Nichrome India to expand footprint in African markets

Company keen on agricultural packaging sector, expanding base across India

Nichrome India Limited, a packaging machinery manufacturer and a player in VFFS machines in India has plan to expand its footprint in African markets in the next two years.

The company has targeted a revenue of Rs 150 crore in the next two years from current Rs 80 crore in this financial year.

Also, Nichrome is expecting business of Rs 20 crore from the African markets. With Africa operations, company's export will grow up to 30 per cent.

Speaking on this, Nikhil Pradhan, head Mumbai Operations said, "Nichrome is growing at 25 per cent y-o-y basis. Along with India, now we have decided to expand our footprint in overseas markets. To begin with, we will explore Africa market because, company like Nichrome has many business opportunities in Africa. The sectors sectors has helped us to grow a lot."

He added, "The slowdown has not affected us much because our sectors like pharma, retail agriculture and personal care are growing focusing asa well. In future, we have a plan to focus markets like Middle East and Far East.

Nichrome is very keen on agricultural packaging sector and expanding its base across India. Over 80 per cent of the seed packaging in India is done using Nichrome Machinery. In every season (Rubby/Kharif) Nichrome machines manage to pack around 5 crore pouches. It holds 25 per cent market share of the packaging manufacturing machinery business. It provides post packaging services to its customers which includes training, after sales service, 24-hr helpline in kharif or rabbi seasons.

The recent study report by ASSOCHAM says that Indian Packaging Industry is expected to touch the figure of Rs. 23,000 crore in the next two years. Over 250,000 tones of seeds are packed on Nichrome machines. Currently, agro-packaging business of Nichrome contributes over 10 per while food contributes 70 per cent, personal care and pharma contributes 20 per cent share.

The company has Multi-lane VFFS PV 215 machine under licensing agreement with Prodo-Pak, USA, T 110 HFFS high speed machine for pharma and cosmetic industry with collaboration with TOTPACK, Spain.