As one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of corrugated boxes, TGI Packaging Pvt Ltd has created a mark of its own in the Indian packaging industry. In a conversation with the Director – Vikash Goyal, he talks about the legacy of this company along with the key products offered by TGI. Also, he mentions the current industry trends and the prevailing challenges in the market.
Tell us about your experience and journey over the years?
We have been in the industry for more than two decades. We have adapted to the technology to withstand the competition. We have been growing over the years at a very steady pace. We got into this business and my family opened the first factory in 1974.
What is the key mantra that has helped and motivated your family to continue the business for all these years and how are you taking it forward to drive the company?
Our major achievement is changing with the time. When we started this business in 1974 at that point in time the competition was very less and the customers used to be behind us. It was more a seller’s market. Now it is more a buyer’s market, so we have adapted to the fluctuations in customer service, pricing, and every small entity. We have been moving along with the times.
Can you talk about the key products and the innovative features which is been offered by your company?
We are predominantly into the manufacturing of shipper cartons. We offer our services to a majority of the industries like FMCG, Automobile, White Goods, Heavy Engineering, and Electronics to name a few. Our specialty is we make something called a triple wall. We have the specialty in this because this is used in heavy duty packaging for automobile, heavy engineering products, solar panels etc.
Now as the time is changing, how is technology impacting the entire packaging industry? Are you embracing any new innovations or technology in your company?
Our industry was reserved for small scale sector until 2006, if I’m not wrong. Around that time it was de-regularized and we were atleast three decades behind the world in terms of technology. But ever since the whole industry was de-regularized, we were the first movers having the investment and planning to be executed in 2006 followed by the production in 2008. Now the whole industry is adapting to these newer technologies. Every day there has been an enhancement that is quickly catching up to the rest of the world in terms of adapting to the technology.
What are the current trends of the industry and in what way these trends will evolve and impact the business over the next five years?
You see what is happening is the industry is really fragmented with only smit or small size players. The industry was deregularized; hence the number of people or the number of units fan in India is very high. Now what is happening is with the adapting of the newer technology the capacities are going up and currently the demand supply is not in our favor. Amount of capacity coming in is very high so the demand has been grown to the speed at which the supply has been growing more and more. The next five years would be very tough for the industry because of excess capacity.
Tell me about your focus on some of the key values, strengths and attributes which has helped your company to prosper over the years?
The first and the main thing that we do can be symbolized by our logo saying once our customer always our customer. We never lost a single customer till date and the pre-dominant reason for this is that we don’t short sell. We adhere to the specifications; we ourselves are quality-conscious and try to give the best quality to our customers. Quality has been the main mantra behind our success.
Talking about the quality, kindly elaborate on the quality standards you have taken and embraced in your company which keeps you ahead amongst the other market players?
Well we have been always thinking ahead of times and have been lucky too as we have had great customers who have driven us to the levels and standards that we have today. We have been amongst the first few who have advocated and educated the Brand Owners to move from Material based Specifications to Performance based Specifications.
Elaborate about the challenges which you have faced in the initial years or in the recent times in terms of the rising cost, growth or evolving companies in the packaging industry? How you are coping up with these challenges?
The non-favoring demand-supply ratio is one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing at the moment, due to which we don’t get the right values for the product. There is an unhealthy competition in the market with to the growing and increasing capacity. So the first major challenge for us is to get the right value for the product. The second biggest challenge is reverse-option that is happening now, wherein the tech companies go to our consumers / brand owners and state that we will auction the whole requirement online. Additionally, there are a lot of un-ethical factors prevalent in the market; we have even seen instances where the brand owner insults one of the bidders to reduce the price. Often order-hungry players are always ready to reduce the price a bit more, which inversely affects the market on the whole. So reverse options have been the biggest challenge the industry is facing and will keep on facing further.
How your company is preparing for the growing demand with the supply growing faster than the demand?
The thing is we have distinct advantage of being the first movers. But how we are getting ready is trying to make ourselves more and more lean in terms of cost and other things. Wherein we are sure that we have to work with very thin margin for few years. We have to get ready by optimizing the capacities and reduce overhead as much as possible.
Would you provide us with your vision or a quote you believe in which drives your company?
“Once our customer always our customer”
