Please brief us about Nu-Vu Conair and the end-user industries that it serves?
Nu-Vu Conair Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture company between Nu-Vu Engineers from Ahmedabad and The Conair Group from USA. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of Plastic Auxiliary Equipment in India. We have state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with a total area of nearly 1,50,000 Sq. Ft. in Ahmedabad to manufacture central vacuum conveying systems, drying systems, gravimetric blending systems, chillers and mould temperature control units, crystallizers, belt conveyors, granulators and more for polymer processors. Our equipment are used by plastic processors in varied applications and industries such as Automobile, Agriculture, PET Preforms, Housewares, Wires & Cables, Film & Sheet, Furniture, Packaging, Medical & Pharma, Building & Construction, Fiber & Textile, White Goods, etc.

We also supply our chillers to other than plastic industry applications such as Laser Cutting, Lab Grown Diamond Industries, Chemical, Machine Tool Industry, etc.

How has the company benefited from its collaboration with the US-based Conair Group?
Conair Group is a 70 yrs old company manufacturing plastic processing equipment, they are the first company to start vacuum conveying for polymers. They are the leader in this segment with many patented products. Conair strongly believes in innovation and is always looking to develop new technology. Any new products and technologies introduced in USA market are immediately made available to other parts of the world including India. So, this is a huge benefit and helps us to launch products in India in quickest possible time.

There is constant exchange between Design groups of USA and India regarding new product, product updates etc.

How is the market for plastic auxiliary equipment in India? Which industries are driving the demand?
Plastic Industry overall took a hit last year due to ban on single-use plastics as well as slowdown in automotive industry. This year also, first couple of months of financial year, were not good due to Covid Pandemic but since then business in on growth path as people have realised how good plastic is, in preventing virus spread. So flexible packaging and medical are biggest drivers for the business this year coupled with agriculture and food packaging.

What do you bring to the table for your customers?
As I mentioned earlier that Conair is a 70-year-old company having many patented products. Therefore, we are capable in designing and building product for any demanding application because of rich experience that we have. Whenever customer chooses our products, we guarantee following:

Vast application knowledge. Our team understands customer requirement precisely and can customize product to suit that demand.

With the government aiming to cut down imports from China, will it benefit plastic auxiliary equipment industry in India?
Yes surely this will benefit plastic auxiliary industry in two ways: the import of machinery will be less, secondly import of finished plastic goods such as films/ toys/consumer and gift articles will be less. This in-turn will up the demand for local manufacturing, many companies will go for expansion in this segment, and that will create demand for machinery. This will also help in generating employment in this sector.

What are the key challenges faced by plastic processors? And how is Nu-Vu Conair helping them overcome these challenges?
As per me, the challenges faced by plastic processors are:

Is the demand for automation in auxiliary equipment growing (especially after COVID 19)?
Yes the demand for automation has increased after Covid, this is because of labour migration issue in initial phase. In addition, certain products require being processed without human touch, which drives the demand for automation.

How are you preparing for Industry 4.0?
As I mentioned earlier that Innovation is one of the core mantras of Conair, so most of our equipment are Industry 4.0 compatible. Conair started planning for this even before many others started thinking about it. Being a JV company, we have access to all these new technologies so it is easier for us to prepare and launch Industry 4.0 compatible products.

What are the emerging trends in c?
As replied in earlier, Industry 4.0 is one of the emerging trend.
As plastic consumption is growing in India, the processors are installing high through-put / high speed machines that is generating demand for bigger storage systems such as silos as well as high through-put conveying and drying systems.

As consumption is higher, the demand for accurate blending and dosing with yield control is gaining ground as every granule saved is adding to customers’ bottom line.

High capacity chilling plants with variable frequency driven energy compressors with Ozone friendly refrigerant.

What are your growth plans for the company?
We expanded our manufacturing capacity in 2019 by commissioning a green field project with ultra-modern fabrication plant with Laser cutting machine / CNC press / CNC rolling machine along with Automatic welding machine. This also has in-house painting booth. This expansion is helping us deliver quality product at shortest possible time.

We are also planning to add few new products in our portfolio this year such as new design of Dehumidifying Dryer, Ozone friendly range of chillers.

Company is also looking to acquire new land for another green field project to support the growth in coming year.