WHEN, in 2018, PPM last visited Zuber Dosani and his team at their then-newish Longmeadow premises in Gauteng, the Nurscon newsflash was the installation of a Uteco eight-colour flexographic press. Talking to Zuber in November 2022 reveals several quantum leaps for the business – in fact, it’s been nothing less than a flexibles revolution.
Zuber and his brothers Zaheer, on tech, and Suhel, balancing the bottom line, have been working their socks off to take the business from impressive to incredible. And nothing has been overlooked – not the company name, the organisational structure and staff complement, the operating sites nor the technology … you name it, but you wouldn’t recognise it.
It’s the realisation of a vision held and refined by the Dosanis since the 1990s when they set up a small operation to the east of Johannesburg specialising in LDPE planting bags for nurseries and garden centres. They soon diversified into printed and non-printed shrink films and multilayer flexible packaging for snacks, pet food, powdered drink sachets, biscuit packs and ice cream wrappers.
Zuber told PPM 10 years ago that despite the influx of imported finished goods, Nurscon was growing significantly and aspired to expand its services to more multinational customers in South Africa and beyond. In those respects, at least, not much has changed – global competition is still a factor and, with the low duties imposed on importers, a big one; growth is still great and expanding its reach very much a Nurscon priority.
Same game, new name
The first noticeable change of the recent past came three years ago when Nurscon Plastics stepped aside for Nurscon Flexibles. ‘The name better represented our business,’ Zuber affirms. ‘Plastics could be just about anything.’ The new logo that carries the change of identity has no particular significance, he adds. ‘We just liked the look of it.’
What followed was a review of where the business was heading and where it intended to go. ‘We made the decision to revitalise our team and bring in more global expertise to take us to a new level,’ he points out. From top management to the sales team and all points in between, the face of Nurscon has undergone an extreme makeover.’
Zuber learnt that Dhiren Patel was on the market, armed with considerable international experience. His was just the global insight that the company was seeking, having worked at Positive Packaging Industries in both South Africa and Nigeria over 19 years, following 18 years of financial and commercial experience in his native India with large pharmaceutical and capital venture companies.
Dhiren, who joined in July 2020, keeps an expert eye on day-to-day business operations, with a special focus on organic growth and uncovering new customers and markets. He is ably assisted by operations manager and 50-year veteran of the production environment, Roy Mahabir, appointed in February following the untimely death of previous COO Donovan Ranjith.
Dhiren also monitors and seeks ways to improve production efficiencies, which he finds particularly exciting. A couple of years ago, he wouldn’t have had to travel far to do that – just down the passage to the production hall of the 14 500m² Longmeadow operation. Now, however, Nurscon is on the expansion trail, with two new operations, one a hop and skip away in Linbro Park and another a little further afield, in Matsapha, Eswatini, where construction began in April to transform the former Taitex factory into a modern architectural masterpiece befitting a flourishing flexibles packaging organisation. It may be one of the smallest countries in Africa but its sizeable potential as a base to service southern Africa didn’t go unnoticed by the astute Dosanis.
The Linbro Park facility is almost a carbon copy of Longmeadow and was created with a very special purpose in mind. ‘This 6 000m² factory is a risk mitigation measure for us and is equipped to do everything the main plant can do,’ Zuber explains. ‘If Longmeadow production is disrupted or delayed for any reason, Linbro will power into action and ensure timely delivery of orders and service continuity. When all the equipment comes online it will give us not only that important edge over competitors by providing a production backstop, but will increase our capacity by 30%.’
Eswatini, he continues, will span 5 000m² and export 90% of its production, mostly in the snacks category, into neighbouring countries Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola, with the remaining 10% making up any local shortfall. It will also be a valuable additional resource should a major disruption occur at home.
The expansions will take staff numbers up to about 180, with 60 employees coming on board with phase one of Eswatini and a further 30 during phase two.
Linbro limbers up for growth with tech uptick
Eight is normally enough for Nurscon. If a machine has served for this number of years, more often than not it’s time to put it out to print-heaven pasture. But not before a brand-spanking-new model is waiting in the wings to take its place. With not an iota of reluctance to invest where many tread warily, the company invested R200-million in new machines in 2021 and 2022 alone, which increased installed capacities to 18 000 tons/annum from 2021 and will boost this to 24 000 tons by the end of 2022. This upgrade included the installation of two Nordmeccanica Supercombis in 2020.
The latest coups include a Heliostar ll S, the only one of its kind in the country, and a Flexoline Miraflex II M8, both from Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H).
Dhiren talks enthusiastically about the technological developments. ‘This is amazing technology with all the bells and whistles one would expect. It’s designed for maximum productivity, efficiency and offers all the advantages of superior washing and drying systems, all with vastly reduced energy consumption.’
The Heliostar II, currently being commissioned, replaces an outdated Pelican gravure press. The Heliocontrol feature ensures precise registration accuracy for demanding substrates and low contrasting inks and varnishes. Easy-sync promises quick and simple preregister setting, while the driven inking roller is geared for high-quality inking no matter what the print speed.
Other features include a slide-in Combicart for easy exchange of cylinders and/or inking system and an energy-efficient drying system having variable air speed with recirculation.
