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The 'specialists'
Subnil is among those few packaging machinery manufacturers
from India that command the same respect in the overseas markets as well. Sachin
Jagdale writes
 Subnil's
good name in the international market is evident from the fact that many multinational
companies feature in their client list, with heavyweights like Unilever, GSK
and Pfizer as well as Indian biggies like Dabur, Emami, Elder and Cheryl to
name a few. "We export to the whole of Middle East, a part of the Far East
and pacific, the CIS countries, whole of Central and South America and some
parts of Eastern Europe. We are now spreading our tentacles in the West European
and North American markets," says, Manoj Subramaniam, Director R&D,
Subnil Packaging Machineries. "Almost 50 percent of our revenue comes from
the international market," he adds.
Sincere efforts
Last 10 years have seen a great shift in approach and quality among Indian packaging
machinery manufacturers. Today, they are not the trend follower but the trend
setters. When the cost effective machinery manufacture orders started pouring
in from rich European countries, the indigenous machinery manufacturers were
made to stretch their quality limits. Indigenous machine manufacturers were
sincere to their work and intentions and this resulted in making them one of
top machine manufacturers in the world.
Subramaniam reminisces, "The last five to six years saw a huge rise in
the prices of machinery manufacturers from Europe. This led the growing economies
to look for cost-economical options and the answer lay eastward. Indians, although
not known for their quality at least 10 years ago, grabbed the opportunity with
both hands and sincerely worked to improve and tried to match up to international
levels. Today, although China claims to be offering super-cheap machines, we
can safely say that overall India leads in the packaging industry, in comparison
with Korea, Taiwan and China."
A lot still to do…
"Without a doubt, Indians have to grow further on the quality front. By
quality I do not mean just functioning machines, we need to make it state-of-the-art.
We no longer want to remain in the shadows of the Germans, Italians and North
Americans and we need to innovate and that too big time for the world to take
real notice of us," says Subramaniam.
Subnil has been at the forefront of the tube packaging industry. Today, Subnil
offers the fastest tube line for filling and packing tubes, not just in India
but in the whole of Asia, running at an express 18,000 tubes/hour. Subnil's
achievements are purely due to their focus of working on tube filling lines
only and that is the sole reason, they are called 'specialists'. Together with
its sister company, both companies have been specialising in three kinds of
machines for the last almost 28 years. A new addition will only come at the
end of this year.
Subramaniam highlights the fact that undoubtedly, the seeds for the creation
of Subnil were sown by the founders, with humble beginnings. Today the second
generation, with an extremely huge vision, has grown the company to an enviable
position even in the global marketplace.
More to offer
Speaking about their future plans, Subramaniam says, "We intend continuing
our specialisation in tube filling lines. We have now expanded our horizons
and have become a full-fledged tube filling solutions provider.
This means that besides offering machines we help our customers (mainly international)
in identifying suppliers for tubes and other packaging materials for tube packaging.
We further help them in actually filling their tubes with the help of partners
in the industry."
Subnil's fastest tube filler works at 300 tubes/minute and company intend upping
that to a super fast 500 tpm in the near future with robotics being the major
technology contributor for making the lines 'fully' automatic in the true sense
of the word.
sachin.jagdale@expressindia.com
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