Mumbai, India — One of India's largest blow molding companies, Creative Group of Industries, is in the midst of a sizable overseas expansion, with plants under construction in the United States, the United Kingdom and Dubai.
It's part of what the Mumbai-based company describes as a $100 million investment in the next five years, and could include plants in Europe, South America and Africa, a top executive said at the 6th Injection, Blow, Roto and PET Moulding International Summit 2018, held July 5-6 in Mumbai.
“The first brownfield site is set to open in Colchester in Essex County in southeast England next month, while the plant in Liverpool will go on stream in 2019,” said Director Surendra Agarwal. “We are investing $100 million in expanding our global footprints in the next five years.”
He said the firm is targeting growing its sales four-fold in that time frame, from $220 million now to about $1 billion.
The first phase of its expansion plan will see it build facilities in the U.S., the United Kingdom and the Middle East by 2020, he said. Facilities in Dubai and Kentucky are under construction and expected to be operating by the first quarter of 2019.
“We are also having plans to have presence in the Latin, South American, African and other parts of European markets in the next phase,” he said, referring to expansions after 2020.
“A plant each in Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Poland and Johannesburg is also planned once production starts at the U.K., U.S. and U.A.E. sites,” Agarwal said.
The company said it operates 14 plants in India and has an installed capacity to produce 10 million plastic bottles per day.
“Our continued focus on technology development and innovation, along with capabilities to manufacture plastic bottles with the lowest carbon footprints leads global clientele to invite us to open plants,” he said.
The company secured approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2015 to make pharmaceutical bottles, and also said it has also developed HDPE bottles using injection stretch blow molding technology to reduce bottle weight 10 to 20 percent compared with traditional extrusion blow molding technology.