Ajanta Print Arts bets on IML to capture South-East Asian market

When Manoj Kumar Padhy, director of sales and business development at Ajanta Print Arts, speaks about in-mould labelling, he does so with the confidence of someone who has watched a market transform in real time. Speaking to WhatPackaging? on the exhibition floor at Respack 2026, where the 74-year-old Mumbai-based printer was showcasing its in-mould label portfolio, Padhy was candid about where the industry is heading and where Ajanta intends to be.

"The market and the industry is shifting from pressure-sensitive label to in-mould label," he said, pointing to two containers side by side on the stand, one blow-moulded, one injection-moulded, both carrying the company's in-mould labels. "The main reason is that the industry is looking for sustainability, and recyclability. This is the best packaging product which the end user can recycle and reuse."

The argument against pressure-sensitive labels, as Padhy lays it out, is essentially a three-pronged one: waste, cost and brand vulnerability. A peel-off label generates a release liner that goes straight to landfill. It uses three material layers, face paper, adhesive and silicone backing, where in-mould labelling uses one. Crucially, a peel-off label can be removed and replaced, leaving a brand open to counterfeiting. "If you put a sticker on a bottle, you can remove the sticker and put another sticker," he said. "However, if it is an in-mould label, you cannot remove it. Your brand is protected."

The commercial proof points he cites are hard to argue with. Cargill's Gemini edible oil brand has migrated from sticker labels to IML. Asian Paints, previously using heat transfer labels, has followed suit. Both decisions, he says, were driven by that same combination of sustainability credentials and economics.

A purpose-built plant, and bigger ambitions

What sets Ajanta apart from most competitors in the IML space, Padhy argues, is not merely capability but scale and focus. The company operates an exclusively in-mould label plant at Taloja, on the outskirts of Mumbai, the only dedicated IML facility of its kind in India, he claims. A first line was commissioned a year and a half ago; a second followed within six months; a third has recently come online. Three more lines can still be accommodated within the existing footprint.

"In terms of capacity, no one in India has got that kind of capacity," Padhy said. "Having said that, we are running at 75% to 85% capacity." The company expects to produce around 200-crore in-mould label pieces in the 2026–27 financial year, split between roughly 150-crore injection-moulded and 50-crore blow-moulded units.

The target beyond India is unambiguous. Ajanta is already supplying to African markets and is setting its sights on Thailand and the wider South-East Asian region. The stated goal is to become South-East Asia's largest IML producer within two to three years, a timeline that implies continued investment. "First we need to fill the plant with the lines," Padhy explained, " and then we will go for South-East Asia."

Making the technical case

If Padhy's interview on the show floor was the commercial pitch, then the ResPack conference session delivered by Vikas Khanna, partner at Ajanta Print Arts, was the technical one, and it was notably persuasive.

Khanna's central argument is that most sustainability conversations in packaging have been misdirected. "The problem is often not the plastic," he told delegates. "It is how components are made up, the paper, the PVC, the PET and the PPE all put together and then given to the recycler. It seriously complicates their lives and makes recycling a major challenge."

IML, in Khanna's framing, solves this by producing what he describes as monomaterial packaging. The label and the container share the same polymer family; they fuse during the moulding process rather than being adhered afterwards. When the container enters the recycling stream, there is nothing to separate, no adhesive to contaminate the material, and no liner to discard. "One material, nothing to separate, nothing to strip out," he said. "That's what the planet needs."

He was equally direct about the aesthetic possibilities, pushing back against any assumption that sustainable packaging requires a visual compromise. The company's IML portfolio encompasses everything from standard four-colour print to foil stamping, metallic effects, tactile finishes and the no-label look, where graphics appear to flow directly onto the container itself.

The part of Khanna's presentation, which was the most useful for brand owners considering the switch, was his acknowledgement of the hurdles. IML requires investment in robotics, precision tooling and operator training. Initial tooling costs are a genuine consideration. But he argued that evaluating IML on tooling cost alone misses the broader picture: no secondary labelling line, no adhesive procurement, no liner waste, less floor space, and less labour. "The RoI for additional investments can be achieved in 12 to 24 months," he said, before adding the caveat that IML is not a universal solution for every substrate or format. "As a label supplier in today's time, we see IML as the best solution for polypropylene rigid packaging."

Next year's milestone

Respack provided a fitting backdrop for a company on the cusp of its 75th anniversary. Ajanta started as a single-colour poster printer; today it operates around twelve production lines across offset and flexo, with the Taloja IML plant sitting at the centre of its growth strategy. The next chapter, South-East Asian expansion, the push towards 200-crore-plus annual IML output, is being written now.

Whether the wider market accelerates quickly enough to match that ambition remains to be seen. But if the conversations on the Respack floor were any guide, interest from brand owners is building steadily. And Ajanta Print Arts, at least, appears ready for it.