Exclusive Interview with Sushant Gaur CEO of Adeera Packaging
By Reshmi AR
Tell us about your company, specialization and the services offered.
Adeera packaging is a manufacturer of sustainable packaging specializing in Paper Bags.With an efficient solution for producing plastic-free paper bags, the company contributes to a more sustainable world. These bags are recyclable and created from substances that do not harm the environment throughout the manufacturing process.We make door-to-door deliveries all around the world, including 30,000 pin codes in India. We assist our customers in designing their bags and optimizing their paper bag needs.
Sustainability is the order of the day and that seems to be your USP. What are the initiatives adopted by the company?
Adeera is aiming to make the world a more environmentally friendly place by promoting bags produced from recycled or agro-waste-based paper.We recycle 100% of our waste and offer collection services to our customers.We only use FSC certified paper thereby ensuring chain of custody for all our products.Adopting these solutions and contributing to the goal of creating a sustainable world can have a substantial influence.
Compostable plastic is big in India. But is it cost-effective?
Compostable plastic is used sparingly since it is expensive. The fact that it can only compost in specific conditions and not in garden situations is a major issue. Anyone can experiment by putting a biodegradable bag in a pot of mud for 6 months and seeing what happens. Because it is relatively expensive, many producers blend it with normal plastic and silica to enhance its weight. Compostable plastic is non-recyclable and always ends up in the landfill with other plastics since it does not compost under the correct conditions.
What makes Adeera different from the other paper bag manufacturers?
At Adeera, we consider ourselves as service providers and not manufacturers. Our value to our customers is not in the manufacturing of the bag but in the on time delivery of the bag without a single exception, always.
We are a professionally run company with ethics and timeline in place. As a long term plan we think five years ahead and right now at the stage of planning sales offices in the USA.
Your products are delivered miles away. Being a sustainable company, how do you reduce carbon footprint in your supply chain?
In India - We ensure daily deliveries that enable our customers to not hold any stock as we are able to directly deliver products to our customers stores. This prevents double transportation, first from Adeera to our clients DC and then to the end shop thereby controlling the carbon footprint.
Outside - We are planning to set up a manufacturing unit in the west coast of the US to reduce our carbon footprint by preventing waste paper being shipped to Indian Paper Mills and then finished paper bags shipped back to the USA.
Despite a no-plastic, several brands are yet to shift to paper packaging. Do you think it's time brands resort to responsible packaging?
There aren't enough paper packaging manufacturers in India to take over the mantle from plastic packaging and become the primary choice, the Industry needs to expand very fast before we ask users to shift.
What kind of requests do you get from a brand to make your product more sustainable?
Certain international buyers have made it mandatory for their suppliers to run only on solar power
Almost all buyers want their products to be FSC certified which ensures sustainable sourcing of paper fibers
Did you see a shift in consumer behavior during the pandemic?
We noticed a significant shift in consumer behavior as the demand for takeaway packing increased manyfold during the pandemic. People are buying a lot more groceries at home since they no longer want to travel for food.During the pandemic, the paper packaging business had a significant boost due to increased demand for home-delivered meals, groceries, and pharmaceuticals.
Anything with the organic, sustainable tag is expensive. What about paper?
Virgin Paper is 20-25% more expensive than recycled/agricultural waste based paper. So I would say it is not the same in Paper.
How soon do you think can our country switch to paper packaging for FMCG products?
There needs to be tremendous investment in setting up paper packaging units to be big enough to supply to FMCG companies. Right now, the entire ecosystem, consisting of Co-Packers, machine manufacturers, sleeve suppliers etc is non-existent. I believe it will take 5-8 years for FMCG to be able to shift to paper packaging.
How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead? Any short term and long term goals?
We see our industry grow at 35% CAGR if it is to be able to take over from plastic bags. FMCG packaging is much larger than take away packaging and that industry is very mature in India. We see adoption happen later in FMCG but will happen in a very organized manner. If I talk about Long term, we hope to have a large market share in FMCG packaging and co-packing. In the short term, we have our eyes set on the US market where we want to enter with a physical sales office and a manufacturing unit.