Output is up to 400m/min, with a maximum printing width of 1 380mm.
The Flexoline Miraflex II M8 is another premium performer, boasting superior print quality, high throughput and productivity, and quick job changeovers. Designed for food and non-food flexible packaging on all types of available films, paper and laminate substrates, it can run solvent- or water-based inks. Its fully-integrated systems offer intuitive handling.
Both presses are housed at Linbro Park, the Miraflex having been fired up in June.
With the new tech, Nurscon will enjoy maximum uptime and easy operation, nine-colour printing, electrostatic assist to ensure complete and accurate ink transfer onto the substrate and auto print registration, ink viscosity controls and cold-seal application facilities.
Cold-seal is something new for Nurscon, Dhiren points out. ‘A key benefit is the increase in packaging speed compared to heat-seal packaging. Cold-seal packaging delivers value to any brand owner packing heat-sensitive goods such as protein and nutritional bars and ice-cream products.
‘This capability will allow us to make inroads into chocolate and cold bakery items, which are new markets for us but ones that we want to explore fully.’
Another addition, he adds, is an advanced inline inspection system with workflow system on all machines at Nurscon to ensure print defect-free output. Problem areas are detected immediately and electronically flagged for the operator to remove at the next stage. As the system is extremely sensitive, the operator can inspect each defect to assess its significance.
‘Furthermore, at K 2022 we ordered another Nordmeccanica Super Simplex two-layer laminating machine for solventless adhesives. The machine accommodates web widths of up to 1 300mm and reel diameters of 1 000mm and runs at 450m/min.’
The Longmeadow armoury includes two blown-film lines with three-layer co-extrusion capabilities, five laminators with duplex and tandem lamination structures, seven bagging machines and 10 slitters.
Clean sweeps
Chocolates are not the only area in which Nurscon is making its name and staking its claim. Its forward-thinking attitude and investment follow-through have seen it take considerable market share in another lucrative market – that for detergents such as dishwashing liquid – which in the last couple of years has grown to account for almost 25% of its production.
‘The snacks market is also expanding rapidly, as are cereals, which are both traditional sectors for us,’ Zuber confirms. ‘But also promising is the presence we’ve established since 2021 in the margarine and butter spread category, which has great potential. We also recently moved into wraparound labelling.’
Similarly positive news is the company’s growing footprint in the UK, which has necessitated Zuber’s semigration from sunny skies to the cooler climes of London, where he’s reunited with his family every few months as he conducts opportunity-uncovering trips.
‘With no tariffs levied on exports to the UK and 80% of its packaging materials and finish product being imported, it’s a natural expansion for us,’ he mentions. ‘We’re currently supplying packaging to one or two companies in the snacks sector, but there’s tremendous scope to expand this and ultimately to move into industrial packaging. Our quality and service stack up so there’s no reason we shouldn’t be on a par market size-wise with major importers such as Turkey, India and Dubai.
‘There is a massive focus there on sustainability and our plans in this area are occupying much of our time. Machine-direction orientation (MDO) has really taken off in the UK, as it offers great rigidity, superior printability and die-cutting performance and excellent recyclability, fitting in with the growing call for eco-friendly packaging and products,’ Zuber reports.
The rising popularity of pouches is particularly evident there and public awareness of the environmental issues of packaging is crystal clear. During a recent trip, I overheard two women in a supermarket expressing disdain for the number of single-use plastics they were seeing on the shelves. This is a trend and a consciousness that will shape
the future of packaging in South Africa as well.’
He continues: ‘We intend to buy an MDO extrusion line soon, but are considering our decision carefully to ensure that our investment dovetails with where the market is going. At the moment, we’re happy to keep buying in certain films, but once we’ve built up market share, we will definitely bring manufacturing in-house. We’re looking to make a decision on this technology in the next 12 months.’
With not an iota of reluctance to invest where many tread warily, the company invested R200-million in new machines in 2021 and 2022 alone.”
The corporate family
Given its recent track record of bold moves on paths near and far, Nurscon has certainly graduated from packaging’s nursery slopes. However, it has not abandoned the family-owned-business feel that helped to shape its success from an early age. ‘Nurscon will always have its family core, but has also incorporated the best elements of a corporate enterprise,’ Zuber stresses. ‘We could never be a corporate in the traditional sense because of the market we serve. Corporate is often rigid, while our customers want product quickly and just in time. They don’t want to carry large inventories, which means that we take on that role, stocking more raw materials to replenish their stocks as and when needed. We have adopted certain corporate practices that work for us, but balanced these with family touches. We are, you could say, flexible in name and nature.’
This being the case and with smaller and more frequent orders, the company has improved its lead times markedly, he adds. ‘Turnaround is a big problem in South Africa, but swift response is a non-negotiable part of our service and has become our true strength. This is due not only to advanced equipment but to better planning and procurement at the hands of members of the new management team.’
Everything at Nurscon is coming up proteas, it seems, and the Dosanis are edging closer to the vision they imagined in 1997 – to become one of the biggest flexibles packaging manufacturers in South Africa. However, with all that has transpired since PPM’s last visit in 2018, they might just have to expand the geographic boundaries on that one.
