Rajkot’s Gopal Printpack opens new plant in Indore

The plant was established last year, and it is completely functional. The plant’s capacity is 2,000 tonnes per month and the installed capacity for the moment is 400 tonnes. According to Denish Rokad, managing partner, Gopal Printpack Solutions, the company is converting 300 tonnes per month. “It is our second unit and we can produce whatever is required for flexible packaging, whether in roll or pouch form,” Rokad said.

The plant area is 25,000-sqm. It runs round-the-clock with a team of 100 people.

On the reason why the company chose Indore, Rokad said that it is the commercial and industrial centre of India with a strong infrastructure. “The city is well-connected from everywhere in India. There is no language barrier and the local authorities are supportive of businesses,” Rokad said. “It is also one of the cleanest cities in the country. Plus, the temperature of Indore is always 4-5 degrees cooler than Rajkot. Everyone wants to work in pleasant weather.”

The Indore unit is equipped with Thea9one8, a nine-colour rotogravure printing press manufactured by Kohli Industries; extrusion lamination machine from Rajoo Engineers; solventless solutions – Nordmeccanica; slitting, rewinding and trim Doctoring from SP Ultraflex and a pouch-making machine from Galaxy.

The Rajkot unit of Gopal Printpack Solutions is equipped with four rotogravure printing presses from Kohli Industries and Pelican Rotoflex, along with an ink kitchen from Hi-Tech Inks and films extrusion lines from Rajoo Engineers.

“The capacity of the plant is 1,200 tonnes per month and we are currently producing 1000 tonnes. The total production capacity of both the plants is 1,600 tonnes and we are producing 1300 tonnes per month,” Rokad said.

Gopal Printpack Solutions, a family-owned business, is run by Denish Rokad, his wife Hiral and his father Ashokbhai. “Total 60% of our production goes to Gopal Snacks and for the rest 40%, we work for Amul, Haldiram, Bikano, Patanjali and other big brands. We are a 100% rotogravure printing company and R&D is going on for ECG (extended colour gamut),” Rokad said.

In the future, the company may also diversify into flexo printing as storage of cylinders for rotogravure printing is becoming a big task nowadays. According to Rokad, another pain point of gravure printing is the time it takes in the manufacturing of the rollers.

“Earlier, job runs were long but now they are not. The total demand for packaging has increased but individual runs have gone down. The total packaging requirement has increased. So has the number of SKUs,” he said.

Rokad, a software engineer, wants to run the Indore plant at full capacity in the coming years.