Piramal Glass has outlined how it will invest €30 million in its premium perfume manufacturing unit. The Indian glassmaker supplies the premium perfume glass bottle markets in Europe and the USA and has seen its market share grow at a rate of 20% a year recently.
It will invest €15 million into its Kosamba, India container glassmaking site to add an extra three production lines to help meet the increased demand. It currently has three production lines for premium perfumery at the plant.
Piramal Glass Vice Chairman Vijay Shah said the company would increase its furnace capacity by 40 tonnes to 140t/day during works to be held in Spring next year. The furnace, supplied by German engineering group Horn, will be relined and expanded. Piramal will also add two forming lines, supplied by Italy’s BDF Industries, and convert a nail polish bottle line into a perfume production line. This line will be supplied by Emhart and brings the total number of lines at the facility to eight. It will increase the company’s capacity by an extra 50 million pieces from its current 300 million. All three lines are expected on stream by May 2020.
The Mumbai-headquartered group is a container glass specialist. While it manufacturers pharmaceutical glass, cosmetics and perfumery glass as well as food and beverage glass, its focus is on the premium glass packaging segment. The company supplies major global brands such as Louis Vuitton and Spanish perfume giant Puig.
It has two glass manufacturing operations in India, and one each in Sri Lanka and the USA. It also has glass decoration units in each of these countries. It has also invested €15 million into a greenfield decoration facility at Kosamba which came on stream in May. Works are ongoing and have included investments in printing, coating and hot foil stamping.
Mr Shah said: “The premium perfume market is a demanding industry and the quality demands are very high for this market. In a sense you’re not just selling perfume packaging you’re selling history. “These investments will allow us to create sufficient elbow room for growth. There have been many new product developments and we are under tremendous pressure to meet this increased demand from our customers because the demand outstrips the supply. Once the investment is complete we will be in readiness to capture a larger share of the perfume business in Europe.”
The company has only been serving the premium sector for 10 years but has grown rapidly since its introduction Mr Shah admits Piramal is a baby in comparison to its older European rivals.
“Perfume glassmaking is as much an art as a science and we have learnt this the hard way. But it is paying off today. “My belief and focus is if we keep investing, keep growing, keep training, keep getting experts from Europe working with our people shoulder to shoulder is what will teach our people how to continue to make this fine glass.”
Source: Piramal Glass
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