Constantia Flexibles (Vienna / Austria; www.cflex.com) is currently building a plant near its production site in Ahmedabad, Gujarat / India. The packaging manufacturer is investing around INR 1 bn (about EUR 12.5m) in the capacity expansion, which is at its subsidiary Parikh Packaging (Ahmedabad). The news was announced at the currently running "Plastindia 2018" (Gandhinagar, Gujarat; www.plastindia.org) trade fair.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place in mid-2017. The site will manufacture packaging for food as well as household and personal care products, and house an extrusion line for PE blown film, a flexo printing press and laminating lines for the production of high-barrier monofilms. Commissioning is scheduled for 2019.

Constantia expects the flexible packaging market in India to grow by double-digit rates in the medium term as a result of increasing urbanisation and the growing retail sector. "Major fast-moving consumer goods [producers] are demanding the highest level of sustainability for their packaging material and they will have to comply with upcoming Indian plastic waste management regulations that promote only fully recyclable flexible packaging," says Stefan Grote, executive vice president of the food packaging business.

Parikh Packaging has been part of Constantia Flexibles since 2013 (see Plasteurope.com of 09.04.2013) and operates a plant in Ahmedabad with machines for rotogravure printing, PE extrusion lines, various laminating technologies and systems for manufacturing bags. Its workforce has more than 500 employees. Constantia Flexibles claims to be the world's fourth largest manufacturer of flexible packaging solutions. The company employs around 7,400 people at 32 production sites in 18 countries.