? What are the problems faced by the industry?
In the amber bottle segment, there is a continuous shift from glass to PET, resulting in a good capacity build up in India. In the flint segment, which is essentially pharma vials, there are imports from China, as well as a substitute option from Type III tubular vials.
The glass container industry, which is a high energy consuming industry, is also facing the challenge of rapid increase in the natural gas price in India.
How large is your international presence? Do you plan to expand your geographical presence?
As mentioned earlier, besides India we have two international manufacturing locations. We export to 54 countries globally, and have warehousing facility globally in countries like US, Brazil, UK, France, Germany and Sri Lanka to effectively serve our key customers.
Tell us about the company’s corporate strategic plans.
Our corporate strategy hinges on growing the premium and select business in the cosmetics and perfumery segment. As far as the pharma business is concerned, we want to grow in the Type-I glass segment and improve our operating efficiencies in the Type III segment.
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