Seeing a huge opportunity for environmental-friendly paper-based food packaging material in the West, the Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division of ITC has decided to invest Rs 35 crore by the year end at its Bolaram facility to increase capacity.

Post expansion, the capacity of the facility would go up to 42,000 tonnes a year from the present 18,000 tonnes, according to Mr Pradeep Dhobale, Chief Executive of the division.

BRC Certification

“We have received the BRC (British Retail Consortium) certificate for the unique product,” he told Business Line.

BRC, a lead association of retailers in the UK, prepared a set of global standards in food, packaging, consumer products and non-GM (genetically modified) food segments.

These norms require the retailers to procure products from suppliers, who are certified for these set standards.

The certificate from the European agency would help the company tap the huge opportunity in the retail industry.

“We have started exporting to the UK for use by retailers such as Marks and Spencer,” he said.

ECF material

The Bolaram facility manufactures environmentally-friendly ECF (elemental chlorine free) packaging material to produce paper cups.

The material finds a large number of takers, particularly multinational companies, information technology majors such as Infosys and Satyam, and call centres.

The beauty of this product is that the company could take back all the used material for recycling, Mr Dhobale said.

Niche segment

The facility, which helped the company tap the niche packaging segment, registered a turnover of Rs 100 crore.

The company made an initial investment of Rs 35 crore on this facility.