Day one at ElitePlus: Flexible packaging industry's Kumbh Mela

The 12th Annual Speciality Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit & Exhibition, organised by ElitePlus Business Services, opened in Mumbai with more than 2,200 delegates from 25 countries in attendance, cementing its position as the largest packaging summit in the world.

Founder and managing director Nidhi Verma welcomed participants with the unveiling of the event’s new logo and reflected on the summit’s growth since inception. “Thirteen years ago a spark was lit. A gathering of professionals and pioneers. Now that spark has become a blaze. Here communications are curated, collaborations are celebrated throughout,” she said. She added that the content this year had been expanded to bring in brand owners, business leaders, venture capitalists and, for the first time, the rigid packaging industry.

Keynotes: global headwinds, poetry and family-business
The opening keynote was delivered by Siddhartha Sanyal, chief economist and head of research at Bandhan Bank. He addressed the global headwinds facing economies and emphasised that India was one of the few countries where growth remained robust. He warned, however, that trade wars were undermining multilateral institutions and pushing countries towards bilateral arrangements, while public debt represented an underappreciated structural challenge. “Today the IMF projects global public debt levels approaching 100% of GDP. This isn’t a short-term spike; it’s a structural challenge. And when you pair it with declining fertility rates worldwide, the implications for growth, innovation, and consumption are enormous,” he said.

Nadir Godrej, chairman and managing director of Godrej Industries, delivered a poetic address that combined reflections on economic growth, the role of plastics and the importance of sustainability. His verses celebrated the impact of plastics in food preservation, healthcare and personal care, while cautioning that the industry must find “a smarter path we must embrace, with less regret and far less waste.”

Jacob Duer, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, provided an insider’s account of the INC 5.2 Geneva deliberations in August. He explained that governments had failed to reach consensus on contentious issues such as caps on polymer production, but expressed optimism that agreement could still be achieved. He said, “We believe that there is a strong need for a framework with harmonised targets to help all of us deliver a circular economy of plastics and the economic benefits the world needs,”. He added that India was among the organisation’s top three countries for scaling integrated programmes.

Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, addressed the issue of succession in family-managed businesses, stressing the importance of balancing capability with family ties. “For any family-managed business, it’s very important that the business is managed by the right person,” he said. He added that youngsters should gain external exposure, preferably in smaller organisations, to understand multiple aspects of business. He pointed to a lack of openness in many Indian families as a barrier to succession planning, and he felt the elders in the family should learn "to let go".

Angelo George, chief executive of Bisleri International, presented a case study on sustainability in action. He underlined that Bisleri had been plastic neutral and water positive since 2021 and had partnered with corporates, hotels and educational institutions to collect used bottles. “Plastic is one of the greatest inventions but its waste management makes it quite harmful,” he said, highlighting initiatives that transformed post-consumer bottles into benches, uniforms and bookshelves, and a partnership with Nilgiris district authorities to make Ooty the first plastic waste-free town.

The keynote session closed with Krishnakumar Thirumalai, director of Reliance Consumer Products, who explored the impact of consumer behaviour on packaging. He urged industry to meet the challenge of providing sustainable and affordable products. “While chasing sustainability, we should not price out the affordable class. Even mass consumers should be able to afford sustainable products,” he said, calling for innovation in “right packs” that are trial-friendly, reduce waste and save space.

Plenary session: innovation and consumer insights
The first plenary session featured Robert Cotton, R&D director for sustainable packaging materials at PepsiCo, who described the company’s efforts to redesign flexible packaging with optimised polyolefin structures, as well as research into ultra-high barrier paper packaging. “In the future, all packaging materials need to be recycled,” he said, noting progress in dispersion and extrusion coatings and improved barrier properties through thinner films.

Mark Carl-Henrik Conrad, associate partner at McKinsey & Company, presented findings from a global survey of more than 11,000 consumers on sustainable packaging. He noted that while environmental impact had declined as a driver of purchasing decisions, recyclability and reusability remained priorities. “Since 2020, consumers have become more polarised in their willingness to pay for sustainable packaging,” he said. In India, 15% of respondents were unwilling to pay more, 49% were willing to pay a little more and 36% were willing to pay significantly more. Conrad observed that Indian consumers strongly associated sustainable packaging with brand value, at a rate of nearly 55%.

