Built for Continuity: Ahmed Shafiullah on Integration & Strategic Packaging Partnerships

Q: The packaging industry continues to face supply chain disruption, raw material volatility and freight pressures globally. How has IPP adapted to maintain reliability for customers across MEA and export markets?

Ahmed Shafiullah: Over recent years, maintaining continuity has required greater operational discipline and closer coordination across the entire value chain.

Our teams worked closely with suppliers, logistics partners and internal planning functions to secure raw material availability and maintain stable production flow despite market uncertainty.

Liquidity management and financial discipline also became increasingly important. Where freight disruptions and regional instability created pressure, we remained focused on protecting inbound material flow and ensuring production continuity.

At the same time, the UAE demonstrated exceptional resilience through infrastructure readiness and logistics agility, allowing import and export movements to continue efficiently.

Throughout this period, our objective remained straightforward: protect customer supply continuity, maintain operational stability and continue serving as a reliable long-term packaging partner.

Q: IPP has built a strong reputation as a long-established family-led business. What values and operational strengths have enabled sustained growth?

Ahmed Shafiullah: Our business has always been built around a simple principle — the customer comes first. IPP has followed a philosophy of conservative, sustainable organic growth while maintaining reliability and service standards. We have never pursued growth at the expense of consistency or customer confidence.

Long-term relationships, accountability and responsiveness remain central to our culture. Combined with continuous investment in manufacturing capability, automation and technical expertise, those principles have helped us remain resilient and growth-focused through changing market conditions.

Q: One of the most striking aspects of IPP is its fully backward-integrated manufacturing model. How does this strengthen agility and customer support?

Ahmed Shafiullah: Integration gives us a significant operational advantage. By managing critical processes internally — from cylinder engraving and extrusion through to printing, lamination and pouch converting — we maintain tighter control over quality, scheduling and execution.

One of the biggest benefits is speed to market. Reduced dependency on external suppliers allows faster development cycles, quicker commercialisation and stronger responsiveness.

Equally important is customer confidentiality. Centralised operational control improves traceability and gives customers greater confidence when developing sensitive projects or preparing for product launches.

 Q: IPP is also investing in technologies including Expanded Colour Gamut (ECG), advanced ink management and process automation. How do these investments support the future?

Ahmed Shafiullah: We see technology as essential to building a more efficient and sustainable manufacturing platform.

Expanded Colour Gamut is an important step towards greater print standardisation, colour consistency and repeatability. For modern brand owners managing multiple SKUs, this creates greater predictability and production efficiency.

Our integrated ink management systems form part of a wider automation strategy.

They improve colour accuracy, reduce variability and strengthen process stability while contributing to lower waste generation and reduced carbon footprint. Alongside ongoing investment in rotogravure, lamination and converting technologies, these initiatives support our broader ambition of becoming a globally competitive flexible packaging manufacturer.

 Q: Sustainability and circularity remain central to packaging innovation. How is IPP approaching recyclable structures and future packaging formats?

Ahmed Shafiullah: Sustainability must be practical, scalable and commercially viable.

IPP has already established mono-material recyclable structures recognised by leading brand owners and industry bodies including DOW, FPA USA and Packaging MEA.

Our development efforts continue across PE-, PP- and paper-based solutions, including MDO-PE structures, where the focus remains on balancing recyclability with barrier performance, downgauging opportunities and operational efficiency. At the same time, continued investment in pouch converting capabilities positions us to support growing demand for high-performance, recyclable and premium flexible packaging solutions.

Q: From your interactions with customers internationally, how are brand owner expectations evolving in today’s market environment?

Abid Shafiullah, International Sales & Marketing: Customers today are looking far beyond price.

Across international markets, reliability, responsiveness, technical capability and supply chain resilience have become central purchasing criteria. One of the clearest shifts we are seeing is the growing need for forecasting and securing raw materials earlier to meet key production timelines and product launches.

There is also greater emphasis on shorter lead times, faster decision-making and stronger collaboration between converters and brand owners from the earliest stages of development.

Customers increasingly want partners who can combine technical depth, sustainability capability and dependable execution — and we see that as a positive evolution for the industry and for IPP’s long-term strategy.