Photo: Kamal Narang

COMING TOGETHER: Richard Peachey (right), Vice-President and General Council, Rexam Beverage Can Europe and Asia, exchanging documents with Vijay Bhatia (centre), Chairman, Hindustan Tin Works, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Sanjay Bhatia, Managing Director, looks on.

NEW DELHI: Hindustan Tin Works Ltd on Tuesday announced a joint venture agreement with the U.K.-based Rexam Beverage Can (India Holdings) Ltd, a part of UK.Rexam plc, for setting up Southeast Asia's first facility in Mumbai in India to manufacture two-piece beverage cans besides other products.

The new entity HTV Beverage Can India Pvt. Ltd, which eventually would change to Rexam Beverage Can (India) Pvt. Ltd, would invest initially Rs. 90 crore to establish the new state-of-the-art facility, Richard Peachey, Vice-President and General Council, Rexam Beverage Can Europe and Asia, told media persons after formally signing the joint venture agreement on Tuesday.

The joint venture would manufacture, distribute and market two-piece cans and it would have a significant impact on the Indian food and beverage industry as demand for these cans had seen a sharp growth. The facility will have an initial capacity of 450 million cans — both DWI beverage cans and DRD beverage and food cans. To start, with 330 ml size cans would be manufactured and followed by 500 ml and other sizes, depending on the demand.

"This is our first foray in the Southeast Asian market and going by global growth indicators, India has always been poised to be our preferred choice," Mr. Peachey said, adding that while the overall metal packaging sector here was growing at five per cent annually, the beverage can market had shown an exceptional growth of 70 per cent over the last one year.

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