The ₹50 Saving on Packaging That Costs a Manufacturer a Crore

Why Packaging Matters More Than It Seems

A manufacturer can spend months designing a product, sourcing its raw materials, manufacturing it, testing it, and getting it ready for dispatch. Yet, when the product is finally ready to leave the factory, the packaging that protects it can still be treated as one of the smaller costs in the entire process.

That approach is beginning to change.

The conversation with Ankit revealed that the story of industrial packaging is closely tied to the larger changes taking place in Indian manufacturing. From automation and exports to geopolitical disruptions, procurement challenges and customer expectations, several forces are changing how manufacturers think about packaging.

His central point was simple. A manufacturer may try to save a relatively small amount on packaging, but if that decision results in a product reaching the customer in damaged condition, the resulting loss can be many times larger. Repacking, additional freight, replacement shipments, delays and damaged products can all add to the bill. More importantly, the manufacturer may also put years of customer trust at risk.

That argument is increasingly relevant as Indian manufacturing becomes more integrated with global supply chains. India’s total exports of merchandise and services were estimated at US$860.09 billion in FY2025–26, up from US$825.26 billion the previous year. As Indian manufacturers serve customers farther from their factories, the journey between production and delivery becomes longer and more complex. Packaging has to protect products through that journey.

MVS Acmei itself describes its role as extending beyond packaging materials. The company positions itself as a platform for machine building, automation and system integration, with solutions designed to build, pack and protect industrial goods during transit, storage and handling. Its current portfolio includes packaging solutions, automation, contract packaging, consumables and material-handling systems across industries such as steel, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, automotive and engineering, chemicals, paper, textiles, e-commerce, solar and others.

The conversation with Ankit therefore provides a useful window into an industry that is often noticed only when something goes wrong.

Why industrial packaging is more than a packaging cost

Packaging is often discussed as a material purchase. A company needs straps, films, fabrics, boxes, protective materials, or other packaging components, so the procurement team obtains quotations, compares suppliers, and negotiates a price.

But industrial packaging performs a much larger function.

A manufactured product can pass through several stages between leaving the production line and reaching its customer. It may be stored inside the factory, moved to a warehouse, loaded onto a truck, transferred between logistics providers, placed inside a shipping container, and transported across borders before it reaches its destination. Every movement creates some level of risk.

The packaging therefore becomes part of the system that protects the value created by manufacturing.

MVS Acmei describes its industrial packaging capabilities in similar terms, positioning its solutions around the need to build, pack and protect industrial goods during transit, storage and handling. Its automation portfolio includes wrapping, strapping, transfer systems and end-to-end packaging lines, while its contract packaging services can include equipment, consumables and trained manpower.

This matters because the packaging decision can affect much more than the packaging itself. Packaging can influence handling time, storage requirements, transport utilisation, labour requirements, product damage and delivery reliability.

Recent research on industrial packaging makes the same point through the idea of Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO. A 2026 analysis by Faes notes that companies focusing only on the purchase price of packaging can miss costs associated with damage, returns, storage, labour, transport efficiency, compliance and other downstream effects.

The purchase price is visible. The consequences of a poor packaging decision are often distributed across several departments. That makes them much harder to see.

The hidden cost of saving money on packaging

One of the most important observations Ankit made during the ProPak India conversation was about the temptation to save a small amount on packaging when the product being protected is worth much more.

His example was deliberately simple. If a manufacturer is shipping a high-value product overseas, the packaging itself may account for only a small part of the overall product cost. A buyer may therefore push for a significantly lower packaging price. But if the product arrives damaged, the savings on packaging can quickly disappear.

The manufacturer may have to arrange repacking, send the product again, absorb additional freight, and deal with the operational disruption created by the incident. There can also be a delay in fulfilling the customer’s requirement.

Then there is the cost that is much harder to calculate: trust.

A customer may forgive a delay. A damaged shipment can be more difficult, particularly when the product was expected to arrive in working condition and the manufacturer had promised a reliable delivery.

