Page 29 - Plastics News April 2021

FeAtures

Leading the way in the ‘Rigid’ Industry - SSF Plastics

It’s a journey from a small business in Amritsar to traversing unknown territory and making a huge success of it.

ackaging plays a major role be Nandarani B Dhawan who he always credits with being a
Pit the marketing or promoting visionary did young Sunil moved to then Bombay for she
the product and the business. advised her two sons to develop an alternate business in
Mumbai- based SSF Plastics India a different state. For Sunil though the initial attempts
Pvt Ltd is one of the major with household plastics were not so favorable it was in
contributors in today’s plastics 1987 did he get the first breakthrough with Videocon
Packaging. Manufacturer of industrial moulding. Ramesh Chug has been with Sunil
injection molding components, since then making SSF what it is today.
blow molding components, SSF
Plastics India Private Limited has been catering to The Growth
MNC’s across the sector be it personal care, home In 1989, fighting against all odds Sunil did secure an
care, food and beverages, pharmaceutical industries order for Rin Concentrate spoons from Hindustan
and alike offering end-to-end solutions. Says Sunil Unilever with near-impossible delivery timelines and
Dhawan MD CEO, SSF Plastics India Private Limited, thereafter there was no looking back. Starting with
“Life is journey and I am trying my best to serve our manufacturing spoons he bagged other projects from
fraternity. Of course by god’s grace we have been HUL as well. In 1991 Kapil also joined the business and
able to create our niche in the sector.” Sunil strongly since then the family has worked together to build SSF
believes that what he has learnt from his customers as a powerhouse of moulded rigid plastics. With the
is what has made SSF the company that it is today. demands growing Sunil developed SSF’s first factory, a
It has been a great journey from a small business in unit measuring of over 10,000sq ft in Vasai . Thereafter
Amritsar to traversing unknown territory and making in 1993 a new unit was set up in Daman measuring
a huge success of it. A through gentleman Sunil is the over 22000 sq ft following a series of expansions in
first-generation entrepreneur who on suggestion of his Daman / Silvassa and units were set up in Baddi near
brother-in-law started from scratch in 1985 setting up Chandigrah. Today the company has overall capacity of
a moulding plastics facility with a second hand machine
at a small unit at Mahakali caves road, in Andheri a
distant western suburb in the city. He was determined Q. What are your observations after COVID
and never gave up despite being a novice in the then
nascent plastics manufacturing industry. 2019 Pandemic? How did it affect SSF?
The Covid Pandemic has put tremendous pressure on all
The Beginning of us and the second phase is continuing to do so. The
Coming from middle class family in Amritsar, young Sunil level of uncertainty has increased multifold in several
migrated to the city in early 80’s for better prospective areas of operations starting from managing inward supply
to manufacturing and delivering products to customers.
as Punjab was then witnessing unrest for all the wrong Even at the customers end, there have been continuous
reasons. While his father, Shri Balkishan Dhawan had a changes in their demand. As suppliers we have had to
sizable commission- agency business then young Sunil be extra agile and flexible to meet their demands. Also
was involved in the textile business and was in the given that we SSF, cover a wide spectrum of FMCG, Drugs,
process of building the same, whereas his elder brother Lubricants, Engineering plastics and foods with almost all
Kapil was involved in the textile export business. the major players in the country and internationally being
our customers, the dynamic nature of their business to
Incidentally it was on the insistence of his mother, cater to the pandemic times, has had its own repercussions

29 April 2021 Plastics News