By the time the curtains came down on yet another successful edition of the India Packaging Show and the debutant Bulk Pack 2010, at least one myth had been shattered forever.

It had been the conventional wisdom that successful packaging events could happen only in Delhi or Mumbai. By the time the Hyderabad event came to a close on 12 April at the Hitex Exhibition Centre, the exhibitors and visitors were unanimous in their view- they had been part of an exceptional development. The second largest packaging exhibition in the country had taken place and it was in the South.

The exhibition spread over 7,000 sq m presented 230 Exhibitors, 50 Product Launches, 100 Running Machineries and 120 featured products. The four-day event attracted more than 6,300 visitors and the venue was constantly abuzz with packaging professionals and buyers from all over the country and abroad attending in large numbers.

The Exhibition was inaugurated by Sri Kanna Lakshmi Narayana, the Hon’ble Minister for Major Industries, Government of Andhra Pradesh, in the presence of K Harishchandra Prasad, President, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI); Rajeshwar Rao, Secretary General, FAPCCI, Sanjay Kapoor, COO, HITEX and other dignitaries. The Minister lit the inaugural lamp and cut the ribbon for entry in exhibition halls. He also unveiled the Show catalogue and congratulated the organizers for bringing country’s premier packaging exhibition to South. “Exhibitions and Trade Fairs have now been established as a powerful cost effective marketing tool. While they provide a perfect platform to learn and do business for the exhibitors and visitors, the contribution of exhibitions in boosting the State’s economy is also very significant,” said Sri Narayana.

The Launches & Live Demos

Over the years, the exhibitors have marked India Packaging Show as an event where they launch their new products. This edition was no different. Over 50 product launches had been planned.

Robatech India chose the platform to launch its all new Greenline- environment friendly hotmelt systems. “With the Greenline technology, up to 17 percent energy can be saved in combination with a heated hose NW 6 mm and the fully insulated SX Diamond applicator heads,” informed Kishor Butani from Robatech India. “With the rising awareness about the need to be environment friendly, the industry is looking for green products and India Packaging Show gave us an ideal platform to present our products for the purpose,” he added.

On the similar note, Spearepet launched green PET at India Packaging Show. “The green technology is catching up,” claimed Randeep Gampa from Spearepet. “This is because we have been able to marry the economical as well as the environmental aspects,” he said.

Cyklop Packaging Systems found the India Packaging Show, Hyderabad to be a good opportunity to showcase its all new KGK Inkjet Printers for the first time in India. “The exhibition gave immense amount of satisfaction in terms of customer exposure and reach. We had very good response from buyers of various industries and categories. We are confident that this exposure will convert into high sales,” said a very bullish K V A Naidu from Cyklop Packaging Systems.

ID Technologies is one of the first companies in India to design and develop Thermal Transfer Label/Bar-coding Printer indigenously. The company introduced its latest Strom iX201 Thermal Transfer Printers at the Show. “India Packaging Show was an absolute perfect platform for the launch. We received several serious enquiries for the product,” stated M.V. Bennur from ID Technologies.

Bringing, what it termed as “nothing short of a revolution” in the Form-Fill-Seal (FFS) Machines, Saurabh Flexipack Systems introduced high speed pick FFS machines with 6 stations & 8 stations at IPS 2010. The machine caters to almost all packaging requirement of food, pharma and chemical industries.

Proface launched new compact Human Machine Interface (HMI) - GP4100 series at IPS. GP4100 Series Models are equipped with 3.4-inch, 16-level grayscale and 200 x 80 pixels high-resolution display offering touch operation as well as high quality display capability of full graphic and text data with expanded support of Windows image and Bitmap fonts. "Response for GP4100 has been quite good through this show-case for our newly launched product,” said Balaji Rao from Proface India. “As expected, we have received good number of enquiries from OEMS, machine builders and new product developers of small and medium size machines,” he added.

Bulk Pack 2010 provided a platform to the Indian companies as well as the Indian agents for international companies to present the latest developments in the sector. Goglio Italy launched the aseptic filling systems and industrial bags at the Show. “Bulk Packaging industry has lot of prospects and an exhibition dedicated to this segment can only provide an excellent platform for dissemination of information,” said Guglielmo Zizzi, Export Sales Manager, Goglio - Italy. “The exhibition was much focused as the quality of the visitors matched the quality of the international exhibitors,” he stated.

My Flexitank Industries, Malasia had participated in Bulk Pack 2010 to get well versed with the demands and developments in the Indian market. The Flexitank launched by the company was a major attraction of the event. “The flexitank has come up as a new concept in the field of Bulk Packaging,” said Gerald Wu, Marketing Manager, My Flexitank. “Through Bulk Pack 2010, we got to know more about the Indian bulk packaging industry and the kind of products people are looking for. We are planning to extend our base in India and the Show helped us gain more knowledge on the Indian market,” he added.

One of the pioneers in the field of Bulk Packaging, Time Technoplast participated in Bulk Pack 2010 to launch its new range of material handling solutions. “The Southern market is opening lot of avenues for the Bulk Packaging Industry,” said Abhay Imandar from Time Technoplast. “Through the exhibition we got a chance to realize the growing demands of new technologies in the bulk packaging segment and also the rising opportunities in the industry,” he stated.

