Established in the year 1997, AG Poly Packs is now in its 26th year of operations. It started with trading in rigid packaging for the food industry and gradually moved into pharmaceuticals. Till 2010, AG Poly Packs was getting rigid packaging products manufactured in different parts of the country and selling them in northern India. After 2010, it started importing innovative dispensing solutions and also sold them globally.
In 2012, AG Poly Packs started its first 50,000-square feet manufacturing facility in Ghaziabad where it is into injection and blow molding with 38 machines. In 2020, it started a second manufacturing facility under the name of AG Synergy to manufacture PET bottles and spray pumps through injection stretch blow molding. At present, 60% share of the business is through manufacturing while the remaining 40% is through trading, as Packaging South Asia reported in its PackPlus coverage for 2022.
The company manufactures PET bottles for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications; jars for cream containers, body lotions and conditioners; balm containers; tablet containers; roll-on bottles; and HDPE bottles. It also imports dispensing bottles, spray pumps, mist pumps, dispenser pumps, flip-top closures, and screws on closures to give full packaging solutions to customers.
AG Poly Packs manufactures PET bottles through the Japanese ASB machines, while it uses Milacron machines for injection molding. The HDPE bottles are being manufactured through CMP machines and Victor machines are being used for injection blow molding (IBM).
The company has four offices in Ghaziabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Vapi in Gujarat. A 30,000 square feet facility is under construction at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh. The factory acceptance test (FAT) is due for this facility in the first week of June while the Swiss machines to be installed will arrive by July end. “We are planning to expand our footprint in Western India in terms of manufacturing facilities. We are exploring opportunities in Gujarat and Maharashtra,” said Gaurav Daga, director, AG Poly Packs, in a recent interaction with Packaging South Asia.
With 72 machines for manufacturing technologies and seven different assembly lines, AG Poly Packs aims to provide complete solutions to customers. “We want to provide flexible packaging solutions to customers in addition to rigid packaging,” Daga said.
Sustainable solutions
With sustainability being the buzzword, corporates are on the lookout for sustainable solutions. Companies are working on either reducing or reusing plastics or reinventing it. With this intent in mind, AG Poly Packs has done almost 30% weight reduction in closures. Daga said, “We have the option of using PCR (post-consumer recycled laminate). We are coming up with solutions where the outer body of the jar is PCR and the inner cup is made entirely of virgin plastic, so there is no issue in stability. We are also coming up with plastic barrier laminates in our HP facility.”
The company strictly adheres to Central Public Control Board (CPCB) norms. Mama Earth, Wow Skin Science, Mcaffeine, Denver, MyGlamm, Emami, Joy, Dot & Key, Man Matters, Unilever, Dabur, Cipla, Dr Willmar Schwabe, Palmolive, Vestige, Modicare, Patanjali, and Khadi are some of its well-known clients.
Sanitizer bottle manufacturing during Covid-19
AG Poly Packs experienced an all-time high in terms of turnover and profitability during the Covid-19 pandemic, Daga said. “Prior to the Covid era, hardly any companies were into manufacturing of sanitizers. When swine flu first hit India, people came to know what a sanitizer is. We developed some bottles and are supplying them to brands such as Cipla, Godrej, Bajaj and Diversey which manufacture sanitizers.
“Even though the lockdown happened in March, sanitizers have been flooding the market since December-end. And both our facilities were heavily booked. Our plant was shut on the first few days of the lockdown. We approached the agencies concerned, whose officials visited us and taking into account the gravity of the situation, gave us approval to open the plant for the manufacture of sanitizer bottles. We received 10 passes to run our vehicles. Most of our employees were working from home through SAP. Factory workers were housed in dormitory blocks in our units.”
R&D and innovation
AG Poly Packs is coming up with its own 15,000-square feet R&D and innovation center. Daga said, “We already have some machines that can develop pilot tools for customers.” The company can produce mockups for pumps and dispenser bottles, which are then harnessed by brands for photo shoots, product launches and labels. It has an in-house design team that helps in creating models for boosting sales.
All manufacturing facilities of AG Poly Packs are BRC-certified, with strict QA, QC, and PDI processes for product quality assurance. On the plastics industry, Daga shared, “The plastics industry in India is doing comparatively well, even though sentiments are not that good. We need to find a solution to salvage plastic – whether to use it to make roads or other infrastructure. All industries in India are manufacturing polymers, including GAIL, Reliance Industries, and Indian Oil – their major revenue is from plastics.”
