Michelman and I are incredibly excited about India’s future and its emerging flexible packaging market. India’s growth, entrepreneurship, speed of business, and incredible talent are all reasons why we’ve chosen to invest in the Innovation Centre for Coatings (MICC) here. 2018 is a big year for Michelman India and we are confident that what we learn in India will help us innovate outside of the region and scale it throughout our global operations.
Favorable demographics such as a rise in nuclear families and a young population have led to increased and sustained growth in India’s packaging market. This growth is unprecedented due to changing consumer buying habits. Food preparation is focused on smaller packages because of the rise of nuclear households and India’s young professionals’ increased disposable income allows them to purchase new products and try out new things.
This “experimental” purchasing provides lots of new opportunity for flexible packaging innovations and Michelman is ready to collaborate with brand owners, converters, and film producers in the development of sustainable packaging. This is why our central Mumbai location is perfect for our new Centre. It is strategically located and designed to bring people together and serve the needs of Dynamic India and its surrounding markets. At the core of each customer relationship are Michelman Values, two of which are collaboration and success. The opening of the MICC allows Michelman to reach out to all members of India’s packaging value chain and work together for the success of the entire region’s packaging industry.
Of late, the Indian government has shown commitment and resilience in supporting greener packaging solutions which also encourages our products and investment in India. Recyclability, downsizing and down gauging of packaging have all become priorities by a majority of the multinational companies present in India, followed by Indian manufacturers. India’s current direction is to keep packaging products environmentally friendly and ban usage of toxic material. This provides the perfect opportunity to facilitate our purpose of Innovating a Sustainable Future with Expert Materials℠ and utilize our over 70 years of experience in water-based technology.
Not only are our solutions environmentally friendly, they sustain our stakeholders’ futures. Michelman is building our business for generations to come and we’re committed to India for the long-term. In fact our MICC has conference rooms available for training the industry’s next generation of packaging engineers. The opening of the Michelman Innovation Centre for Coatings offers India sustainability for the natural environment and the business environment. We predict a very bright future!
Steven J. Shifman, President & CEO