Cartamundi cuts the first sod in Indian Soil

The Belgian world player Cartamundi and its Indian joint-venture company Parksons Cartamundi build a new factory in Pardi, India

Today, Cartamundi and its joint-venture partner Parksons Cartamundi have started the construction of a new factory in Pardi, at 190 km from Mumbai, in order to utilize the full potential of the playing cards market in the Asian subcontinent. This project involves an investment of 5 million euros.

In October 2010, the Cartamundi Group entered in a joint-venture with the family owned company Parksons Games & Sports, the largest playing cards manufacturer in India, with offices in Mumbai and a production facility in Daman, at 200 km distance. The Indian partner changed its name to “Parksons Cartamundi” and began - as part of the Cartamundi Group – with the realization of its goal: the further conquest of the Asian subcontinent, including by expanding the product range. This contains retail cards, promotional cards, casino cards, cards for games and recently also the so called “trading cards” – in this event on the national sport cricket – which know a tremendous success. Through the office of Cartamundi in Singapore products of Parksons Cartamundi are also sold in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore itself. Last year, the turnover of Parksons Cartamundi has grown with 30 % (to 400 million INR), for this year an increase of at least 50 % is expected.

To be able to evolve with this growth, it became clear that the construction of a new plant was necessary. The current manufacturing facilities in Daman cover 3,400 m². Last year a plot of land was purchased at 10 km from the existing plant. There the construction of the new plant, covering 11.650 m², hence three times bigger than the existing one, was started today. It will include a prepress department, a printing department, a card finishing department, a quality department, a maintenance department, a warehouse with loading docks and furthermore office space and meeting rooms. The machinery in the new building will be expanded with packaging and cutting machines.
For this entire project a capital increase of 2 million USD was realized.
“The growth in India exceeds our wildest expectations because of which the construction of the new factory starts earlier than planned: our aim is to finalize this project by the end of 2012 – beginning 2013, which is very ambitious. It is our goal to strengthen our leadership position in India and also it is another step in achieving our mission: to honor the true sense of our name”, concludes Chris Van Doorslaer, CEO of the Cartamundi Group.

Press contact Cartamundi

 Chris Van Doorslaer, Chief Executive Officer
phone +32(0)14 44 59 09
Email:  Chris.Van.Doorslaer@cartamundi.com
Website:  www.cartamundi.com

Background information on Parksons Cartamundi

Parksons Cartamundi started in 2010 as a joint venture between Parksons Games & Sports and Cartamundi.
The history of the family business Parksons Games & Sports goes back to 1955, when the company was founded by a Mr Parker under the name of Parker & Sons. In 1957 Parker & Sons was acquired by the Kejriwal family, who still is responsible for the day-to-day management of Parksons Cartamundi. The company expanded its activities in the 50s from a commercial printing business to the production and sales of playing cards and cards for games. Typical for India are the regional differences between the brands of retail cards that are played with: Parksons Cartamundi has over 100 brands in its range to comply with the needs of each region. Since the joint venture with Cartamundi the company expanded its retail collection with licensed cards such as Disney®. In addition some of the major game companies such as Unilever, Mc Donald’s, Mattel belong to its customers. Parksons Cartamundi employs 220 people in its offices in Mumbai and in the factory in Daman, this means an increase with 50 people since the acquisition.

Background information on Cartamundi

Cartamundi was established in 1970 as a joint-venture combining the playing cards activities of Brepols, Van Genechten and Biermans and is therefore able to boast of 200 years of experience in production and sales of playing cards and cards for games. T

he head office of Cartamundi is located in Turnhout, Belgium. With factories in Belgium, Germany, the UK, Poland, the USA, Brazil, Mexico and India and its own sales offices in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Singapore, the group generated a turnover of 152 million Euros in 2011, this with a workforce of 1.300 employees. In 2008, the company was awarded as Entrepreneur of the Year.

Cartamundi has its own retail collection with licensed cards (such as Disney®, James Bond®, Harry Potter®, Fifa®, etc.), but is also known for its promotional card collections (e.g. Pixar Delhaize and WWF Delhaize), casino cards, collector cards (e.g. Yu-Gi- Oh! ®) cards for games (such as Uno®, Monopoly®) and also the new concept iCards. These cards create a link between physical playing cards and the virtual world of Internet, smartphones, game consoles, etc.