PolyMart : What first pulled AVI’s founders into rigid packaging and thermoforming, and how has the company changed since?
Sampad Xavier Chaudhuri : AVI began in 1993 as Collar Pack, a PVC films business, on a simple idea: if you don’t control the material, you can’t guarantee the product. That principle from K.P. Bhargava is still the story I tell people. Today, AVI Global Plast is led by Managing Director Akhilesh Bhargava and Joint Managing Director Sukhdeep Singh Sethi, who’ve carried that founding philosophy forward — which is exactly why we’re vertically integrated from tooling and extrusion right through to the finished pack, rather than depending on outside suppliers for what determines performance. Thirty years on, AVI runs one of India’s largest integrated rigid packaging operations, exporting to 33+ countries across 6 continents, and we’ve twice been named India’s Top Exporter in Thermoformed Products by PLEXCONCIL. The scale has grown enormously; the principle hasn’t.
PMT : How did sustainability become part of AVI’s long-term thinking?
SXC : It wasn’t part of the original vision — it became part of how we operate as export markets demanded it, and that’s a more honest story than a founding myth. We realised a manufacturer who can’t substantiate what’s in their packaging becomes a liability the moment a regulation changes. That’s what drove our sustainability certifications, our ocean-bound plastic programme, and eventually our own capability to produce food-grade recycled PET at 100% post-consumer content — a first in India. It started as compliance infrastructure. The sustainability story followed.
PMT : What were the toughest challenges in AVI’s early years?
SXC : Two, and both still shape how I think about the company. First, keeping specifications consistent across everything we make — solved by building our own quality systems from day one. Second, earning credibility in export markets that didn’t yet trust Indian manufacturers — solved by getting certified early and proving performance before making claims. Prove first, claim second — that’s still the discipline.
PMT : What sets your PET sheets, PVC films, and thermoformed packaging apart?
SXC : In every category, it comes down to AVI owning the process end to end — from raw material through to the finished pack. That control is what let us pioneer formats like single-piece avocado and three-piece kiwi punnets for the Indian market, alongside our tamper-evident and high-barrier ranges. Every format is engineered for its end use, never pulled off a general catalogue.
PMT : How does AVI keep quality and food safety consistent?
SXC : Through control, not inspection — inspection only catches a failure after it’s happened. Owning raw material, tooling, and production makes consistency structural, and everything we claim is backed by independent third-party verification. The specification agreed at the start should be the specification delivered, every batch, every order
PMT : What R&D is AVI working on to improve packaging performance?
SXC : Three broad directions. Material technology — advancing our recycled PET capability for direct food contact. Manufacturing precision — continuously refining our process to use less material without losing strength. And format innovation — Q-Bic, our cube-shaped punnet format, is the clearest example: it significantly improves how many packs fit into a shipment, which matters a great deal for cold-chain exports.
PMT : How is demand for sustainable packaging shaping your product innovation?
SXC : This is where I spend most of my time, because the demand has moved from preference to obligation. Regulations like the EU’s plastic tax rules and India’s own extended producer responsibility framework are creating real financial consequences for manufacturers who can’t supply certified, traceable recycled content — and India’s own recycled-content requirements are rising sharply over the next few years. We started building toward that well before it was mandatory.
PMT : How does AVI customise packaging across different industries and regions?
SXC : It starts with owning our own tooling, so we can engineer to exact specification rather than working from a shared mould. An Indian grape or berry exporter shipping into the EU has very different pack requirements from an FMCG brand selling domestically — different sizes, different shelf-life needs, different compliance paperwork. We serve all of it from one facility, and every brief starts with end use, supply chain, and compliance requirements.
PMT : How is AVI bringing smart packaging and digital tools into its plans?
SXC : For me, smart packaging means solving a real supply chain problem, not adding technology for a headline. Q-Bic is the clearest example — a format change that meaningfully improves how efficiently we can ship fresh produce, which matters a lot for cold-chain costs. On the digital side, AVI Trace, our traceability platform, lets brands and even end consumers follow the journey of recycled material from collection to finished pack. The test for any new technology is simple: does it cut a real cost or remove a real risk.
PMT : What’s helped AVI build long-term customer relationships?
SXC : Control and partnership are central to how we work with customers. When we build tooling to a customer’s specification, that tooling and the compliance history behind it stays with us, which genuinely benefits the customer through consistent performance and reliable supply. We try to enter every relationship as a technical partner first — understanding the brief, prototyping, trialling, and flagging compliance changes before they become problems. That’s true across fresh produce retail and FMCG, and it’s why relationships tend to deepen over time.
PMT : How do you balance sustainability investment against cost efficiency?
SXC : I don’t think of it as a trade-off, because at our level of integration the two work together. Using less material without losing strength saves money and reduces waste at the same time. Processing our own recycled input reduces our exposure to volatile raw material prices. And manufacturers without certified, traceable recycled content are increasingly losing access to certain export markets altogether — that’s the real cost of being unprepared, not a cost of sustainability.
PMT : What shifts have you noticed in customer priorities over the years?
SXC : Three shifts, straight from customer conversations. From unit price to total cost of ownership — once a customer hits a compliance rejection or a supply disruption, cheapest stops meaning lowest-cost. From a general sustainability preference to wanting proof — customers now want certification and traceability, not just a claim. From local sourcing to supply chain resilience — post-pandemic, buyers increasingly favour a partner who can guarantee consistency over one who’s simply nearby.
