Silafrica Kenya: The Packaging Company Committed to Providing Innovative Plastic and Packaging Solutions

Interview with Muthu Ravi, CEO of Silafrica Kenya Ltd

What types of packaging products does Silafrica offer?

Silafrica Kenya Ltd is a primary consumer packaging company where we manufacture packaging products for food, personal care products for the likes of Unilever and BIDCO Africa, which is one of the leading regional multinationals, as well as packaging for medical and pharmaceutical industries. Our core strength in the Kenyan packaging business is in primary consumer packaging.

Our factory is fully ISO 9000 and environmentally certified. Currently, 10% of our energy source is green and comes from solar energy. We are focusing on improving that by another 10% to 15% through solar means by the end of the year. As we drive more and more circular, we are also interested in getting our factory operations become greener. By 2025, we are aiming at having our entire factory operating at a minimum of 30% to 35% on green energy.

In Silafrica, it is very important that we work on the circular aspect. We are in a transition period on how to go on a complete circular economy for the packaging that we are currently manufacturing or have been manufacturing for the last 60 plus years. In the future, we would like to move towards more recycled or locally reprocessed materials from which we want to manufacture the packaging for all of our customers.

Could you give us some insight on the three lines of products that you are in?

We mainly manufacture rigid consumer packaging, which is used for food, fats and oils, personal care, as well as medical and pharmaceutical. We also provide returnable packaging for breweries and beverage companies, for the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and we manufacture crates for them too. The third product we manufacture is the tertiary packaging, which is a stretch film that is used for securing products during transportation.

What are your plans regarding the circular economy aspect?

On the circular front, Silafrica has partnered with local companies like Twiga Foods, which is an agro based company that sources all the agro produce from the local farmers and sells within Kenya. We are supplying them with returnable crates, which are made from 100% recycled material. We got approval from Coca-Cola to use 30% of their old crates and reprocess this material into new ones. Silafrica has gone circular in the form of returnable packaging, and we also use the flexible packaging stretch film, which is another a reprocessed material. We are promoting circular through organized reprocessing companies which exist within Kenya, like Mr. Green and Taka Taka Solutions, whom we partner with to locally source all the used product line. It may be consumer packaging or secondary packaging, but all is locally sourced and converted into resins, then we partner with them and produce new products lines from this. We are currently working with our partners and multinationals such as Unilever on how we can go circular on the primary consumer packaging too.

Could you take us through your latest achievements in terms of innovation and technology?

On the innovation front, Silafrica is working on how to get the same quality packaging with lesser polymers. In 2019, we launched a product for the dairy industry: IML (In-Mold Labeling) yogurt cups. The current packaging that we are manufacturing has 20% less weight compared to what is available in the local market. That means Silafrica is bringing 20% less material for every packaging we are selling to our customers, and we are indirectly promoting the green in our local. So there is less carbon dioxide, less resins used, less polymer used, and less plastic used when it goes for recycling in the market.

As mentioned earlier, we are also currently working with our multinational partners to go on weight reduction programs for all of our current primary consumer packaging. It may be for the personal care industry or the food industry. Silafrica has already embarked on the program to reduce a minimum of 15% to 20% of weight from the current packaging weight of whatever we have been manufacturing for our customers.

We have been very successful in the last three years with this approach, particularly the IML yogurt cup line. We want to extend this to all the other product lines that we are manufacturing in our factory. This cuts across our primary packaging, which goes directly to the consumer or the returnable packaging which we use for the bottle crates.

On the technology front, we are the first company in the whole African continent to have hybrid lines, which consume less power, have higher output, and are connected to a system which can be monitored 24/7. We can evaluate the performance of the packaging and what we are manufacturing from these machines. We can also monitor the quality of the machine and how it is running during the whole life cycle. The latest technology hybrid machine that we have bought can run continuously for a year without a maintenance regime.

Silafrica is going to industry 4.0 because we have now onboarded a partner from the UK called Team Tracks through which we are able to integrate our production. In real time basis, we will be able to monitor our productivity, the quantum of energy consumed, the machine performances and our output.

Is Silafrica involved in any type of CSR activities?

On the sustainability part, Silafrica has a 10% pledge which means that 10% of our capacity is pledged for corporate social responsible programs. We have partnered with a company called Lixil which has developed affordable toilets. We manufacture plastic toilets that consume less water and improve hygiene in every household, driving a program with UNICEF and with the local governments across East Africa to improve the level of sanitation. Since all the local governments are embarking on getting 100% defect free in their respective countries, we are partnering with all these local associations, non-governmental organizations and governments on a global level, as well as donor programs to promote sanitation across East Africa.

On the hygiene and water conservation side, we produce water tanks with a brand called SIM Tank. We have been promoting them in Tanzania, Kenya, and as far as Madagascar. We supply them with as low as 50 liters up to 15,000 liters for water conservation purposes. This will help to improve water availability for every household and also improve agriculture, because we can do more harvesting with water conservation on this product line. Silafrica has also partnered with the Kenyan Association of Farmers Federation, which has more than 2 million registered farmers in their forum. We are partnering with them and communities that do not have access to basic sanitation to support them with affordable water tanks.

What projects are you currently working on?

Currently, we are working on packaging which will bring in more value to different customers. It can either be export oriented customers or our local existing customers. We are trying to work with all our existing partners and our future partners to understand what kind of packaging would help them reduce their operation costs. Secondly, we are working on improving the quality of the packaging which is used to pack their goods, as this gives products an extended quality of life. Third, we are focused on reducing operation costs. We are trying to find all kinds of packaging which would bring value to them by replacing their existing ones.

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