Players in Packaging Value Chain in India

Competitive landscape for the packaging industry needs to be looked from a value chain perspective i.e. Technology solution providers, manufacturers of packaging boxes, platforms cutting across value chain areas of machines and raw materials and end customers.

Details of the competitive landscape in each of the subsegments of value chain are as follows:

Technology manufacturers 

The global MNC players typically play with organized players and are beyond the reach of the Indian SMEs from a small plant cost economics standpoint. (Branded Product can be at a price premium of 40%-200% over a similar counterpart manufactured by SME Manufacturer in India or Abroad). Lack of distribution capabilities and after sales service for branded players in machinery further strengthens the hand of regional machinery manufacturers.

An exception to this rule is Printing, Label and Print Finishing machinery that is dominated by trusted brands.

 The Indian players typically specialize in very niche specific kind of packaging machines which are then to be integrated with other machinery sourced from other regional machine manufacturers in India or abroad. 

The market is highly fragmented and information asymmetry reigns supreme. There are close to 700 good machine manufacturers in India and at least 4,000 in China. Packaging Machinery is manufactured in other countries like South Korea, Japan, Germany and Taiwan. As such for 22,000 packaging manufacturers in India there are almost as many technology providers to chose from. 

Overall for the packaging manufacturer there is no single reliable complete solution provider in the machine space to help them identify the right machinery for their manufacturing line and ensure a consistent spare supply for its lifetime of operation. 

We at Endurance Solutions are the first complete packaging machinery and technology provider for manufacturers in India. We have put together a carefully curated comprehensive portfolio of packaging machinery that has stood the test of time and offers the best there is in technological developments of the world.

Packaging Manufacturers

The Indian packaging industry is largely controlled by domestic manufacturers, although some leading global packaging companies have also established a strong presence in India. The presence of global players is more pronounced in the flexible packaging segment which has witnessed some degree of consolidation (by way of acquisitions). The other main segments of the packaging industry (folding cartons, corrugated cartons, rigid packaging) continue to be dominated by domestic players who have built leadership positions in respective sub-segments (in terms of products or end markets served). Despite limited activity in the packaging space historically, many leading global players have identified India as a highly attractive investment avenue.

Key global MNCs playing in India are:

Despite presence of Indian companies with annual turnover greater than INR 100cr there is still enough demand for MSMEs to improve their toplines by targeting upcoming startups for corrugated boxes through their cost competitiveness.

Platforms cutting across value chain

An interesting segment that has recently come up in the last 4 years in the packaging industry are the platforms which cut across the packaging value chain. These platforms play in different areas of the packaging value chain by connecting box manufacturers to box suppliers, linking machine suppliers to box manufacturers or providing an online market place for connecting the suppliers and customers of packaging based on the different types of packaging offerings. Key list of companies operating in the space along with their core offering is as follows:

Despite the presence of new age tech platforms in the packaging Industry, there is still absence of an e commerce player cutting across all the elements of the packaging value chain and providing a complete ecosystem solution for the customers.

 End Players of packaging value chain

These are essentially the end retailers who capture the end customer experience of the packaging value chain. They directly deal with the end user unboxing experience with respect to all the packaging be it secondary, tertiary and even primary in certain cases for their own products.  These include large B2C giants such as Amazon, Flipkart and upcoming Reliance Jio which exercise enormous pricing power over the packaging suppliers due to the sheer packaging volume available with them. However despite the fact that there is risk of forward integration into the packaging industry by End players, the likelihood of the same happening is very low specifically for the fact that box manufacturing is a labor intensive, low margin industry with its challenges of dealing with labor laws in India. E commerce giants are most likely remain away from dealing with labor and expected to focus more of their efforts more in terms of developing a holistic shopping experience for the end customers.