PMT : How do you see the pace of tech advancement in India’s packaging industry?
SXC : Accelerating, but splitting. The gap is widening between manufacturers investing seriously in compliance and material technology, and those still competing on price alone. India’s cost advantage has long been established; what’s developing now, in a specific cohort, is the technical and compliance credibility to match it.
PMT : What role does automation play in your manufacturing?
SXC : It’s what makes consistency possible at scale. Our Daman facility runs substantial solar capacity alongside predictive maintenance and continuous process monitoring — this isn’t an add-on, it’s simply how we operate, and it’s what keeps quality consistent from batch to batch. FY 2025-26 delivered audited results: 263.5 million PET bottles converted to recycled material, 6,746 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided, 5,271 metric tonnes of industrial waste recycled, and 6,325 metric tonnes of fuel consumption avoided.
PMT : Which emerging technologies could reshape Indian packaging?
SXC : Three, and all are compliance enablers before they’re sustainability stories. Food-grade recycled PET decontamination will decide who can supply European markets as regulations tighten. Packaging geometry for logistics — the kind of thinking behind Q-Bic — will extend across more categories as cold-chain costs rise. And digital traceability at the material level will give brands audit-ready evidence instead of general claims. In each case, capability comes first, and the sustainability narrative follows.
PMT : How do you see India’s sustainable packaging market evolving over the next decade?
SXC : Regulation will drive it. Frameworks like India’s EPR rules and Europe’s plastic tax and packaging regulations already carry real financial penalties for manufacturers without certified recycled content. I’d expect the market to split: manufacturers with certified content, verified traceability, and proper documentation will capture export premiums and serious domestic buyers; those without will face growing exclusion.
PMT : What’s India’s opportunity to become a global packaging hub?
SXC : India’s own regulatory push is a big part of the answer. Recycled-content requirements under India’s EPR framework are rising sharply over the next few years, and that’s pushing every manufacturer to get serious about certified, traceable recycled content rather than treating it as optional.
Manufacturers who build that capability now — verified recycled content, proper documentation, real traceability — will be the ones equipped to serve both domestic brand owners and export markets as the rules tighten further. That’s the real opportunity: India’s packaging industry becoming genuinely credible on sustainability, not just on cost.
PMT : How important are industry collaborations for circular economy adoption?
SXC : Critical — no single manufacturer can close the loop alone. We’ve invested in a few organisations that help strengthen different parts of the recycling value chain, from waste collection to fair-wage sourcing to sorting technology. It’s meaningful, hands-on work, not just a line in a CSR report.
PMT : How does AVI engage communities in its sustainability work?
SXC : The most meaningful engagement is built into how we source our recycled material. We work with partners who formalise plastic collection with verified fair wages and no child labour, which has helped bring thousands of informal waste workers into more secure employment. On ocean plastics, our MD, Akhilesh Bhargava, worked directly with Afroz Shah, UN Champion of the Earth, to build a collection programme along Indian coastlines — the kind of work that doesn’t show up on an invoice but matters just as much.
PMT : What has AVI done to cut its environmental footprint?
SXC : The measures are operational and audited, not aspirational. We run a substantial solar installation at our facility, we’ve planted a native-species forest on site, and all our processing waste is recycled in-house. Our recycled-PET capability diverts post-consumer bottles from landfill into food-grade packaging, and our sourcing partnerships help secure ethical, quality material supply. FY 2025-26’s verified impact: 263.5 million PET bottles converted, 6,746 metric tonnes of CO2 avoided, 5,271 metric tonnes of industrial waste recycled, 6,325 metric tonnes of fuel consumption avoided.
PMT : How much does consumer education matter for better recycling behaviour?
SXC : It matters, but it works best when the system behind it is functional — understanding why to recycle doesn’t help if local collection is absent or informal. The bigger leverage points are organised collection economics and real incentives for manufacturers to demand recycled material. We sit at the demand end of that chain, and our AVI Trace platform lets consumers scan a QR code on-pack to see exactly where that packaging’s material came from — education that’s verifiable, not just claimed.
PMT : How do awards and recognition drive further innovation at AVI?
SXC : I treat recognition as a market signal more than a motivator. PLEXCONCIL naming us India’s Top Exporter twice — most recently with the award presented by Minister Piyush Goyal to our MD, Akhilesh Bhargava — confirms our investments are delivering results. Recognition from long-standing clients like Sahyadri Farms confirms our packaging performs under real supply chain conditions. I use these as proof points in conversations, not trophies.
PMT : Any recent partnerships you’d like to highlight?
SXC : A couple of things worth mentioning. We’ve brought Q-Bic, an innovative cube-shaped punnet format, to the Indian market in partnership with an international packaging specialist — we introduced it at Fresh Produce India 2026, and it’s now a fully commercial product line that has meaningfully improved shipping efficiency for berry exporters. We’ve also made equity investments in a few organisations that strengthen the ethical and technical quality of our recycled material supply chain.
PMT : What can stakeholders expect from AVI in the near future?
SXC : A few themes, broadly. We’ll keep deepening our work with fresh produce stakeholders and FMCG brands, and continue building out the digital tools that give brands better visibility into their packaging’s footprint. The goal, as always: to be the trusted partner brands rely on when the supply chain can’t afford to fail.