Indian company Gujarat Foils Limited (GFL), which has started exporting to Dubai, is interested in setting up a plant in collaboration with any of the Gulf players as a number of smelters have come up in the region, a top official of the company says.

Managing director and CEO Vimal Kumar Somani also said GFL, which makes aluminium sheet/coil and foil plus aluminium foils for the consumer durables segment, aimed to make its presence felt in the Gulf and become a regular preferred supplier to the region.

“We aspire to have major business dealings with the Gulf with regard to finished products like foil and various consumer durables manufactured by GFL,” he remarked.

The company would continue to purchase raw materials from Bahrain’s Garmco which Somani said was known for its commitment to maintaining “an exceptional quality and service, providing value to its stake holders and balancing its professional ethics in profit-making, growth and operational excellence.”

“This has been our experience,” added Somani while commenting on Garmco.

Exterior view of the foil plant

GFL reached a manufacturing capacity of about 20,000 tonnes per year of aluminium sheet/foil after a change of ownership two years ago. It is now actively working on downstream brownfield expansion of the foil business at Chhatral in Gujarat for adding value to foil produced by converting it into multilayer packaging laminates for medicinal tablets and capsules and confectioneries with or without printing.

The company’s consumer products business launched in July 2009 is growing exponentially.
It is also seriously considering building sheet rolling facilities for backward integration.
 
Acquisition and progress

GFL, listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange, has been manufacturing aluminium sheet/coil since 1992 at an industrial estate of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation in Chhatral, near Katol in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district.

The company was acquired in 2008 by new promoters Abhay Lodha, chairman and promoter of Topworth Group, and Somani, a professional-turned-entrepreneur with vast experience in metals, particularly aluminium. Topworth is a $500 million turnover group engaged in the sectors of steel, sponge iron, mining, power and aluminium.

Immediately after the acquisition, GFL, which was scanning for suitable opportunities to expand in both upstream as well as downstream businesses, grabbed an opportunity in the Gujarat Government’s initiative Vibrant Gujarat 2008 and signed an MoU for a $120 million industrial investment in January 2009.

The Achenbach foil mill

Thereafter the company successfully completed a brownfield expansion by adding foil manufacturing capabilities with the installation of a state-of-the-art Achenbach mill at a cost of $14 million by the end of October 2009, enabling GFL to produce bare foil of up to 7 micron.

GFL’s existing sheet plant and the new foil are established on 19,724 sq m of land. Total electrical connected load of GFL post-expansion is 2,250 KVA.  GFL gets power from the State Electricity Board as well as from its own captive power source wheeled from a 950 KW wind mill located on 20,332 sq m of land at Shikarpur in the Kutch area of Gujarat, 300 km away from the plant. The company is considering plans to add two more wind mills to supply additional power of 2.5 MW.

Current capacity and key products

GFL now has manufacturing capacity of about 20,000 tonnes per year of aluminium sheet/foil depending on the product mix for sheet applications of bottle caps, fins for AC units, eyelets for footwear, garments and tarpaulin, tubelight end caps and bare foil applications of auto radiators fins, tagger seals and heat sealable lids for containers, house foil for food wraps and insulation, packaging laminates for medicinal tablets and capsules, confectioneries, tetra packs, cigarettes etc.
Key products of Gujarat Foils post-expansion will be:

Nutripack kitchen containers

* Closure stock for bottle caps in the  pharmaceutical and brewery industries (AA8011/H14, 0.125-0.225 mm thick and 762- 867  mm wide sheet/coils)
* Lamp cap strip for fluorescent tube ends (AA  8011/H14, H16, 0.25-0.35 mm thick and 50-150  mm wide coils)
* Eyelet stock eyelets for garments, footwear,  tarpaulins etc (AA 8011/soft, 0.25-0.45 mm  thick, 50-914 mm wide coils)
* Fin stock for heat exchanger fins of AC units  (AA1050/AA1100/AA8011-soft/H22/H24 0.10- 0.20 mm thick and 50-914 mm wide coils )
* Radiator stock for heat exchanger fins of auto  radiators (AA 1050/AA3003 -H22/H14/H18,  0.07- 0.20 mm thick and 50-914 mm wide coils)
* Cable wrap stock for wrapping telecommunic- tion cables (AA 1235/AA 1100/ soft, 0.15-0.20  mm thick, 914 mm max wide coils)
* Light-gauge bare foil for packaging laminates of  confectionery, tetra pack, juices, cigarettes etc. (AA 1235 /soft and hard, 0.008-0.012 mm thick  and 150-900 mm wide coils)
* Semi-rigid container stock for casseroles,  food containers, baking cups  (AA8006/  H24; thickness 0.05-0.08 mm in any slit width  coils)
* Bare foil for packaging laminates for medicinal  tablets, capsules (AA1235, AA 8011/soft and  hard, 0.015-0.025 mm thick in hard and 0.025- 0.04 mm thick in soft,  150-900 mm wide coils )
* Household foil for wrapping food, insulation  etc (AA 1235/AA 8011/AA8079 /soft, 0.009-0.015 mm thick and 300-450 mm wide coils)
* Lidding foil for heat sealing plastic/paper/metal  containers for food packaging ( AA1235/8011/  soft, 0.035-0.045 mm thick and 700-920 mm  wide coils)
* Tagger foil for sealing of containers (AA1100 /8011-soft, 0.045-0.090 mm, 150-920  mm coils).

Exports and accreditation

GFL, within one year of acquisition, has started exports of aluminum rolled products to Pakistan, Nigeria and lately Dubai.  The export content of its production will increase significantly post expansion.

The company was accredited to QMS ISO – 9001 2008   in July 2009 by TUV India, a subsidiary of TUV Nord (formerly RWTUV AG Germany), a leading certification and inspection agency.

Expansion plans

As well as actively working on the downstream brownfield expansion of the foil business at Chhatral for adding value to foil produced by converting it into multilayer packaging laminates for medicinal tablets and capsules and confectioneries with/without printing, GFL is pursuing vigorously its consumer products business launched in July 2009 and which it says is growing exponentially.

GFL has initiated actions for establishing manufacturing capacities for India’s first embossed Consumer House foil nutriwrap™ and also Kitchen containers nutripack™ at multi-locations like Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh and Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh.  The company is also planning to introduce other consumer products like   hair foil, travel pack, foil tray, pop-up foil, embossed colour foil sheets, laminated foil for hamburgers, laminated foil carry bags.

Nutriwrap consumer foil

GFL has already established a marketing network in more than 12 states of India and has added 20,000 retail outlets through its stockist and dealer network.

With a view to reducing dependence on external sources for input feedstock for its sheet and foil plant, the company is seriously assessing the possibility of having a backward integration approach for establishing an upstream greenfield expansion through the installation of 60,000-tonne state-of-the-art aluminium sheet rolling facilities along with a 30 MW captive power plant in Gujarat. The techno economic viability study has just started.

GFL is also examining the possibility of entering the aluminium scrap recycling business.

Somani leads a team of industry experts who serve as advisors while a robust experienced operating team exists to execute the operational strategy. The company has very senior and eminent board professionals for strategic guidance.