Amit Banga: Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently

The reason behind it? Banga says, "We are generally better at making specialised PE structures for automatic packaging, which includes PE film manufacturing, printing on gravure (this is unique as it is a soft material) and flexo presses and then making bags with special features for automatic hi-speed packing and customer convenience (such as perforation and handle)."

However, Banga says that the biggest challenge for flexo has been minimising dot gain and maximising the resolution to match gravure printing. "I think Miraclon has led the way with Kodak Flexcel NX and shown the world how to do it. But there is still some distance to cover and I’m hoping for improvements there."

Commenting on the innovation and R&D efforts taken by his company, Banga explains, "SB Packaging is at
the forefront of sustainable packaging, which essentially means recyclable packaging based on mono-materials. So most of our innovations are
around that."

For instance, the company developed pouches with spouts and zippers made entirely of PE to replace the multi-layer packaging structure made of PET/PE. "We have also invested more in flexo by adding an eight-colour flexo press in 2018 from Uteco and now a 10-colour from W&H," he adds.

For Banga, one of his proud moments came when his company converted the entire range of ITC Master-Chef frozen food packaging, for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian snacks, to sustainable packaging and won some prestigious awards for that. "We have also won awards, including a Gold at Asian packaging award shows based on our flexo and gravure printing."

However, Banga has one message to the brands and product managers
during these tough times: "Winners don’t do different things. They do things differently."

He suggests this is the time when the idle capacity can be utilised to do some development work to convert some of the non-recyclable packaging to sustainable packaging.