Aspire to become a Rs 5,000-crore company in the next ten years: Ramesh Kejriwal

Speaking to an invited VIP audience of five hundred, which included print buyers, top brands, manufacturers and vendors, Ramesh Kejriwal, chairman of Parksons Packaging recounts their journey and lays out their aspirations.

06 Mar 2017 | By Sriraam Selvam

Talking about the company’s journey so far
Parksons Packaging was an idea in January 1996. The idea was to start a dedicated company for folding cartons. In eight months the idea became a reality. Manufacturing of folding cartons commenced in August 1996 with only two manual punching, one film laminator, one indigenous local gluing machine in a shopfloor which measured 2,000 sq/ft.

Having completed 20 years last year (2016, four plants and the newest one in Sri City, we would now be operating with more than 7-lakh sq/ft of shopfloor area.

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Sri City plant

The five plants have 20 top-end multi-colour printing machines, 30 automatic die-cutters, 30 folder-gluers and all other value added machines.

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Daman plant

Our first plant in Daman in the year 2001, the first big dream had an installed capacity of converting only 5,000 tonnes of paper consumption per annum.

By the end of this financial year March 2017, we will have a combined installed capacity of converting 1-lakh MT of paperboard even as we continue to dream big.

For today’s function, our theme ‘Sangam’ signifies a confluence of aspiration and inspiration. Sangam in the Indian context is associated with Triveni - a meeting point of three rivers Ganga, Jamuna, and Saraswati. For us at Parksons Packaging, it is a meeting point of West, North, South.

Sharing aspirations and what he thinks inspires him and his organisation
Our aspiration is to be the most credible packaging company in India with specialisation in paperboard. All of us at Parksons aspire to become a Rs 5,000-crore company in the next ten years.

Our inspirations are: Firstly, our customers who have put whole-hearted faith in us. Secondly all our business partners, vendors, suppliers, bankers, financial partners who have supported us throughout our journey so far. And last, the smile on the faces, enthusiasm in their eyes and energy in their work of all the 1,200 young and dynamic people of our organisation.

Trends in packaging
In 2015, the global paperboard demand grew by about 1.5%. The demand from Asia remained steady, whereas demand from US and EU increased slightly year-on-year on account of slightly better economic growth.

Global demand for paperboard is expected to reach about 290-million tonnes by 2019 from 270-million tonnes in 2014.

Over the next three to four years, demand for paperboard in India is projected to reach four-million tonnes and 6.5-million tonnes by 2024-25.

Ramesh Kejriwal's checklist for a packaging firm

Use right technology for the target industry segment

Optimum use of capacity of the key assets

Right quality tools to check consistency and minimum wastage of material

Keep your debt-equity balance healthy

Keep healthy balance between standard products and value added products

Keep your overheads under control

Specialised product quality or industry segment

Watch your capital expenditure to turnover ratio