Independent research supports this broader view of packaging cost. Faes’ recent work on industrial packaging describes damage, additional handling, returns, storage, transport inefficiencies and downtime as hidden costs that may not appear in the original packaging purchase decision. In some applications, the value of a single damaged product can exceed the savings achieved across many packaging units.

The shift from purchase price to total cost is one of the most important changes taking place in industrial packaging.

The misconception that packaging is a low-priority item

Ankit also spoke about what he described as a common misconception in manufacturing: companies can spend enormous amounts of time and money making a product but give comparatively less attention to how that product will be protected once it leaves the factory.

This is understandable. Manufacturing teams are naturally focused on production quality. Engineering teams focus on design and performance. Procurement teams focus on cost and availability. Logistics teams focus on movement and delivery.

Packaging sits across all of these functions. That can make it easy to treat it as an operational detail rather than a strategic decision.

But a packaging failure can expose weaknesses across the entire chain. A product may be manufactured perfectly and still reach the customer in poor condition because it was inadequately protected during storage, handling or transport. The problem becomes more significant when the product is high value, fragile, sensitive to environmental conditions or travelling internationally.

Modern industrial packaging research increasingly treats packaging as a supply-chain issue rather than simply a procurement issue. Faes’ 2026 research argues that packaging choices influence production, logistics, customer service and finance because problems created by packaging often appear as returns, damage, delays, extra labour or service issues somewhere else in the organisation.

This is why packaging decisions should ideally involve more than the person negotiating the packaging price. Engineering, operations, logistics, and procurement may need to be involved. And the supplier may need to understand how the customer’s product actually moves through the supply chain. The packaging supplier, in other words, increasingly becomes a solution partner rather than simply a material vendor.

Why the cost of packaging should be measured against the value of the product

There is a fundamental mismatch that can occur in packaging decisions. The packaging may be relatively inexpensive. The product inside it may be extremely valuable.

That does not mean the manufacturer should automatically spend more on packaging. It means the packaging decision should be evaluated against the risk it is expected to manage.

A pharmaceutical product, for example, may have completely different packaging requirements from a steel component. An automotive component may require different protection from a high-value industrial machine. An export shipment may face a different risk profile from a product being moved a few hundred kilometres domestically.

MVS Acmei’s current portfolio reflects this diversity. The company serves sectors ranging from steel and metals to pharma, food and beverages, automotive and engineering, chemicals, paper, textiles, solar and construction.

There is therefore no single definition of “good packaging.” Good industrial packaging is packaging designed around the product, the handling process and the journey. That is also why standardising packaging without understanding the application can create problems. A package that performs well in one supply chain may not be suitable for another.

From manpower to automation: the post-COVID shift

Another major theme in Ankit’s conversation was the transformation in the way Indian manufacturers think about manpower and automation.

He compared the Indian market before COVID with the period that followed it. According to his experience, manufacturers were previously more hesitant to adopt automation because of the investment involved. Manual labour was often seen as the more practical option.

COVID changed that calculation. Manufacturers suddenly had to operate in an environment where labour availability could not be taken for granted. Restrictions, workforce disruptions and supply-chain problems forced companies to reconsider how dependent critical operations were on people being physically present.

The shift was not unique to packaging. McKinsey’s research into post-COVID manufacturing found that manufacturers accelerated the use of automation and digital technologies as they responded to worker shortages, operational disruptions and the need for greater resilience.

The important point is that automation is not simply about replacing people. In packaging, automation can be used to make repetitive processes more consistent, improve throughput, reduce physical strain, improve safety and allow manufacturers to scale production without increasing manual effort at the same rate.

MVS Acmei itself describes its automation solutions in these terms. Its packaging automation portfolio includes automated and semi-automated wrapping, strapping and transfer systems, as well as end-to-end packaging lines. The company says its systems can be customised according to product dimensions, grades, market mix and dispatch requirements.

The post-COVID period therefore did more than create a temporary labour problem. It changed the conversation around what a modern manufacturing process should look like.

Automation is becoming a productivity decision

There is another reason automation is becoming more relevant in packaging: scale.

A company can increase production only so far by adding people to repetitive processes. At some point, the business has to think about how much output can be achieved from the same production footprint. Automation can help create that leverage.

