How to Start an Alu Alu Blister Packaging Manufacturing Business in India

An alu alu blister packaging manufacturing business is really one of three businesses, and the choice decides your capital, licences and customers. You can make the cold-form foil (a nylon, aluminium and PVC laminate pressed into cavities without heat), pack tablets in it for pharma brands, or build the machines. Alu alu means aluminium on both sides of the pack: the formed base and the sealed lid. It is opaque and bulkier than a clear PVC blister, but it blocks moisture, oxygen and light, so brands choose it for medicines that spoil easily.

For most first-timers the sensible entry is contract packing, and only when a pharma customer and a licensed packing floor are already in hand. Making foil is a crore-scale converting business against established foil houses. Both need a written buyer before the first machine is ordered.

Which alu alu blister packaging business should you start: foil maker, contract packer or machine builder?

Pick one. Contract packing needs the licence first, foil making needs the customer first, and machine building suits engineers already in pharma machinery, so this guide covers the other two. A packer under contract manufacturing carries the brand owner's quality risk. Still choosing? See pharma manufacturing ideas and packaging business ideas.

What does an alu alu business cost, and what decides the machine price?

Published figures exist for the foil side only; the table names what drives the rest.

That converter makes blister and strip foil, not cold-form foil, so read its margin as a ceiling, not a forecast. Rolling foil yourself is a heavier project than converting it, closer to aluminium can manufacturing. An alu alu line runs slower than a PVC line, so buy the speed your order book needs, not the fastest on offer.

Why do brands pay more for alu alu than for a clear PVC blister?

India's pharmaceutical industry turned over ₹4.72 lakh crore in 2024-25 and exported ₹2.46 lakh crore, per the Department of Pharmaceuticals annual report for 2025-26, and every tablet needs a primary pack. Alu alu wins only where the drug demands it, as machine supplier SED Pharma sets out.

Buyers are moisture-sensitive, light-sensitive and high-value products, and stability testing settles the choice, so a new supplier waits for the customer's stability work. Export brands also face WHO prequalification rules asking for long-term stability data at 30°C and 75% relative humidity.

How is an alu alu blister pack made, step by step?

The cold-form foil

A converter buys rolled foil and joins it to two films. ACG's Alumpack range lists structures such as 25 micron nylon (oriented polyamide, OPA), 45 to 60 micron aluminium and 60 micron PVC.

1. Buy pharma-grade aluminium foil in the required thickness, preferably primed so the adhesive bonds well.
2. Laminate the OPA film to one side with a laminating adhesive (polyurethane is the common choice).
3. Laminate the PVC film, the sealing layer, to the other side.
4. Cure the reel until the bond is full strength.
5. Slit to the widths your customers' machines run.
6. Test for pinholes, delamination and residual solvent.

The packed blister

1. Unwind the base web and press in cavities with plugs, without heating.
2. Feed tablets or capsules into each cavity, with sensors checking each is filled.
3. Lay the aluminium lidding foil over the base and heat-seal it. Heat belongs here, not in forming.
4. Print the batch number and expiry date, then perforate and die-cut into packs.
5. Inspect for leaks, wrinkles and pinholes, reject faulty packs, then carton.

Which machines does an alu alu line need?

Do not shortlist machine makers from a ranked list. Send your own tablet and foil for a trial, then compare seal quality, rejects and changeover time.

Which licences and approvals does an alu alu packing business need?

A contract packer sits inside drug licensing. The Drugs Rules provide for own manufacturing, loan and repacking licences from the state authority, and the right one depends on who owns the facility and supplies the tablets. Settle it with your state drug controller first. The revised Schedule M standard for drug makers, notified in December 2023, gave smaller units (turnover up to ₹250 crore) that filed an upgrade plan until 31 December 2025. Pharmabiz reported in November 2025 that CDSCO told state regulators to inspect and act against units that had not upgraded. Build a new floor to Schedule M from day one.

A foil maker holds no drug licence, but every customer will qualify you. Expect audits, quality certificates, residual solvent declarations and batch reports. Solvent-based adhesives also interest the state pollution control board.

Where do alu alu projects go wrong?

• No customer before capital. A formulator must trial your foil, so reels sit in stock until one does.
• Thin margin. With materials taking most of sales, a few percent on foil price or rejects can erase profit.
• Wrong cavity. Cold forming needs more material around each cavity, so a large tablet can force a bigger pack and carton.
• Compliance shortcuts. A packing floor not built to Schedule M cannot be licensed or kept.

Niir Project Consultancy Services (NPCS) has prepared project reports since 1994, over 5,000 across more than 40 sectors.

What should you do before buying the first alu alu machine?

1. Choose the route and list three buyers, looking at pharma clusters in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and at ayurvedic medicine makers.
2. Ask each what they pack in alu alu today, at what volume, and who supplies the foil.
3. Request sample reels and minimum order quantities from two foil mills, or a machine trial with your own tablet.
4. Cost the project with a detailed project report and check which MSME schemes suit your size.

An NPCS project report for a pharma packaging project covers the product and specifications, process, plant and machinery with suppliers, raw materials, land and building, manpower, and financials: project cost, working capital, profitability, break-even and cash flow. Figures depend on capacity, site and technology, so a project-specific report is needed before any lending decision.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between alu alu and blister packaging?

Alu alu is a kind of blister packaging, not an alternative to it. A blister pack holds each tablet in its own cavity, made of clear PVC or, in alu alu, cold-formed aluminium laminate. The aluminium base blocks moisture, oxygen and light, but makes the pack opaque, larger and slower to run.

How much does an alu alu blister packing machine cost?

It depends on output speed, cavities, tooling sets, servo drives and the inspection system, so a headline price is not a safe guide. Get written quotes from two or three makers after a trial with your own tablets, comparing installed price including tooling and spares.

What is the forming temperature of an alu alu machine?

There is none. Plugs press the cavity into the laminate without heating the web, which needs more force than PVC forming. Heat comes later at the sealing station, where the lidding foil is bonded to the base. Your machine supplier sets sealing temperature and pressure for your foil.

Who makes alu alu foil in India?

Established names include Hindalco, which sells cold-formed blister foil as Priztec AluAlu, and ACG, which sells Alumpack. GSM Foils is a listed Indian converter of blister and strip foil. No verifiable ranking exists, so judge each on samples, certificates and minimum order.

NOT PART OF THE PAGE. Everything below this line is for the editor and the template.