Mamata Enterprises Inc., a division of India's largest manufacturer of machinery for plastic bags and pouches, has opened a 7,000-square-foot facility in Bradenton, FL, and plans to hire 10 people in the next few months.

The flexible packaging, application and innovation center at 3210 59th Drive E., which opened in October, is a $5 million investment that will employ skilled labor, design engineers and sales people, said General Manager Randy Uebler.

"We will be developing new packaging techniques for machinery to make it more efficient, able to work at higher speeds and more flexible," he said. "This is all being driven by customer demands."

The need to produce higher performing sealing technologies and greater seal integrity are some of the factors that drive the machinery design changes, Uebler said. It is a highly competitive industry sector and Mamata is developing cutting-edge technology to stay ahead of its competition, he said.

Companies like Kraft, Proctor and Gamble and General Mills would be likely clients for Mamata. Plastic pouches are being used more frequently for food products because of their cost effectiveness, Uebler said. Mamata selected the Bradenton area because of the high number of plastic-related companies in the region, he said.

"There are quite a few companies like ours in the area," said Uebler, who previously worked as general manager at KHS in Sarasota. Mamata, which began its U.S. operations in 2003, also has a sales, service and demonstration facility in Montgomery, Ill.

Mamata Machinery, based in Ahmedabad, India, has been in business for more than 20 years.
Mamata Machinery, the flagship company of the $75 million Mamata Group, employs 200 people making a full line of bag and pouch equipment.

"We are actually going to start making prototype machines for form, fill and seal. This is an extension of our line, and it's happening in the U.S.," Mamata Group Chairman Mahendra Patel said. Since the company deals with food packaging, there are lots of USDA sanitation requirements.

"It's highly technical and very specialized," Uebler said about the development of the machinery.
He said the company is the only one in the United States designing and building machinery for plastic bags and pouches.

When people question the company's expansion in this economy, Uebler says if you are selling or making something people want, the economy is working for you. "Many things are more affordable now like purchasing assets and real estate," he said.

A global packaging company locating in Manatee County is good news for the area, said Peter Straw, executive director with Sarasota Manatee Manufacturing Association. "Packaging equipment for consumer goods is a very viable market," he said. "It's great we have another player in that industry trying to get established here, especially when it's a company on a global scale."

When the business demand calls for it, Uebler said the company will expand. "It is imminent that expansion will be a part of our future, especially after the marketplace learns about our newly developed machinery and the high return on investment which it has to offer," he said. Plans call for Mamata to build a flexible packaging application lab in 2011, he said, with construction beginning this summer.

Copyright (c) 2011, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.