Challenges Faced by the Indian Tinplate Packaging Industry: an Analysis

The New Economic Policy of 1991 opened up the Indian markets to the world. Indian manufacturers, which once operated in the protected economy, were now open to the competition from organizations world-wide. It became imperative for the organizations to develop a competitive advantage to tide over the crisis. They were quick to evolve with a restructured strategy of neo-manufacturing from simply the economies of scale to an agile organization with a higher degree of flexibility. However, soon it was realized that focusing on manufacturing alone was not enough; one needs to have an integrated approach to carry out manufacturing in line with the value delivered to consumers. Thus, evolved the concept of the value curve and formulated strategy accordingly. The paper discusses the Indian tinplate manufacturers, which once enjoyed a monopoly in the Indian tinplate market. However, the liberalization ushered in a huge euphoria and India transformed into a freight advantageous zone for the tinplate manufacturers world-wide. The drastic reduction in import duties, coupled with weak regulatory policies by the government with respect to the packaging segment, led to unscrupulous dumping of the tinplate from outside. This landed the organizations in a crisis situation. However, the organizations were quick to respond to the situation. The paper attempts to do an analysis of the Indian tinplate packaging market and tries to identify the opportunities of the future. In addition, current approach in practice is analyzed and a shift in paradigm, needed to address the changing market needs, is being suggested. Although the detailed strategic approach is beyond the scope of discussion of this paper, it still gives the readers an overview of the new approach; that is the value innovative approach of looking into the ‘mind space’ of the consumer.