Gloucester, Kolsite join forces for film lines

Last Friday (Feb. 6) in New Delhi during the Plastindia tradeshow, officials from film extrusion line manufacturing companies Gloucester Engineering Co. (GEC; Gloucester, MA) and Kolsite Group (Mumbai, India) announced they have formed a joint venture in India for manufacture of blown film lines and lines for plastic bag conversion.

Kolsite Group member company Kabra Extrusionstechnik Ltd. (KET), which  for two decades has had a joint venture for manufacture of pipe extrusion lines with Germany’s Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik, will work with GEC, with the new JV called Kabra Gloucester. Kolsite, through Kabra, owns a 55% stake in the new JV.

According to John Sharood, chairman at GEC, the JV will help his company to serve the market for high-end monolayer lines as well as 3-5-layer film lines, an area of the market in which GEC typically does not compete or cannot compete on price, as it focuses on manufacturing lines used for a higher number of layers or for exotic materials. “We’ve been getting many requests for 3-5-layer machines but we really didn’t serve that market. Now we can,” he said, noting that this segment of the market remains the largest based on number of lines sold/yr. “This isn’t simply low-cost manufacturing, although Kabra has a great manufacturing base. This is to offer high-tech machines,” added Sharood.

Further reinforced by S.V. Kabra, chairman and MD of the Kolsite Group, the JV will focus on manufacturing “world-class multi-layer blown film lines” and bag-making machinery.  Kabra says that current Kabra 3-layer blown film lines are limited in output to about 250 kg/hr; with GEC’s help this is to reach 800-1000 kg/hr, based on materials processed and number of layers. “Our customers have been demanding higher output. With this JV, we can do it,” he said. Kabra’s current blown film range runs to 5 layer lines. It has never made bag-making machines, but GEC has (inline – so coupled with an extruder – machines only).

Kabra said Kolsite, via its Kabra subsidiary, has about a 40% share of India’s blown film extrusion market. His company has been GEC’s agent in India since 2004. The new JV will make machines for the domestic and global markets and make use of both firms’ established sales/marketing/service networks, with S.V. Kabra saying he expects about 20% of the lines will eventually be exported. First machines are scheduled to roll out of the current Kabra facility later this year, with sales of 40 film lines the goal for the first full year of operation.       

The Kolsite Group also includes Plastiblends India Ltd., which S.V. Kabra said is India’s largest supplier of masterbatches with about 40,000-tonne/yr capacity. —[email protected]