Besides these, several other launches captured the attention of visitors who found the Show to be a complete packaging experience. “The Show is a one stop shop!” said Syed Shahid Quadri, MD, Petstar Bottles & Containers Pvt. Ltd - a visitor to the Show. “We got a chance to see new innovations, cost effective technology and eco-friendly products from the packaging industry. We were also able to have one to one interaction with the industry leaders,” he stated.

Nawaz Sharif, the owner of Ammi’s Biryani visited the exhibition to find out the developments in the field of secure food packaging. “With so many packaging machines running live in the Show, we got a chance to identify the products that would suit our purpose,” said Sharif.

India Packaging Show witnessed more than 100 running machineries in the grounds of HITEX. Stealing the attention of visitors were tube filling machine from IMG-PG India, VFFS machines from Hassia Packaging, liquid and food packaging machines from Hilda Automation, pick FFS machines from Saurabh Flexipack Systems, secondary packaging equipment, systems & consumables from Gayatri Trading Corp. (authorized distributor of ITW India Ltd.) and high speed horizontal FFS machine from Pakona Engineers.

Displaying its newly launched tube filling machine, IMA-PG India Ltd. captured lot of attention from the visitors. “We displayed our all new T 60 tube filling machine at the Show,” said Mahadevan Iyer, MD, IMA-PG India Ltd. “The live demo of machine gave us a chance to show the efficiency of the product and help our customers see them on run. With several serious enquiries, the Show turned out to be really successful for us,” he added.

For Tula Machinery Co., the Show was an effective marketing platform. The company sold two of its machines on the second and third day of the event. “We sold the Teflon beltless bag sealing machine to Kaveri Seeds and the vertical model of the sealing machine was sold to Van Food Specialties, both from Hyderabad,” informed Rakesh A. Desai from Tula Machinery. “We have few more orders in pipeline from the South India based companies. The Show has been very successful for us and we congratulate the organizers for managing such a world class event in South,” he said.

Super Pack Packaging displayed a whole range of filling machines at the Exhibition. “It is not possible for our customers to visit our factories always to have a look at our machines. At times they are not even sure what product would actually suit their requirement or the multiple facilities they can get from a particular machine,” Sushil Sahastrabuddhe from Super Pack stated. “The live display of products at an exhibition helps the customers in making quick decisions,” he said.

MiniPack displayed a range of pallet wrapping machine, individual carton stretch wrapping machine and shrink wrapping machine. “The individual carton stretch wrapping machine is a hot selling machine these days,” said S.S Cooper, Director Mini Pack. “This relatively is a new machine as we have been upgrading it as per the requirement. The economical and the safety aspect of the machine has made this product popular in food, pharma and several other industries,” he informed. Other attractions from packaging segment were the boxes, lamas & cartons from Pragati Pack, corrugated carton boxes from Arabian Packaging, rigid container and plastic bottles from Prashanti Group. In converting segment, labelling solutions from Interlabels Industries, converting machines from Shraddha Converting machines, print finishing equipment & consumables from Creed Engineers, labeling machines from Shree Bhagwati and label printing machines from Label Planet captured the attention of visitors.

Presenting a range of labeling machines, Shree Bhagwati Pharma found the exhibition to be very serious and productive. “The labeling machines we are displaying are applicable not only in pharma, but also in the food and cosmetics industry,” informed Arjun Rao from Shree Bhagwati Pharma. “With the live demo of our machines we have attracted attention of lot many customers who have showed interest in future deals,” he stated. Data management systems from Proface, drives and switchgears from ABB, automation control & power topologies from Delta India and automation solutions from Sick India were the attractions of automation segment.

At Bulk Pack 2010, the live demo of bag closing machine from Gabbar Engineering, packaging solutions from Fabcon, conveyor systems from Habasit Iakoka and PP woven sack reel to reel multicolour printing machine from Starflex International attracted the attendees. From the latest range of bulk bags used by the Indian Bulk Packaging Industry, visitors got a chance to see hygiene bags for food & pharma industry from Jumbo Bags, woven sacks from Emmbi Polyarns and woven & non-woven bags from Global Packaging. FIBCs from Kanpur Plastipack and drums & containers from Pragati Polyplast, Blow Packaging and Pacopack rounded up the Show.

For the visitors, the large gamut of machines under one roof was an experience in itself. “This is the largest packaging exhibition we have ever witnessed in South,” said Gajendra P., Swathi Hatcheries- a visitor to the Show. “The adverse situation of Hyderabad in recent times has not affected the footfalls in the Show. This shows the effort put in by the organizers. We really look forward to the next year’s edition of the Exhibition,” he added.

Adding value to the main event, the Bulk Pack 2010 International Conference was organized on 8-9 April 2010 at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre. More than 100 delegates participated in each of the four sessions spread over the two days. The seminar delved deep on the issues related to Bulk Packaging with presentations from national and international speakers.

“We are happy to receive such an overwhelming response in South. The footfalls on all the four days of the event had been large and the exhibitors were satisfied with the facilities at HITEX. The success of the Show has prompted us to come back to Hyderabad in 2011 with the complete packaging event and call it- Pack Plus South,” concluded Anil Arora on behalf of the organizers.

PackPlus South 2011 will be held from 1-4 July at HITEX Hyderabad.