An exclusive interview with Mr. Shabbir Noorani, Managing Director – Royal Papers (Bangalore).
Paper Desk : Please introduce us to your company, Royal Papers.
Shabbir Noorani : Established in 2005 in Bangalore, Royal Papers has been a trusted name in the recovered paper trading industry. The company has been supplying various grades of recovered paper in large quantities to paper mills for over 18 years.
Known for our exceptional service and commitment to quality, Royal Papers has become a reliable choice for paper mills in the region.
PD : What type of products do you supply to the paper industry?
SN : Our primary product is high quality recovered Kraft Paper (OCC). This constitutes the major part of our total sales. In addition to that, we also supply a wide range of post-consumer paper products, including ONP (Old Newspaper), white record, duplex, and notebook.
We are also one of the major suppliers of fruit packing ONP.
PD : How do you source your materials ?
SN : We procure our materials through a well-established network of local vendors who deliver to our baleing plants. In addition to these vendors, we also source materials from various industrial units, malls, tech parks, offices, and retail mega stores across the city.
This wide network allows us to gather a diverse range of post-consumer paper products for our supply to the paper industry.
PD : Challenges or hurdles you face in the Indian market?
SN : In the current market landscape, the recovered paper industry faces several hurdles, with a significant one being the notable price volatility resulting from the influx of cheaper raw materials imported from Europe and the USA.
Other challenges are low rate of recovery of post consumer material and lack of proper segregation at source.
PD : How has your business growth been in recent times?
SN : In the recent years we have been able to significantly increase our baleing capacity. We have invested heavily in fully automated machinery to optimise our operations. Also we have adopted various measures to improve the quality of our material.
PD : Tell us about your expansion plans
SN : We are setting up a second unit which will be a fully automated baleing facility at a prime location in the IT corridor of Bangalore. Plant construction is complete and procurement of material handling equipment is underway and it is expected to begin operations by the end of June 2023. We have imported a very high capacity fully automatic horizontal baler for this plant.This facility will have an installed capacity of processing over a 100 tons of waste paper of various grades per day. This plant is spread over an area of 45000 sqft, making it one of the largest waste paper collection and baleing plants in the south.
PD : What are your future growth plans/do you plan to diversify into other products ?
SN : Yes, we wish to venture into finished paper and imported waste paper trading. We are currently researching the market and we believe that these two segments are suitable for us as we already have good connections with many major buyers and sellers of these products. Working in these two segments will ensure better integration for our company in the paper industry
PD : What are your thoughts about the future of recycled paper industry in India ?
SN : The tremendous increase in consumption being witnessed in the FMCG sector and the coming of age of the e-commerce segment will drive the demand for various forms of packaging paper, kraft paper in particular over the coming years. Add to this, increased awareness in the general public with respect to the importance of recycling dry waste, and its positive impact on the environment will lead to better segregation at source and improved recovery rate of recyclables.
Also, with a large number of very advanced and high capacity export oriented paper mills being set up in India, the future of paper recycling in India is very bright.