Star Paper Mills Limited, an initial player of the Indian paper and packaging industry, serves a diverse customer base through its extensive pan-India distribution network and a strong export presence in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Oman, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Spain, Bangladesh, Turkey, Nigeria, and several other locations. In an exclusive interview with Paper Mart, Mr. Madhukar Mishra, Managing Director, Star Paper Mills Limited, highlighted how the boom in e-commerce and FMCG consumption have fueled the growth in paper and board packaging, with the segment expected to expand at an annual rate of 11–12%. Looking ahead, the company aims to focus on capacity expansion and product innovation to better cater to the growing needs of the domestic market.
Paper Mart: Could you begin by giving us an overview of your packaging paper and board operations – including your production capacity, facility locations, and manufacturing setup?
Madhukar Mishra: Established in 1938, Star Paper Mills Limited, is an integrated pulp and paper manufacturing company, situated at Saharanpur (U.P.), approximately 180 kms away from the national capital. With a modest beginning at 6,000 tonnes per annum, the mill has now expanded to 75,000 tonnes per annum, and operates 4 paper machines at its facility.
PM: Please walk us through your current product portfolio. What grades, GSM ranges, and end-use applications do you cater to, and are there any specialty packaging paper and board products you offer?
MM: We manufacture a diverse range of writing and printing papers, industrial and packaging papers, cultural and speciality papers. Our core market consists of a wide variety of industrial and packaging papers and boards.
Our product portfolio spans a wide range of kraft papers used for carry bags, grocery bags, envelopes, pizza boxes, and more. We also offer an array of specialty papers, including MG poster, ARSR poster, stiffer cover, oil- and grease-resistant (OGR) paper, cup stock paper, honeycomb paper, and coloured papers & boards for diverse specialised applications. Our GSM range extends from 28 to 220, catering to both lightweight and heavy-duty requirements.
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PM: Which are your key domestic and international markets? How has your market footprint evolved in the past few years?
MM: Star Paper Mills Limited is an established player, catering to a wide range of customers through its extensive distribution network, on pan India basis. We are also a well established brand in export markets, catering to customers in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Oman, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Spain, Bangladesh, Turkey, Nigeria and other countries.
PM: Sustainability is becoming a cornerstone of packaging. What steps have you taken to integrate environmentally responsible practices into your manufacturing and sourcing?
MM: Recognizing the importance of sustainability early on, we began agro-forestry in our operations, becoming the first paper company in North India to adopt this practice. For more than two decades, these initiatives have enabled us to switch from a complete dependence on government allocated forest wood to use only farmer grown wood. This has not only tremendously increased our tree cover in our catchment area but also added to farmers’ income and created countless rural jobs. Similarly, we undertook many recycling initiatives much before some of these were made mandatory.
We are now installing a new turbine that will generate more power while consuming the same amount of steam, thereby reducing costs and lowering carbon emissions.
PM: How has demand for packaging paper and board evolved post-COVID and amid growing e-commerce and FMCG consumption? Which segments are currently driving the most growth for you?
MM: Post COVID-19, e-commerce boom and increasing FMCG consumption have significantly fueled demand for paper & board packaging, particularly in corrugated board, folding cartons, food & beverage packaging segment, personal care & household goods segment. Our overall paper packaging segment growth is estimated at 11 -12% per annum.
Our key growth drivers include food & beverage packaging (e.g., cup stock, pizza boxes, soap wrappers), carry bags and grocery bag segments, which benefit from e-commerce and retail consumption and finally specialty industrial papers, like honey comb paper, OGR paper, ribbed kraft paper and poster paper.
PM: According to recent global market data, the packaging paper and board market is projected to grow steadily through 2033. How are you positioning your business to tap into this rising global demand?
MM: As India’s key packaging paper company, we have been producing packaging grades for nearly 90 years. With the flexibility to manufacture multiple grades, we are well-positioned to cater the rising demands of our customers.
Our overall paper packaging segment growth is estimated at 11 -12% per annum.
PM: What are some of the most significant technological upgrades or process improvements you’ve made recently in your mills to enhance quality, reduce waste, or optimize energy usage?
MM: In a paper manufacturing organization as established as ours, technological upgrades and process improvements are a continuous activity to keep pace with changing customer requirements—and the same applies to cost optimization. We are now installing a new turbine that will generate more power while consuming the same amount of steam, thereby reducing costs and lowering carbon emissions.
PM: Are you seeing a shift in customer preference toward higher-strength or lightweight packaging paper and board variants? How are you balancing performance with cost-efficiency in product development?
MM: The shift towards light weight packaging has been a continuous trend for a long time. However, the preference towards high-strength papers is comparatively a recent phenomenon driven by end users’ growing demand for biodegradable packaging. We have been able to cater to a part of these requirements but are constrained by a lack of economically viable softwood sources in the country to cater to the remaining needs.
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PM: What are the major challenges you currently face as a packaging paper and board manufacturer– be it raw material volatility, energy costs, logistics, or regulatory changes? How are you navigating them?
MM: The challenges for virgin wood based paper manufacturers are the same, whether for writing & printing grades or packaging grades- namely, the need for high standard, globally compatible raw-material, energy efficiency, and competitive financial costs. For packaging grades, lack of long fiber is an added constraint.
PM: Looking ahead, what’s your strategic roadmap – capacity expansion, backward integration, export push, product diversification? How do you envision your mill’s role in the global packaging paper and board value chain in the next 5 years?
MM: As a virgin paper manufacturer with extensive agro-forestry coverage, there is limited scope for further backward integration unless captive plantations are permitted. Our location away from ports limits cost competitiveness in exports; however, we plan to focus on capacity expansion and product development to better serve the needs of domestic customers.
Our key growth drivers include food & beverage packaging, carry bags and grocery bag segments, which benefit from e-commerce and retail consumption and specialty industrial papers, like honey comb paper, OGR paper, ribbed kraft paper and poster paper.
