'India is Our Growth Engine for the Coming Years': SIG CEO Samuel Sigrist

New Delhi, 19th October, 2024: Samuel Sigrist, CEO at SIG, a leading systems and solutions provider for aseptic carton packaging, termed India as the company’s growth engine for the coming years. While interacting with the media during his recent visit to India, Samuel said that the company has established an excellent platform in the past few years and has collaborated with several major dairy and beverage companies in the market, which has helped strengthen its reach within the country.

He revealed that in 2023, SIG’s annual revenue from India was between 10% to 13%. And while the market is growing sustainably above 10%, SIG expects to grow faster than the market and anticipates its growth to continue in the high 10s.

Speaking about the company’s growth since SIG re-entered the Indian market in 2018, Samuel said, “We look at India as our growth engine for the next coming years, because we have established, over the past four to five years since market entry, an excellent platform. We are now present in all the big players in the dairy as well on the beverage side, and that is an excellent starting point for the growth.” SIG, associated with leading beverage players in India like Amul, Parle Agro, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Milky Mist, and Hamdard, has established strong partnerships in a short span with its cutting-edge technology and versatile packaging solutions. This has enabled the company to expand its presence and drive innovation in the packaging sector.

Samuel added, “I have not seen any other market where we were able to establish ourselves as fast as this has happened in India. That also is thanks to Parle and Amul, they have, very early, signed up to our technology because we compete in a differentiated technology.” Commenting on the ease of doing business in India, he said that as the country continues to modernize, the ease of doing business will improve. However, it is pivotal to embrace what it is today because the opportunity is there, and for SIG, it has been a very positive experience so far.

The Swiss-based packaging giant's CEO, who was visiting the 10th global aseptic packaging plant, currently under construction in Ahmedabad, Gujarat , revealed that with the proposed investment of 100 million euros, the plant is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025 and ramp up by the first quarter of the following year. He said that in the second phase of the project, the company plans on sourcing the raw materials locally, aligning with the company’s commitment to promote sustainability in the supply chain.

He reiterated the company’s vision to advancing sustainability, adding that there are three dimensions in packaging products that define a product’s sustainability: carbon footprint, design for recycling, and biodiversity conservation.

He shared, “We have the lowest carbon footprint versus all the alternatives that can be used to pack the products. At SIG, we take the aluminum foil out, which is a good contribution to reducing the carbon footprint by 30 to 40%. Also, 100% of our beverage cartons are designed for recycling.” Further emphasising the importance of conserving biodiversity, he added, “Already today, 75% of our materials come from the forest. 100% of what we source is certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), which is the highest standard for sustainable forestry management. So, our industry is decades beyond deforestation.” Samuel revealed that for the coming years, SIG's priority is to make its products even more sustainable and efficient to meet the evolving need of customers and consumers.

Elaborating on SIG’s future plans, Vandana Tandan, Head of Markets for India and Bangladesh at SIG, highlighted the company's focus on aligning with evolving market demands by bringing global innovations to India, customized to meet local customer needs. SIG is on track to increase the fiber content in its packaging over the coming years and aims to enhance sustainability by introducing the Al-free Terra range in India, further reducing packaging carbon footprints. She added, “Our technology allows customers to fill packages of various volumes on a single filling line, with the ability to switch between sizes in under five minutes. This flexibility supports product launches at multiple price points.' Additionally, SIG is working on introducing premium formats like SIG DomeMini, while simultaneously boosting machine speeds to enhance productivity while offering flexibility." This flexibility to fill packages of diverse volume sizes distinguishes SIG from its competitors.

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