This is particularly relevant as Indian manufacturing expands. India’s total exports reached an estimated US$860.09 billion in FY2025–26, demonstrating the scale of the country’s growing participation in global trade.

Export-oriented manufacturers have to compete on more than product cost. They also have to deliver consistent quality, predictable lead times and reliable logistics. Packaging is part of that performance.

Industry estimates also point to continued growth in India’s packaging automation market. Grand View Research estimates that India’s packaging automation market generated approximately US$6.0 billion in revenue in 2024 and projects it to reach about US$11.8 billion by 2033, representing a projected CAGR of 7.8% from 2025 to 2033. Market estimates vary depending on definitions and methodology, but the broader direction is clear: automation is becoming an increasingly important part of packaging investment.

For manufacturers, the question is gradually moving from “Should we automate?” to “Which parts of the process should we automate, and what business problem will that solve?” That is a much more useful question.

Automation does not eliminate the role of people

It is tempting to frame automation as a choice between machines and manpower. The reality is more nuanced.

People remain important for supervision, maintenance, quality control, troubleshooting, process improvement and decision-making. Automation changes where people spend their time. In packaging, repetitive and physically demanding activities can increasingly be handled by machines, while workers can take responsibility for tasks requiring judgement and technical knowledge.

Safety is another important factor. Packaging operations can involve heavy products, repetitive movements and industrial equipment. MVS Acmei itself highlights safety and productivity as benefits associated with its automation approach. The company also publishes material specifically around automation contributing to a safer industrial environment for Indian workers.

For a growing manufacturing company, the value of automation therefore has several dimensions: productivity, consistency, safety, scalability and labour utilisation. The investment decision should consider all of them.

India’s manufacturing growth is changing the packaging opportunity

Packaging is growing alongside India’s broader manufacturing and consumption economy. The sectors that require packaging are not limited to consumer products. Industrial packaging supports steel, metals, pharmaceuticals, automotive components, engineering products, chemicals, textiles, electronics, construction materials and many other categories.

As Indian manufacturing becomes more export-oriented, packaging requirements also become more demanding. A domestic shipment and an international shipment are not necessarily the same packaging problem. An export product may spend longer in transit and pass through more handling points. It may be exposed to changes in climate and humidity. It may be loaded and unloaded multiple times. It may remain in storage before reaching the customer.

The packaging must therefore be designed around the journey. This is especially important because India’s trade position continues to expand. The Ministry of Commerce estimates that total exports of goods and services grew 4.22% in FY2025–26 to US$860.09 billion.

Ankit also described a significant change within MVS Acmei’s own business. He said that the share of the company’s products exported from India had grown from around 30% before COVID to approximately 70–80% more recently, alongside annual growth of around 20–25%. These are company-specific figures shared by Ankit during the interview and are presented here as his statements rather than independently verified industry statistics.

His observation nevertheless illustrates the larger opportunity: Indian industrial companies are increasingly participating in international markets, and that makes reliable packaging more important.

Packaging and the global supply chain

Packaging cannot be separated from what is happening in global logistics. The last several years have demonstrated how quickly geopolitical events can affect ordinary business decisions. COVID disrupted manufacturing and shipping. The war in Ukraine disrupted energy and commodity markets. The Red Sea crisis changed major shipping routes. More recently, conflict in West Asia has created fresh concerns around shipping, petrochemical inputs and supply-chain continuity.

For packaging companies, these events can affect both the cost and availability of raw materials. They can also affect freight. When shipping routes are disrupted, vessels may take longer routes. Transit times increase. Freight rates can rise. Inventory planning becomes more difficult.

The IMF reported that trade through the Suez Canal fell sharply after attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, with rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope adding significant time to journeys. UNCTAD similarly warned that disruptions to major maritime routes were increasing pressure on global supply chains and freight costs.

For an Indian manufacturer, a geopolitical event does not have to happen inside India to affect its packaging economics. It can affect raw materials, suppliers, shipping routes, inventory, and customers’ delivery schedules. That is why supply-chain resilience has become an important part of packaging strategy.