Panel I: Making a business case for sustainability
The second panel, moderated by Manish Mehta, vice chairman of Reifenhäuser India, examined how companies could align sustainability with business value.

Dr Arup Basu of Hubergroup illustrated the scale of the plastics challenge, remarking that the volume produced each day equated to a container “100 metres wide and 80 metres long”. Manoj Bisht of Paharpur 3P argued that monomaterials were now commercially viable, including for retort applications, and said India could become a viable “China plus one” alternative. Kunal Bajaj of Jupiter Group acknowledged shrinking margins but pointed to sustained global demand for flexible packaging, boosted by digital printing and artificial intelligence.

Brand owner perspectives were provided by Sanjay Ghoshal of Diageo India, who stressed that partnership rather than conflict between brands and converters was essential. “It is not brand versus converters; there should be a partnership to come up with frugal and smart solutions that work for everyone,” he said. Kangin Park of Mitsui Chemicals highlighted India’s need to raise quality levels, while Alay Jhaveri of Jhaveri Flexo and Vidur Kanoria of TCPL Packaging warned of overcapacity and margin pressures in the converting sector.

The panel concluded that costs and scalability remained hurdles. But they maintained long-term viability depended on embedding sustainability as a business principle.

Panel II: Brand owners’ perspectives on the new normal
The third panel, moderated by Marzban Thanevala of SB-Constantia Flexibles, focused on how leading brands are rethinking packaging.

Mondelez’s Yogesh Bambal reported that 96% of the company’s packaging was now designed for recycling, with increasing use of rPET. Pernod Ricard’s Sharmistha Bade explained that sustainability was “no longer a compliance tick mark but a business continuity imperative”, while Geetanjali Vats of Hindustan Unilever argued for standardised recycling identifiers as a platform for technological innovation.

Godrej’s Saurabh Jhawar pointed to recycled packaging in the Good Night brand, while Kellogg’s R&D director for South Asia, Swaran Singh Grover, called for incremental progress in food- and pharma-grade PCR. Sowmya Chakraborti of Reliance warned of the technical difficulty of matching multilayer plastics’ barrier properties and argued that affordability must remain central.

Special session on recycled plastics in packaging innovations 
Fiona Foster, EM packaging lead at Kimberly-Clark, reinforced the role of legislation and consumer sentiment. “The most effective tool becomes legislation,” she said, citing incentives for recyclate use and penalties for non-compliance. She also highlighted retailer feedback, including Tesco’s response to plastic-free baby wipes, and stressed the unresolved challenge of collection: “How we can gather plastic is one of the most important questions that needs to be answered.”

Panel III: Flexible and rigid packaging – synergies and coexistence
The final session of the day examined the relationship between flexible and rigid packaging. Pidilite’s Ayaz Kagzi underlined that convenience was the strongest driver of choice, with regional variations in acceptance of flexible alternatives. Ester’s Vaibhav Jha described technical breakthroughs in BOPET sealing and said PET was “leading the way, not fighting for its space”. EPL’s Hariharan K. Nair pointed to cost savings achieved by reducing the thickness of shoulders and caps in tubes, citing honey’s shift from rigid to tube formats.

Sunil Dhawan of SSF Plastics insisted that rigid packaging remained “the brand ambassador of any product”, while Vinay Agarwal of Creative Group of Industries noted that pressure on costs was accelerating a shift from polyethylene to PET. From Cargill, Sekhar Pal highlighted the impact of extended producer responsibility, warning that EPR was “taking a toll on overall costs”.

The debate concluded that flexible and rigid packaging are not competitors but complementary, with the future lying in coexistence, driven by innovation, regulation and collaboration across the supply chain.

Our take
Day One of the ElitePlus summit underscored the industry's commitment to innovation and sustainability plus its commitment to delivering advanced business solutions in the flexible packaging industry. Across keynotes, plenaries and panels, speakers agreed that sustainability along with affordability, consumer needs, technical safety and regulatory compliance is the need of the hour. The day closed with consensus that inter-industry dialogue across the value chain is the only viable path.