Nylon: Reusable Products, Enhancing Packaging

POLYTHENE, commonly referred to as nylon, has changed the face of many businesses across the globe. Right from packaging, coating products to even protecting items from dust and humans from rain, nylon has remained a must-use in the changing world.

While big time manufacturers are enjoying economies of scale, producing this must-use material in large quantities and in varied colours for a particular segment of the market that use it as raw or semi-raw materials, small-scale manufacturers are lagging behind, buying from the big ones and further breaking them down to suit different uses.

Taking advantage of the massive market, these small-scale producers are even designing nylon into different shapes and sizes, for items such as, granulated sugar, pepper, salt and even for serving cold tea and herbal drinks. They are seriously having a grip on small-scale packaging, especially for small outfits that cannot engage big companies to design for them. In fact, it is through their efforts that most traders and shoppers get polythene bags for their materials, including for sale promotions.

Commenting on nylon business, Atinuke Ademola, a polythene product manufacturer, said the demand for nylon as a table cover, for bags and wrappers, including for books and magazine covers is extensive. According to her, as far as the raw materials are locally available, producing diverse and different type of nylon products should not be a challenge to any producer, because the market has not even being really tapped into. “We are just scratching the surface because there are very many things like realia, toys and others, we could design with polythene, outside bags, which we have not even started doing. And since we are not into those areas, we shall continue to lose resources to the big companies that import them.

“No nation can do without nylon products; in fact, they have become very essential because of the various uses they are put into. While individuals use nylon bags for a wide range of domestic purposes like shopping, bakers use the thinnest forms of it to package products such as bread, cakes, snacks and others.

“Laundry operators use the fairly large ones to package their clients’ clothes. Supermarkets, pharmacy, traders, eateries, fashion outfits and others cannot do without our product and it is profitable, I must say,” she revealed.

On what it would require to begin the business, Ademola said, it all depends on how one wants to start it. According to him, capital, knowledge, vision and expected market could determine how any potential investor takes off. He noted that outside that, it is always good for anyone to start small and grow the business to become big.

“For a person with N50,000 to N100,000, as capital, starting small would be ideal. All you need is to go for the locally fabricated or semi-automatic machines and as you expand you can change them for the more sophisticated ones, which are usually expensive and imported from China or Europe,” she stated.

Encouraging any potential investor to never lose hope in the business, Dele Adetolo, another producer, disclosed that there is a separate designer component that contains a decorating printer that designs different shopping bags and through this a new entrant can get a semi-finished product and finish it up and still make some profit.

“I must let you know that with this arrangement, one need not to wait for a huge capital to begin. But if you are looking at small nylon bags without designs, then you won’t need this component at all. I started like that and today I have made enough to go into producing nylon bags that could be used as rain coats and shower caps,” he stated.

According to Lukman Saidi, any serious investor need not to wait to get extruder, cutting or punching machines because what these machines do could be taken care of by bigger companies that sell their products to small producers as raw materials. All that is necessary, he noted is for the investor to make his/her products strong and of good quality to gain a sizeable part of the market.

“With less than N50,000 one can start and within six months cover the cost of acquiring the machines. The business may look small, but the economy of nylon goes beyond what we the producer can control. My products range from sugar packs to fashion and shower caps that are also used during rain and at home.

“The products are such that a potential investor need not to do much advertisement because the demand is high and if they are of good quality, without cuts or breaks easily then you are in to make fortunes. The market is always expanding and can never be said to be saturated,” he said.
Cautioning any potential investor to get the right knowledge of the business before venturing into it, Saidi revealed that there are two types of nylon and that the way one uses them will determine what outcome the firm gets.
“There are two types of nylons, the low and high density nylons. The low-density nylon is used for bakers, washer men and even for sachet water. The high-density are thicker; their prizes are also different. 100 pieces of the thick density type, depending on their sizes go for N500 to N750 and if well-designed one could sell them singly at N50 to N250, while the 100 pieces of the low-density nylon go for N250. Can you imagine the differences, margins in profit one could make from the packs.

“I sell over 50,000 packs of the various types in a week, which is cool money, I must say. I use manual and semi-automatic machines powered by a 220-volt electric motor. I have over 20 marketers, yet the market has not be fully explored,” he revealed.

For Seun Adepinle, whose outfit produces light shopping bags and small packs for sugar and other granulated products, selling nylon packs is one of the good things that have happened to him.

“I underestimated the business, when my uncle first introduced me to it, but today; it has placed food on my table and made me owner of two buildings in Lagos.

“I design and sell not only in the open market, but to departmental stores, corporate organisations and even for high profile individuals celebrating one events or the other.

“The 0.6mm and 0.8mm thick packs for snacks and poly bag are in very high demand. I make a daily profit of N20,000 to N30,000. We pack the various sizes in hundreds and they go for between N250 to N750. These prices change if they are customized or specially designed for a departmental store.

“Also with the rains, we increase production of 0.8mm because some people use them as rain coat. Apart from this there are other sizes like the 0.6mm, 0.7mm and 0.2mm, some of which book and magazine publishers get from us for their books and magazines covers. The thickness, sizes and designs of the various categories of nylon packs determine their prices and the thicker and more colourful they are, the higher the price,” he said.

According to Nneka Obiora’s nylon business is like fuel, you will always get a buyer.

“If the business is not good I would have closed shop. I do not see any part of the product that is wasted or does not bring money because nylon products are recyclable; so the waste on its own is a raw material for another company, it like a cycle.
“However, irrespective of its buoyancy, for any investor to sustain the market he/she must be ready to easily respond to societal needs, as you can see we sell table covers and shower caps for as low as N20 to N50 and on heavy rainy days, they could go for N100. School children and commercial motorcyclist buy them to protect themselves from rain.

“It is a business you cannot say there are losses, so far you able to keep the product away from dust and fire. It is a business that has change my status from being a job seeker to employer of labour; having over 15 people selling for me,” she said.

Things To Know To Be A Successful Nylon Producer
• Have adequate knowledge of the business if possible go for short-term train or apprenticeship, to know the technicality of the business.
• Keep away materials from fire or high heat area, avoid electrical connections that have intermittent sparks, because nylon products are highly inflammable
• Get the right production machine; if starting small, go for locally fabricated machines, they are cheaper and easy to manage.
• Identify a particular segment of the market and with time expand to other areas.
• Get a good location, preferable a place close to your major market, except if you are a major supplier to others.
• Be observant to notice any change in the market and also change, if you must sustain your market.