Ujjal De, Director – Sales & Marketing, Lohia Corp

We have delivered till date accumulated plastic processing capacity of 3 million tons with installation base of more than 1,250 extrusion lines & 52,000 circular looms in over 80 countries producing almost full range of plastic woven fabrics & packaging solutions for our worldwide customers.

Ujjal De, Director – Sales & Marketing, Lohia Corp shares his view with Sandeep Sharma about his organization, manufacturing base, product portfolio, core competencies, business generated, major clientele, verticals and geographies targeted, immediate and long term growth plans.

Could you tell us about your company, manufacturing base, product portfolio and core competencies?
Lohia Corp Limited has been providing advanced solutions to the woven plastics flexible packaging industry around the world for more than 3 decades in over 80 countries. The fabric produced is used in many applications such as bags for cement, fertilizer, food grains, FIBC/Jumbo Bags, Leno/Ventilated bags & many more. The global footprint of the company is serviced by subsidiaries/associates in UAE, USA, Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia, supported by sales agents in all major woven sacks producing countries. The company was incorporated as Lohia Starlinger Ltd in 1981 as a joint venture with Starlinger & Co. GmbH of Austria for manufacturing of Circular Looms. It has changed its name to Lohia Corp Ltd in March 2013, consequent to the exit of Starlinger as shareholder.

We since inception set a vision for the company to be an end-to-end supplier of the machinery & solution for the plastic woven industry. Accordingly, we expanded our portfolio in 1984 by adding tape extrusion line & winders in our production program. Continuous investments in upgrading the in-house manufacturing capabilities together with state-of-the-art research & development facility and commitment to build world-class knowledge base assisted by qualified technicians, engineers and managers, led not only to up-gradation of weaving, extrusion & winding technologies but we  also added products like lamination & coating, conversion and PP multifilament extrusion lines. Today, we have full range of machinery in each of the technology vertical to cover almost the complete range of end-use application of the plastic woven fabric. We have delivered till date accumulated plastic processing capacity of 3 million tons/annum with installation base of more than 1,250 extrusion lines & 52,000 circular looms in over 80 countries producing almost full range of plastic woven fabrics & packaging solutions for our worldwide customers.
Product Portfolio includes:

• Tape Extrusion Line

We offer a comprehensive range of tape extrusion lines for producing high quality PP/HDPE tapes for a wide range of applications, such as – woven & knitted bags, jumbo bags - i.e. Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs), carpet backings, tarpaulins, geo textiles, agro textiles, wrapping fabrics, ropes and twines.

Our tape extrusion lines come in two distinct series, LOREX & duotec. The LOREX series is based on the conventional single stage stretching system while the duotec series uses a unique double stage stretching system.

• Tape Winders

We offer a wide range of precision and step precision winding machines designed for winding flat or fibrillated PP/ HDPE tapes across a multitude of specifications in terms of tape width and denier. The warp & weft bobbins produced can be used in both circular and flat looms.
The winders are classified under three distinct series – CM/ FM series, CE/FE series and autoroto series.

• Circular Looms

Lohia Corp offers a comprehensive range of circular looms for weaving light to heavy weight tubular or flat PP/HDPE fabrics for a wide variety of end applications.
Our looms are available under four distinct machine models: nova, LSL, LENO and venti.

• Coating Machine

Lohia’s lamicoat is designed for efficient and precise coating operations on tubular or flat PP/HDPE woven fabric. Both PP & LDPE polymer coating is possible, as is the simultaneous coating of both sides of tubular fabric, in a single operation. Coupling of an unwinding station to the standard machine, for additional substrates like BOPP film etc for lamination operations, is also possible.

• Printing Machine

Soloprint, Flexographic Printing Press combines Lohia Corp’s domain expertise with the technological capabilities of Pelican Rotoflex Pvt. Ltd. This 6 colour printing press, equipped with new generation electronics, is distinctively designed and precisely machined for an accurate and dependable performance over its long life.

• Bag Conversion Lines

Lohia Corp’s bag conversion line consists of machines which provide solutions for conversion of a wide variety of tubular fabrics into bags. Different technologies are available to produce bags, depending on their end use as well as the type of fabric. Our conversion line consists of two distinct machines, the Lohia bcs 850/45, bcs 1250/45 for making normal bags and the Lohia valvomatic for making valve type cement bags.

• Spin Draw Wind Line for PP Multifilament Yarn

Lohia Corp’s lofil range of Spin-Draw-Wind Lines for polypropylene multifilament yarn offer compact and flexible solutions for varied applications. These machines are capable of producing medium to high tenacity air intermingled yarns for sewing threads (Woven Sacks & FIBC’s), webbings & slings, braids & ropes and a variety of technical textiles.

• Special Purpose Machine

We offer a complete range of customizable machines for FIBC finishing and related applications. One-stop solution to our customers, our special purpose machines include Fabric Cutting Machine, Webbing/Belt Cutting Machine, Bag Cleaning Machine and Hydraulic Bale Press.

What kind of products & solutions do you offer for the cement industry in India?
We offer an innovative solution “valvomatic” for automatic conversion to valve type cement bag.
valvomatic offers:

a) Accurate valve dimensions i.e. no rejection in filling due to variation in valve size.
b) Automatic conversion i.e. no dependency on manpower for valve making.
c) Less space (approx. 60%) required in comparison to manual conversion.

Who are your major clientele in Cement sector?
The majority of the PP woven bag manufacturers who are supplying to the cement industry are having our machinery.

Could you share with us actionable insights about your product superiority over the competition?
Lohia Corp has a fully resourced R&D facility manned by qualified & experienced professionals. Many patents and innovations has been developed benefitting our customers to improve the reliability and quality of the production at competitive costs. Some of innovations as below:

• Dual Stage Technology in Tape Extrusion Line
• Autoroto Winder
• Heavy Duty Winder
• New Generation Nova Series Circular Looms
• Coating Machine
• Valvomatic
• Automation for Efficiency

How did your company fare so far in terms of business generated, growth rate achieved and your expectations from the current financial year?
Lohia Corp Ltd has achieved growth of 30% more in F.Y. 17 when compared to last F.Y. 16.

Which other verticals and geographies are you targeting? How is the current demand scenario shaping up for your range of products?
We are targeting to launch new innovative & patented solution blokomatic machine for conversion of woven fabric into block bottom valve bags without application of adhesive.

Besides robust & consistent demand from India, we have good demand of our products from Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Latin & Central America & African countries.

Going forward, what are your immediate and long term expansion plans in India?
In short term, we want to keep our position of preferred supplier of Raffia machinery with continuous enhancement of customer satisfaction through our delivery of products & services.
Lohia Corp has set a vision “To be the world no. 1 in woven plastics machinery and allied businesses through innovative solutions.”