Dheeraj Farmania, CMO, Cool Caps Industries Limited, discussed the company’s evolution from flexible packaging to a multi-unit manufacturing presence across India. He outlined Cool Caps’ focus on quality, customization, customer engagement, and recycling-led initiatives as part of its growth strategy.
Vamakshi Dhoria: All right, we’re being joined by Mr. Dheeraj Farmania, who is the CMO, that is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cool Caps Industries Ltd. Hi there, thank you so much for joining in with us. So, you know, let’s just kick things off and understand, you know, what Cool Caps actually does and you know, what are some of the products that you offer, how has the company shaped up over the last couple of years?
Dheeraj Farmania: See, Cool Caps has come out from Purv.
Purv is a group company, so it started its journey in 1994 by Mr. Rajiv Goenka, who is actually the force behind the entire evolution of where Cool Caps is today or where the Purv group is as of today. So it started our journey with flexible packaging, with SRF, Jubilant, Inc., Adesiv. So Mr. Rajiv Goenka, he is actually a very visionary person.
From trading, we shifted to manufacturing from 2015. We went into shrink film manufacturing, then we came into closures. Closures were the first step of our coming to this industry or putting a name on this industry, our presence being felt all over.
We started in 2017 with West Bengal, then 2020 we started in Uttarakhand, then another unit in Uttarakhand 2022, then we went for 2025 Assam and 2024 Assam and 2025 or starting of 2026, we’ll be in Odisha as well. So, yes, we have grown because from regional players, we have started supplying to national players, international players like PepsiCo is also there, Bisleri, Reliance, Palde Agro, then Kingfisher is there, Patanjali is there, IRCTC is there, Genus is there, Marico, Imami and so on.
Vamakshi Dhoria: So, wide range of customers that you cater to, right?
Dheeraj Farmania: Yes, yes, yes.
We have a very young team, very aggressive team and we are joined with Mr. Vansher Goenka and Mr. Unnath Goenka who are like Rajiv Goenka’s two sons. So, with their new approach towards restructuring of the entire group, yes, we are growing well and we are doing well. Absolutely.
Vamakshi Dhoria: And, you know, if you can just tell us a bit more about your own personal journey, you know, you mentioned earlier on when we were talking that you’ve been here since its inception. So, how has the company actually grown since then? And what would you highlight as some of the key milestones that the company has been able to achieve since you’re here?
Dheeraj Farmania: I joined Cool Caps in 2018, where we had just one company, one manufacturing unit. From there, we changed our policies and the market was a very diversified market.
It was a very price sensitive market. So, we broke that rhythm and we drew a line where we would focus more on quality than on pricing. So, that was the game changer.
Then we brought customized products for the clients. The market was very non-customized. So, we went into small bottlers.
As we reached out, we made a reach very deep within the region. The entire East region, we penetrated like anything. So, that was a very, very game changer, as I would say, because we came out with printed closures.
And in printed closures, there were a variety of closures. There were small manufacturers, you know, who cannot afford to invest in embossed closures because that was a high capex thing. So, we went to them.
And as personally speaking, it’s a very good experience, which I have learned out here. How to do a good marketing, keeping your ethics and principles consolidated in one place. And yes, we have grown from one unit to four units, multiple manufacturing units, multiple products, and the market is also growing.
So, it’s got room for more. And we want to capture that room more and more. Absolutely.
Vamakshi Dhoria: So, you already tried to spread your wings and you’ve been successful at that as well. Yes. Yes.
I mean, what are some of the challenges that you perhaps faced along the way as you were expanding? If you can just, you know, sort of give us some story behind it. You know, what were some of the headwinds that you had to overcome?
Dheeraj Farmania: See, we were manufacturing and producing from SACME, which is an Italian company. The challenge was coming from local injection molding closures, which were comparatively low capex and low cost.
But the quality was not good. So, making the customers understand that how to go about the quality. The downtime will be less.
They will be gaining more by using our closure or SACME closures. Because when your downtime is less, you indirectly tend to get more productivity and indirectly you reduce cost. So, yes, that was a very, very challenging task.
Because out here the customers, you know, those are the times when the customers don’t use nails. Correct. So, you need to make them understand that technology wise, you have to make them, you have to actually educate them.
Okay. And once they became educated, then they become your very paid customers. Okay.
So, customization, you were mentioning that is something that… Customization and customer education. Correct. Like, EGC is a very price sensitive region.
So, even a small change in price changes the dynamics of your product or your sales. So, educating them and making them understand why they should use a costlier product to gain more. Correct.
You know, normally it’s very difficult for a person to make them understand that using a costly product will make them gain. Correct. So, that was difficult.
But once it seeped in, so the mouth advertisement, because in this industry, you will not see anybody focusing on advertisement, like coming on national channels, Cool Caps Industries Limited closures. So, you won’t see these kinds of things from accommodators as well. So, mouth advertisement plays a very big role.
And once your goods will is established, believe me, there’s no turning back.
