Uflex Ltd, India’s largest flexible packaging company, as part of its overseas expansion plans is set to launch a PET film (polyester) plant in Kentucky, USA. The facility will have a manufacturing capacity of 30,000 MTPA of PET film and the company will be investing approx. $85 million in the project.

The new manufacturing plant is part of Uflex’s strategy to gain competitive advantage of increased proximity to the markets globally and bring broad portfolio of value added products to its clients at competitive price points. UFLEX is undertaking various green and brown field expansion projects adding manufacturing lines for new product categories across facilities in Egypt, Mexico and India with aggregate investments of $250 million over the next couple of years.

Apart from the venture in U.S., Uflex recently initiated the setting up of a new plant for manufacturing of 30,000 MTs of polyester film at Poland. The company will set up the plant in Wrzesnia in Poland with an investment of $80 million (around Rs 360 crore), which is expected to be operationalised by June 2012.

With plans of new manufacturing lines and corresponding investments UFLEX is all set to achieve the next milestone of touching the $1 billion revenue mark by 2012 – the first company in the flexible packaging sector in India to achieve this  milestone.

In Egypt, the Company is ramping up production capacities for BOPP films (Bi-axially Oriented Poly Propylene film) to 35,000 TPA; 30000TPA of PET (Polyester) and 12000TPA of CPP films aggregating to total capacity of 77,000 TPA. The company’s planned investments in Egypt are pegged at $135 million. This facility has trade pacts with GCC nations, Southern Europe & Africa, Middle East, West Asia and CIS to access larger markets.

The first phase of this expansion involving added capacities in BOPP films has already commenced operations, while the second phase of setting up facilities for PET and CPP films is expected to be completed by the 3rd quarter of FY 2011-12.

Uflex had registered an exponential growth of 423% increase in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 at Rs. 251 crore as against Rs. 48 crore for the same period last year, maintaining a consistent record of highest growth by any company in the sector so far. The firm’s consolidated revenue for the December quarter of 2010 stood at Rs. 1022 crore as against Rs. 595 crore for the same quarter last year, up 72%.

For the nine months period ending December 31, 2010, UFlex recorded net profit of Rs. 515 crore against Rs. 144 crore in the corresponding period last year, a growth of 258%. Net revenue of the company for the nine months ended Dec.. 31, 2010 stood at Rs. 2573 crore compared Rs. 1713 crore in the same period in previous fiscal, up by 50%.

The company’s partial client list includes Unilever, Pepsi, Wrigley, Procter & Gamble, Colgate, Palmolive, Nestle, Gillette, Ranbaxy, Perfetti, Joyco, Monsanto, ITC, Godrej Pillsbury, Tata Tea, Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil, Britannia, Dabur, Haldiram, Wockhardt, HUL, Parle Biscuit, and Birla 3M, among others.

The recent study conducted by Food Safety Laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, indicates that recycled cardboard packaging may contaminate the foodstuffs inside. According to the study, cardboard boxes may leak chemicals called mineral oils into the foodstuffs they contain while those with bags made of other materials such as polypropylene, or which had an aluminium layer, seemed to block migration.

Most of these mineral oils are thought to have originated from the ink in the newspapers that were recycled to make the cardboard boxes. The mineral oils in printing ink are believed to pose serious health threat with risks of chronic inflammation of various internal organs and cancer.

The research has raised concerns on potential health risks posed by mineral oils leaching from recycled cardboard, among food packaging companies’ world over prompting them to take steps towards altering or reviewing their packaging.

Uflex Ltd. India’s largest and Globe’s fifth largest flexible packaging company, on the other hand, is offering complete food packaging solutions for over 25 years. The company offers optimal standard Engineering Innovated Packaging Products made out of BOPET (BIAXIALLY ORIENTED POLYETHYLENE TERAPTHALATE), BOPP (BIAXIALLY ORIENTED POLYPROPYLENE) & CPP (CAST POLYPROPYLENE) Films, designed in the close conformation to the global standard and norms.  Their excellent chemical resistance, mechanical strength, barrier against water and aroma & dimensional stability makes these films appropriate for packaging food grade products.

Being on the edge of innovation, Uflex has been setting benchmarks for delivering innovative packaging concepts. The company is known for offering innovating packaging concepts and advanced products that cater to the changing demands of the packaging industry.