EKA Global’s Longevity Packaging Opens New Opportunity For Food Producers
For food producers, longer shelf life without compromising quality and safety of the food inside would open up more business opportunity for them. Eka Global, a leading producer of innovative longevity packaging, is making it happen.
Established 17 years ago as a local food packaging producer based in Thailand, Eka Global has become a leading producer of longevity packaging in Asia with three state-of-the-art manufacturing plants across the region – one in Thailand where its headquarters is located and two in China, and with one office in India. Innovative packaging products from these plants have helped many global brands such as Nestle, Mars, Inaba of Japan, etc. and high potential Thai SMEs optimise their business opportunity and enhance quality of life of consumers with new normal lifestyle.
Eka Global’s innovative and environmentally-friendly packaging products can extend storage life up to two years outside the refrigerator and are microwavable. Such quality increases convenience for modern consumers to purchase and use. With advanced manufacturing technology, Eka Global can produce multi-layer packaging with up to 11 layers, each with a different property, such as waterproof, airtight and oxygen-proof. But overall, the packaging is completely weatherproof and waterproof, which are crucial to achieve longer shelf life and ability to keep the quality and hygiene of the product inside.
Eka Global is the first barrier packaging business company in Thailand which started in 2004. During that time, people were still familiar with canned packaging for preserved food as the cans have been used for over 100 years. But these cans have a weight disadvantage, coupled with the uninviting image.. Canned products are also hard to be opened and the consumers will have to transfer the product onto a plate then put it in a microwave, which is unhealthy and can cause cancer. The referred factors had urged the world market to come up with the innovation to replace the using of cans. One of the innovations is the barrier packaging, the perfect replacement for cans, as it is more pleasant looking, lighter, more modern and easier to use. In the past, this type of business faced difficulty, because most of the food manufacturers mainly used cans for the packaging. When barrier packaging started to become more popular, the clients would be concerned about shifting the packaging material. Their main concern was safety and they were not confident that the new packaging would be able to store the food for up to two years. The beginning phase of marketing was also difficult as it took two years for the clients to trust the packaging quality. The company did not make any sales in the first five years. It was a tough time, but the company had managed to educate the clients and used the “know-how” marketing plan.
Eka Global Company Limited is an innovative company, focusing on innovation. The company generates about two per cent of the total annual sales as a budget for research and development (R&D). The R&D is conducted through the 360-degree aspect which is not just the barrier packaging. The research covers all aspects, but the main focus is the food-related packaging. The development part is aimed to prevent the disruption of such innovation that can happen in the future. Eka Global’s No.1 strength is innovation. The company owns two factories in China where is considered to be the centre of the world’s technology. In 2022, one more factory will be set up in India after the company had earlier established an office there. India is relatively populous and is one of the world's most advanced and industrialised countries. Meanwhile, Thailand will be the R&D centre, focusing on sustainable growth.
Eka Global has invested US$3 million or almost 100 million baht in an additional production machine. When the installation was completed in September 2021, the company’s production capacity has been increased by 15 per cent.
As for next year, the company plans to set up a factory in India’s Pune City near Mumbai in the West. This will increase the production capacity by 15-20 per cent with an investment of US$ 10 million. The company has also planned to invest in establishing an R&D technical centre, a new office and an automation warehouse in Thailand next year. The original plan was to invest in 2020, but the construction had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company’s business type is categorised as a niche market where there are a few competitors. Domestically, there are only Eka Global and SCG while there are less than 15 companies abroad. Concerning the company’s position in this business industry, Eka Global is the top three biggest companies in the world that manufacture such packaging. The key strengths of the company are innovation and quality. Other high-barrier packaging manufacturers’ products may last not more than a year, while Eka Global’s technology can make the product last up to two years whilst the food quality, texture and color remain the same. Another strong point that makes the company stands out among other competitors is that they are large producers with less flexibility. Therefore, the marketing of small or medium food producers is quite limited as they focus mainly on the volume. On the contrary, Eka Global has flexibility that aims to produce the packaging for SME food manufacturers nationwide. The clients are able to start with the low-volume order, ten thousand or a hundred thousand pieces, which the company is willing to serve their needs and that is what makes the company unique. At the moment, it is not the company’s goal to become the highest-volume manufacturer. However, the company expects to achieve the title of the most innovative company shortly.
The circular economy is also one of the company’s priorities. Most consumers tend to pay attention to innovation and R&D, as they are inspecting if plastic packaging can coexist with society. It is essential for the company to prove the matter, with its variety of packaging which is in line with the circular economy and can be 100 per cent recycled accordingly. Every plastic manufacturer should realize that those factors are becoming trendy, meanwhile, the well-calculated cost is still very important. By 2525, it is expected that many brand owners will set their packaging policy to be completely recyclable. They are likely to refuse the use of it if the packaging cannot be recycled. However, that will not cause the company any problems as its current packaging is 100 per cent recyclable, but more marketing is to be conducted along the process.
Future Trend
The packaging trend in developed countries, namely the United States and Japan, is geared towards plastics rather than cans. Eventually, the cans will gradually disappear.
