Malaysia hot melt line boosts Avery Dennison capacity

At the opening ceremony, Anil Sharma, vice president and general manager of Avery Dennison’s Label and Graphic Materials business for South Asia Pacific and Sub Saharan Africa, commented: ’this investment enhances our capacity to serve the growing Southeast Asia region, and to sustain our strong hot melt portfolio for the Australia and New Zealand markets. The commissioning of the coating line marks a significant milestone in our company’s history as it is the is the first Avery Dennison site in Southeast Asia  with a high speed hot melt coating capability.’

Darren Milligan, senior marketing director, South Asia Pacific & Sub-Saharan Africa at Avery Dennison, told L&L the new hot melt capacity in Malaysia rounds out the company’s offering in the region, as well as increasing overall production capacity: ‘Our hotmelt adhesive products represent an important component of our total portfolio, and particularly for growing sectors such as variable information and food labeling. Since we began operations in Malaysia 20 years ago, we have been enhancing our capabilities in tandem with customers’ growth and future needs. Further, the customer proximity to the Bangi location provides a more responsive supply chain.’ 

The new coating line adds to an impressive infrastructure throughout the broader Asia-Pacific region. In ASEAN specifically, Avery Dennison has coating and slitting plants in Malaysia and Thailand, and distribution centers in Indonesia, Singapore and, since 1995, Vietnam. Avery Dennison is also leveraging for the ASEAN region the R&D facilities of its dedicated facilities in China and India.

During the Malaysia opening ceremony, Mitch Butier, president and CEO Avery Dennison, commented to L&L on the sustainability aspects of the company’s regional and global operations: ‘All the global multinationals have road maps for sustainability and now governments are starting to wake up. We also have ambitious goals for our own internal organization which we set out in our 2025 goals on sustainability. These include reducing our own consumption around manufacturing processes, FSC certified paper sourcing and an absolute reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent every year to 2025 -  and we’re are on track to achieve that objective.’

Turning to wider ASEAN market dynamics, Anil Sharma said the ‘base of the pyramid is the growing middle class. These consumers are willing to pay the right price for the right quality and that is changing the dynamics for us - the industry is expanding and our customers are creating more points in the market.  Local brands are thriving, and are often able to react faster than multinationals.’

Adds Milligan, ‘for example in Thailand, we often see local food brands being innovative in finding different ways to use packaging more creatively and adopting new ideas first.’

In terms of press technology, Milligan says we are seeing a ‘quantum jump’ in investment among converters as the market becomes more demanding in quality. ‘We are also starting to see Digital printing really starting to make a mark.’

In the wider region, Avery Dennison has also invested in the Australian market with the recent opening of a new distribution center in Brisbane. This move is set to improve services to east coast customers and comes with an undertaking of next-day delivery to customers in Brisbane and Sydney. The new center is also certified to 5 Green Star rating, a benchmark for sustainable design and energy efficiency.