The recent West Asia conflict shows how packaging can become a strategic concern

The impact of geopolitical disruption on packaging has become particularly visible in India during 2026.

In April 2026, the Government of India announced a temporary full customs duty exemption on selected critical petrochemical products in response to the West Asia conflict and resulting global supply-chain disruption. The government explicitly identified packaging among the downstream sectors that could benefit from the measure, alongside plastics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and automotive components.

The government subsequently extended the exemption through July 15, 2026, citing the need for a smooth transition as conditions normalised. The government also held consultations specifically around packaging, logistics and shipping challenges arising from the West Asia situation. Those discussions brought together government departments, ports, shipping agencies, export promotion bodies and industry representatives.

This is a useful illustration of how packaging can become part of a national supply-chain discussion. A disruption in energy or petrochemical markets can eventually affect polymers and other inputs used in packaging. The packaging industry therefore operates within a much larger industrial ecosystem.

Why procurement planning matters more in volatile markets

Ankit spoke about another lesson from recent market volatility: the importance of procurement planning.

He described the 2026 Iran-US war period when raw-material prices were changing rapidly, and said that MVS Acmei’s sourcing team was able to manage the situation through timely procurement and planning. According to him, this helped the company protect margins while other businesses faced greater pressure.

Whether the market is experiencing a commodity shock, a logistics disruption or geopolitical uncertainty, the lesson is similar. Companies cannot control the external event. They can control how prepared they are for it.

This can involve maintaining appropriate inventory, building supplier relationships, monitoring raw-material markets and avoiding unnecessary dependence on a single source.

For packaging companies, this can be especially important because packaging demand often continues even when input markets become volatile. Manufacturers still need to ship their products. The packaging supplier therefore has to manage two competing expectations: maintain availability for the customer while controlling the cost of volatile inputs. That makes sourcing a strategic capability rather than simply an administrative function.

Why service can matter more than price in B2B packaging

One of the strongest themes in Ankit’s responses was that price still matters, but it is no longer the only factor customers consider.

This is particularly important in B2B markets. An industrial customer may be willing to pay a little more for a supplier that provides reliable delivery, responsive service and predictable quality if the alternative creates operational risk.

A packaging shortage can stop or slow a production process. A late shipment can affect an export commitment. A failed packaging solution can damage the customer’s product. The supplier’s performance therefore becomes part of the customer’s operational performance.

This is why MVS Acmei’s model combines products with automation, services and contract packaging. The company says its contract packaging services can include equipment handling, manpower, consumables, maintenance and automation-related services.

The larger business lesson is that industrial customers increasingly buy outcomes rather than individual components. They want the packaging to work and arrive on time. They want the equipment to operate reliably, they want service when something goes wrong, and they want a supplier that understands their production environment. That is a much harder proposition to compete on than price alone.

The role of trust in industrial packaging

Ankit used an interesting consumer-brand comparison to explain why customers may sometimes pay more for a trusted brand. The same principle exists in industrial markets, although the purchase process is very different.

In B2B, trust can mean believing that the supplier will deliver when promised. It can mean confidence that the product will perform consistently, knowing that problems will be resolved quickly, having confidence that a supplier understands the customer’s application, and knowing that the supplier will still be available when something goes wrong.

For packaging, trust is particularly important because the supplier’s failure may only become visible after the customer’s product has already left the factory. The packaging may look perfectly fine at the time of dispatch. The real test comes later. Will the product survive the journey? That makes reliability a central part of the value proposition.

What new businesses entering packaging should understand

Ankit’s advice to companies entering the packaging industry was direct: understand the market before trying to build the business. That means watching which industries are growing, understanding where demand is moving and identifying the customers whose problems the company can genuinely solve.

He also emphasised reaching the right customer at the right time. This is particularly relevant to industrial sales because many large accounts require trials, technical discussions, evaluation and implementation before a purchase becomes a long-term relationship.

Ankit described MVS Acmei’s use of both direct and channel sales. Large strategic accounts can be handled directly, while distributors and dealers can help extend geographic reach and support customers across locations. He also described project-based sales cycles in which trials can take months before implementation.