Vamakshi Dhoria: Understood. So, this, the nature of this, you know, industry that you operate in is largely commoditized, but you differentiate yourselves with customer education and customization to their standards.
Absolutely. So, and I mean, how’s the overall competitive scenario like in the industry? And I mean, how do you, you know, sort of get the customers on board? Because I’m sure that that is a very time consuming task, right?
Dheeraj Farmania: So, when the customers come on board, it becomes difficult to translate, you know, inquiries into actual sales, given that, you know, not just East India, even India overall is a very priceless. See, one thing people were not doing when we entered this market, they were not doing after sales.
It was just selling the product at the customer given price. Okay. So, we changed that scenario.
We went, we reached out to the customer, whatever the problems, we were taking care of it. We were giving rectified solutions to them. So, that, because indirectly our growth is related to them.
So, if they are growing, we are growing simultaneously. Correct. So, that is what we made them understand.
And likewise, what happened, it was something, it was a good handshake that we could do with our customers. So, that and it remains a very ethos till date. But no compromise on quality.
After sales, service is very, very important. And we have a dedicated service team who one call away, they go to any part of India and they take care of the customer. Understood.
Vamakshi Dhoria: So, you have five units right now. Is there any plan to set up more units? Are there any other units that are upcoming?
Dheeraj Farmania: See, Cool Caps have got 300% subsidiaries. Okay. 100% own subsidiaries. PURVE Technoplast Pvt. Ltd., PURVE Ecoplast Pvt. Ltd., PURVE Packaging Pvt. Ltd. In PURVE Technoplast, we have come into recycling.
Because everybody used to say plastic is a necessary evil. So, necessity we know because there is no replacement for plastic because packaging it comes very cheap. Correct.
Evil part, we were taking care. So, we came out with this recycling part, pet recycling in Assam. Right now, we are making our flakes.
We are making around 1500 tons per month. So, the beauty of it is that the load that you are doing so much in plastics and somewhere you know the environmental people and that the plastics are not good. So, we are taking care of that where we are making it a circular economy.
Correct. So, as a responsible citizen, as a responsible corporate entity, we are taking care of the evil part. So, you know tomorrow we can say yes we are selling plastics and we are taking care of it also.
Vamakshi Dhoria: Correct. So, if you can just you know for the benefit of our viewers explain what a circular economy is right from the art place. How does it actually get recycled?
Dheeraj Farmania: Like supposing today you have a bottle of water and you are drinking and what do you do with that water? You throw it. You throw it away. Exactly. So, now that is where we come in because those are collected by the rag pickers.
Then, it goes to the aggregators. The aggregators means whatever they collect from the rag pickers, they make it into bales. They make it consolidated.
From there, it comes to us. From there, it’s a process. It’s we have a process.
We have a machinery brought from outside. It’s we have I am cannot go into the more details about it because the technical thing and from there we make it into our flakes. When the PPM particles per million is below 50, we can use it in food grade application.
So, that’s what we are currently doing. So, we are not downgrading. Normally, what happens, supposing there are different kinds of plastics, you know.
PP is there. HDP is there. LLP is there and PET is there. So, normally earlier what used to happen, they all got consolidated. They got recycled and what used to do from there? Road dividers, flower pots. So, what was happening? We were degrading the entire product.
So, 100 rupees product, we were bringing it down to 30 rupees. Okay. So, what we are doing is circular economy means that we are keeping the product at the same level or higher.
Correct. So, the burden on Mother Earth is lessened. Absolutely.
So, it’s our contribution. We are taking care of it. With the trend of sustainability actually picking up, I think this fits in quite well with that, right? See, sustainability is there.
Our CSR is there. We say it’s a corporate responsibility cum business module because somewhere down the line, everybody should take care of plastics and we are taking care in a big, big way. Understood.
Vamakshi Dhoria: And, you know, if you can just help us understand what is the vision of the company going forward. In the next, you know, you said that, you know, you’re doing quite well.
You’re growing quite well. What is the vision of the company? What are the other areas that you’re looking at expanding?
Dheeraj Farmania: End-to-end solution in flexible and rigid packaging. So, beverages and water industry, we are already present. Now, we are moving on to non-beverages as well. So, we are in touch with Merico, Imami, Genius, Smartmeters, you know. So, that’s where we are going.
So, slowly and gradually, we are spreading our wings to non-beverage as in ISBM, IBM, injection stretch blow molding, injection blow molding. So, those are the places where we are moving on. And where do you see the most growth in out of all of these areas? Those are the industries which I see much growth because there’s not many players out there.
Again, the customers are not educated out there because they are doing it. But again, it’s a food quality thing. So, how much quality is being taken care of? So, those are the parts where we will fill in.
We will ensure that quality is maintained not just by the price but for the product as well.
Vamakshi Dhoria: Alright. Great talking to you, Mr. Farmania.
Dheeraj Farmania: Thank you so much. Always a pleasure. Thank you.