Himachal Fibres to foray into manufacturing sustainable and innovative products from 100% recycled waste plastic material

Ludhiana: BSE-listed Himachal Fibres Limited (HIMFIBP | 514010) has decided to foray into the business of manufacturing sustainable and innovative products from recycled waste plastic material and to explore organic or inorganic options for the new business. The new business will be fully integrated and involve activities right from the collection of waste plastic packaging material to the manufacturing of a diverse range of sustainable products. The new business will be profit-generating and will create huge job opportunities too.

The Board also approved to work on modalities of acquisition of a 51% stake in Shiva Cottex Pvt Ltd, which is in the process of setting up a recycled PET bottle-to-bottle chips business and manufacturing acoustic panels from recycled PET. The recycled PET bottle-to-bottle chips production line will have an annual capacity of 7,000 tonnes and the facility for making acoustic panels from recycled PET will have an annual capacity of 7,50,000 square metres. The manufacturing facility will start commercial production in the financial year 2024-25.

Commenting on the developments, Akhil Malhotra, Chairman of Himachal Fibres Limited said, “There is a growing demand for sustainable products in India and globally as they help lower carbon footprint, reduce plastic waste, decrease reliance on virgin materials, conserve valuable resources, and support a circular economy by recycling and reusing waste plastic materials. The foray into this new business and the planned acquisition will help the company in completely transforming itself and in creating long-term value for all stakeholders with opportunities for exponential business growth.”

“The consumption of PET bottles is growing. In India, the annual consumption is nearly 1.1 million tonnes. With Extended Producers’ Responsibility (EPR) regulations requiring a minimum of 30% usage from recycled PET from FY 25 onwards, the demand for rPET bottle chips is going to spurt substantially specially from brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, HUL, etc. Moreover, the overall production capacity for rPET bottle-to-bottle chips in India is much lower than the projected demand. These businesses of rPET bottle-to-bottle chips and acoustic panels will be a game-changer for the company,” said Mr. Malhotra, who has vast experience in the recycling of waste plastic packaging material, and was appointed Chairman of Himachal Fibres Limited recently.

The company also plans to bring other experts on board to further strengthen the management team and also decided to change its name to Rudra Ecovation Limited or any other similar name subject to availability, to achieve its business transformation goals.