This approach makes sense in an industry where the product is often only one part of the decision. The customer may need a technical solution, installation, training, ongoing service, local availability, and they may also need packaging consumables alongside equipment.

Ankit’s final piece of advice was perhaps the most relevant for a new B2B company: focus on solving customer problems before focusing heavily on margins. The logic is simple. If the problem is important and the solution is valuable, the business has a reason to exist.

The future of industrial packaging will be about integration

The packaging industry is moving towards a more integrated model. Packaging materials will continue to matter. But manufacturers will increasingly evaluate them alongside machines, automation, labour, service, logistics and supply-chain performance.

This is already visible in the way MVS Acmei positions its own business. Its current offering combines packaging products, machine building, automation, system integration, contract packaging and field services. Its automation solutions can also be integrated with existing production lines and, in some applications, with ERP systems and other plant-level systems.

The direction makes sense. Manufacturers want fewer points of failure. They want better visibility, faster operations, predictable output, fewer manual interventions where machines can perform the work more consistently, and they also want suppliers who understand how the different pieces fit together. This is where industrial packaging is likely to become increasingly strategic.

What manufacturers should rethink about packaging

The conversation with Ankit suggests that manufacturers need to reconsider several assumptions about packaging.

First, the cheapest packaging is not necessarily the cheapest solution. A lower purchase price can become expensive if it increases product damage, labour, storage, returns or freight costs.

Second, packaging is not an isolated procurement decision. It affects production, logistics, quality, customer service and the final customer experience.

Third, automation is not simply a labour-reduction exercise. It can improve consistency, safety, throughput and scalability while allowing people to focus on higher-value work.

Fourth, geopolitical events can affect packaging economics. Raw materials, petrochemicals, shipping routes and freight rates are connected to events far outside the packaging factory.

Fifth, service and reliability matter. An industrial customer may value a supplier that can provide timely supply, technical support and consistent performance over one that simply offers the lowest quotation.

And finally, packaging is part of product protection. The value of the packaging should therefore be considered alongside the value and risk of what it is protecting.

The bigger lesson from the conversation

The importance of industrial packaging is often easiest to understand when something goes wrong. When a product reaches its destination safely, packaging tends to disappear from the conversation. The customer sees the product, the manufacturer sees a successful delivery, and the logistics team sees another shipment completed. Yet behind that outcome is a packaging system that has quietly done one of its most important jobs: protecting the value created inside the factory until it reaches the customer.

When that system fails, its impact can travel much further than the packaging itself. A damaged product can mean a delayed shipment, additional freight, repacking, replacement costs and hours of operational effort. For an industrial manufacturer, the consequences can extend to production schedules and customer relationships as well. Over time, repeated failures can affect something even harder to measure, the confidence customers place in a company to deliver consistently.

This is what makes Ankit’s observation about saving a small amount on packaging particularly relevant. Packaging cost is visible and easy to compare, while the cost of a failure is often distributed across different parts of the business. A manufacturer may be protecting a product worth lakhs of rupees, an export shipment travelling thousands of kilometres, a carefully planned production schedule or a customer relationship built over years. Looking at packaging only through its purchase price can therefore leave out much of the value it is expected to protect.

The broader changes taking place in Indian manufacturing make this consideration increasingly important. As manufacturers automate their operations, expand their export markets and build more complex supply chains, products are moving through more stages before they reach their final customer. They are also operating in an environment where disruptions in shipping, raw materials and global trade can quickly affect costs and delivery schedules. Packaging has to work within that reality, providing consistency and protection while fitting into increasingly sophisticated manufacturing and logistics systems.

The conversation at ProPak India pointed to a larger shift already underway across the industry. Packaging is gradually being viewed as part of manufacturing performance rather than simply as a material purchased at the end of production. Its role increasingly connects product protection with efficiency, reliability, logistics, customer experience and the ability to compete in markets where a product may travel far beyond the factory that produced it.

That shift may not happen uniformly across every industry or manufacturer. But as Indian manufacturing becomes more ambitious, more automated and more globally connected, the packaging layer will carry greater responsibility. What happens to a product after it leaves the production line is becoming part of the manufacturing story itself.