Orient Press is fundamentally a printing and packaging manufacturer that has spent over 35 years evolving from a commercial printer into a multi-material packaging converter, all while controlled by the Maheshwari family since its founding in 1987. The company listed on Indian stock exchanges in 1994 and has since built its business by running several distinct factory operations under one roof, each serving different end-user industries like food, pharmaceuticals, and finance. The recurring approach that explains everything else is a deliberate pivot away from plastic and toward paper-based packaging, a strategic shift management pursues explicitly to protect the business from any future government ban on plastic packaging on environmental grounds.
Business segments
Four manufacturing engines at different stages - a flexible-packaging workhorse under regulatory shadow, a declining print division, a paper-board unit that is the company’s strategic bet, and a fledgling consumer-goods diversification - each shaped by the same push toward paper.
1. Flexible packaging: the volume engine that plastic regulation threatens
This division makes multi-layer plastic laminates for food and FMCG brands, generating the largest share of company revenue, but it operates in a brutal price war and faces an existential regulatory risk.
- Largest revenue contributor - it is the biggest single division in the company, manufacturing flexible packaging material from multi-layer film laminates for food, pharmaceutical, and FMCG customers.
- Raw materials are tied to oil prices - its key inputs are petrochemical-based polymer granules, which are crude oil derivatives, so the division is exposed to international petrochemical market swings.
- Cannot pass on cost increases quickly - because so many players compete in flexible packaging, the company is generally a price taker and can only revise prices after market leaders move, creating a lag when input costs rise.
- Plastic regulation is the long-term threat - the fastest-growing packaging segments in India are laminates and flexible packaging, but environmental concerns over recycling multilayer plastics used in processed foods hang over the division, which is exactly why the company is steering toward paper.
2. Printing: the legacy business in structural decline
This division prints IPO forms, textbooks, and security documents for financial and educational institutions, and its sales are shrinking as the IPO market shifts online.
- Serves schools, universities, and capital markets - it prints textbooks, notebooks, and answer books for many Indian universities, alongside capital market stationery like IPO forms, annual reports, and mutual fund scheme documents.
- Security printing was once a mainstay - historically, the division produced MICR cheques, dividend warrants, share certificates, railway tickets, telephone scratch cards, and smart cards.
- Sales fell because IPO forms and diaries declined - the division experienced a drop in sales in FY25, driven specifically by a downfall in IPO forms printing, annual reports printing, and diary printing business.
- A price taker in a fragmented market - the company operates in an intensely competitive and largely unorganized market, and its moderate scale restricts it from making timely price revisions; it can only follow the market leaders.
- Demand depends on government policy - the Right to Education Act drives textbook and notebook demand, while government financial-sector initiatives drive the IPO market, making the division’s fortunes tied to public policy cycles.
3. Paper board cartons and rigid boxes: the strategic hedge
This division makes mono cartons, display cartons, and corrugated boxes, and it sits at the centre of the company’s deliberate pivot toward paper-based packaging to escape plastic risk.
- Produces the full range of paper packaging - it manufactures paper board mono cartons, liner cartons, display cartons, rigid boxes, and outer corrugated boxes for packaging applications across industries.
- The company’s declared strategic thrust - management has explicitly made paper and paper board related printing and packaging its main thrust, to safeguard the business against any government legislation to curb plastic-related packaging on environmental grounds.
- Also runs below capacity - like the flexible packaging division, this unit has operated below its production capacity due to severe competition from the unorganized sector and un-remunerative selling prices.
- E-commerce is the tailwind - corrugated boxes represent about 80% of packaging demand in the e-commerce sector, and the corrugated box market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% to reach USD 297 billion by 2035.
- Invested in lamination machines for export - the company has installed automatic Board to Kraft fluting Lamination Machines specifically to enhance business opportunities in value-added printing and packaging and the export market, reinforcing its commitment to eco-friendly packaging.
4. Paper bags: the quick-service-restaurant niche
This is a small, fast-growing unit making paper bags for branded restaurant chains, built on dedicated machines and certified to international food-safety standards.
- Makes bags for KFC, Taco Bell, and others - notable clients include KFC, Taco Bell, Kamaths Retails, Tea Post, and Tibbs Frankie, serving the quick-service restaurant and retail chain segment.
- Four bag-making machines across two sites - as of January 2025, the segment operated four bag-making machines, three at Silvassa and one at Tarapur, along with two flexo printing machines, with an installed capacity of roughly 75 lakh bags per month.
- Certified for global food brands - the paper bag unit holds BRC, RBI (Restaurant Brand International), FSC, and ISO 9001 certifications, and has undergone a Sedex Audit, which is what allows it to supply international chains.
- Grew at nearly 30% per quarter - as of FY23, the paper bag division was growing at almost 30% on a quarterly basis, reflecting the demand shift toward paper-based packaging in food retail.
- Part of the paper pivot - this segment aligns directly with the company’s strategic thrust toward paper-based packaging to pre-empt plastic-related regulatory risks.
5. Candles: the consumer-goods experiment
A brand-new diversification into candle manufacturing, set up in a rented facility and producing its first revenue only in FY25 - a small bet outside the core packaging business.
- Started production in mid-2024 - the Board approved the diversification during FY24, and commercial production at the Tarapur plant commenced on June 1, 2024, making FY25 its first partial year of operation.
- Makes a wide variety of candles - the unit produces pillar candles, table-top dinner candles, votive candles, tea light candles, scented glass jar candles, and floating candles, in white, coloured, scented, and unscented variants.
- A modest investment in rented space - the facility was set up with an estimated investment of approximately Rs 5 crores, in rented premises of about 540 square meters at a monthly rent of Rs 1.4 lakh, with a power load of 40 HP and a water requirement of 1,500 litres per day.
- Earned Rs 1.29 crores in its first partial year - revenue from operations for the candles division was Rs 1.29 crores in FY25, representing the initial ramp-up phase of a newly commissioned plant.
Group structure and partners
The company operates within a family-controlled group that includes a subsidiary, an associate courier company, and financial investments, with banking relationships anchored by three lenders.
- Subsidiary and associate companies - the company has a subsidiary, Orient Flexipack Limited, and is an associate company of Fortune Couriers Limited, from which it rents premises in Silvassa and buys courier services.
- Related-party job-work arrangements - the company has job-work service agreements with M/s. Orient Printers for printing textbooks, answer books, prospectuses, and forms, up to specified limits.
- Financial investments held - non-current investments include 832,000 shares in Orient Fincorp Ltd. and 1,000 shares in Saraswat Co-Op Bank Ltd., both measured at fair value through profit or loss.
- Three banking partners - working capital limits and term loans are provided by Axis Bank Ltd., Indian Bank (Allahabad Bank), and Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, with a CARE BB+- Stable rating on long-term and short-term bank facilities.
- Export House status and investment property - the company was awarded Export House status by the Government of India for consistent export performance, and it holds investment property including part of freehold land and a building at Silvassa and an office in Mumbai that generate rental income.