Page 67 - Glass Machinery Plants & Accessories no. 4-2019

Lankan manufacturing plants product launch life-cycle to con- Moreover, the increasing price
goes to domestic markets? ceptualize, design, and produce of raw materials is a major chal-
Which are some of your key personalized glass packaging lenge faced by Indian container
export markets? solutions that exemplifies brand glass producers in recent years.
Vijay Shah: From our two value, market requirements, and
manufacturing plants in India, product concept. Today, we have GMP&A: You have your man-
in Kosamba and in Jambusar, 17 of the world’s top 20 cosmetic ufacturing presence in three dif-
around a quarter (25 per cent) companies as our customers and ferent countries. How is contain-
of production goes to the Indian most of the top global players are er glass manufacturing different
domestic market. And from part of our customer base across in these three countries?
our manufacturing plant in Sri segments. Vijay Shah: We have our
Lanka, in Horana, around 60 per manufacturing presence in the
cent of production goes to the Sri GMP&A: What are the key USA, India, and Sri Lanka, with
Lankan domestic market. Our challenges for container glass an overall capacity of 1,375 tons
key export markets from India producers in India? per day, with 12 furnaces and 55
are Western Europe (France, Vijay Shah: The container production lines. Of these, India
Spain, Italy, and UK), Middle glass industry in India is highly has nine furnaces, USA has two
East (UAE, KSA), Brazil, and fragmented with the presence of furnaces, and Sri Lanka has one
USA. a large number of small localized furnace. All our manufacturing
players and about 10 medium facilities provide similar best-in-
GMP&A: Chinese glass pro- and large players. Many of these class configuration in terms of
ducers (both float and container small manufacturers have small technology, design, and layout
glass producers) have been able furnaces and lack specialized to serve our global customer
to gain a huge share in export skills and expertise. The top three requirements. The cost of pro-
markets. What is their position in producers account for more than duction in developing markets,
the perfumery & cosmetic glass 80 per cent of the total installed such as India and Sri Lanka,
market? Has their low cost man- capacity and the pool of experts. where skilled manpower is cost-
ufacturing advantage affected Container glass packaging is effective, is significantly lower
your company’s performance? a labour and specialized skill- than that of developed markets
Vijay Shah: We would restrict intensive industry. Though the such as USA. From our key man-
our inputs on container glass manufacturing process is fully ufacturing facilities in India and
producers, as we are only deal- automated, some of the criti- Sri Lanka, we are able to produce
ing in it. It’s true that Chinese cal functions still require the glass at significantly lower costs.
container glass producers are significant expertise of skilled The majority of our Cosmetics &
gradually gaining traction in the and experienced professionals. Perfumery container glass bottles
mass markets, but they are still
not able to reach the standards
required for premium or select
markets. As per our estimates,
around 85 per cent of the global
cosmetic glass packaging market,
by value, is controlled by the top
12 manufacturers, which doesn’t
have any Chinese container glass
producer. The low cost manu-
facturing from Chinese contain-
er glass producers hasn’t really
affected us, as our focus is on
customers and markets where
we can provide higher value by
leveraging our strong capabili-
ties and quality standards. Our
strong and long term customer
base is also one of the key reason
for our growth. We work closely
with our customers through their

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