Amandeep Singh, National Sales Manager, Reflective Products Division, Avery Dennison India Pvt Ltd on the importance of reflective sheeting in road safety and the role of Avery Dennison in the Indian market
What is the importance of reflective safety sheeting and materials in the road safety market in the country?
Reflective safety sheeting is at least as important, if not more important, as a good road. It performs the basic function of giving information to drivers and the critical function of keeping the road users safe. Using the right kind of materials at the right places is extremely important to ensure that the safety of the road users is not compromised with.
In the real world, there are various factors on the road such as dust, vehicle emissions, inclement weather and vandalism. Reflective signs with higher degree of reflectivity provide a greater margin of safety for drivers, thereby reducing the chances of accidents.
What range of industries and market segments do you service with your reflective safety products?
We cater to all the sectors where reflective signage is required, the road sector being the primary one. We supply our signage through small, medium and large road contractors. We have worked virtually with every major NHAI contractor and concessionaire such as L&T, GMR, GVK, Ramky, Gayatri, IJM, IL&FS, IRB, Oriental, GR Infra and Sadbhav Engineering. Signage using Avery Dennison materials have been installed at various prestigious locations like the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, Delhi-Agra Highway, Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and the Maharashtra border check post. Our road safety materials have also been approved and used by townships and industrial premises. Apart from that, our signage has been used by various divisions of the Indian Railways and Metro Rail for the track and circulating signs. We also have a major presence in the oil sector – our materials are being used by major oil companies such as IOC, BPCL and HPCL. We have earned a major distinction in the sports arena too as we supplied the signage at the first ever Formula 1 race held in India last year. Apart from that, our products having excellent digital printing capabilities have been used by corporate houses such as Airtel, Vodafone, Coke and Uninor.
What is Avery Dennison’s strategy for the Indian market?
India being one of the fastest growing economies of the world has immense potential in infrastructure development with a like never before focus on the road sector. Avery Dennison, with its growing team and the widest reflective sheeting product range, is well positioned and prepared to address this opportunity. We have built a strong network with the various end users from whom we expect to get business in the coming years.
What is the most important thing you would like our readers to know about your company and your products?
Avery Dennison is a U.S. based multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 Company with global leadership in pressure-sensitive technology, self-adhesive materials, retro-reflective films, road safety products, and specialised label systems. Avery Dennison pioneered the pressure-sensitive technology in 1935 and today it employees more than 30,000 people, manufactures products in over 200 plants and offices, and markets the same in 80 countries globally.
It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of retro-reflective sheeting for traffic signage. The organisation is one of the two industry members in the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) team setting the specifications that govern the use of retro-reflective sheeting, which are in turn, used worldwide. Avery Dennison India is 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Avery Dennison Corporation, USA.
The traffic and safety products from Avery are as per the latest standards laid down by ASTM D4956, Indian Roads Congress (IRC 67:2010) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). We have been in India for more than a decade now.
Our reflective sheetings are omni-directional which means they can be cut and used in any orientation without affecting the overall reflectivity of the sign or of the legends on it. This feature not only improves the overall sign performance by providing uniformity over the entire surface but also enables to reduce the overall cost by over 25%.
Our latest offering – the Omnicube – meets the type XI specifications set by the ASTM standard and uses the full-cube technology for retro-reflection. This technology helps to return the light in the most efficient manner making the signs bright at small, medium and long distances.
Are you planning any new launches or products for the Indian market?
At this point we can only reveal that we are conducting feasibility tests and evaluating the commercial viability of certain road safety and allied products.