Flexible Packaging?A Bright Prospect
March 2004
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The market will see continued growth, driven mostly by an increasing demand for stand-up pouches.
FLEXIBLE PACKAGING FACES a bright outlook for 2004. Currently, flexible packaging—a $20 billion industry—is the second largest packaging category in the United States, according to the Flexible Packaging Association's Web site. Furthermore, industry experts and studies only expect the market to see continued growth over the next several years, despite a slowly recovering economy.
"There's going to be continued growth in the market," said Dennis Calamusa, president of ALLIEDFLEX Technologies, Inc. and a sales and marketing consultant providing global flexible packaging machinery to the North and South American markets. "The typical growth we've seen is 10-15 percent, and as much as 20 percent in some market segments."
Several factors are anticipated to drive the growth. According to a study by The Freedonia Group called "Converted Flexible Packaging," much of the expansion will stem from developments in barriers, breathable films, resealable stand-up pouches, and the need for performance packaging with enhanced graphics.
Areas of growth
Food packaging will continue to contribute the most growth to flexible packaging, with projected annual increases of 2.6 percent to 5.1 billion lbs. in 2008, according to The Freedonia Group. This success will be due in no small part to the proliferation of pouches on store shelves—a phenomenon well on its way.
StarKist® set an example for U.S. brand food companies when it introduced its Flavor Fresh Pouch of tuna less than five years ago. In that time, use of retort foil pouches has grown to make up about 10 percent of the company's total tuna sales, Calamusa said. What's more is the pouch's sustained success with the company's new marinated tuna StarKist Tuna Creations®, introduced in July 2003. The new product represents 4 percent of all pouched tuna sold and exceeded the company's expectations by 37 percent, according to an August 2003 company press release.
Pouches are a trend that's catching on with some of the nation's largest brand food companies, who want to see what replacing their traditional packaging with flexible packaging can do for them. As a way of testing the marketplace without a large capital investment, multinationals have started to introduce pouches as value-added packaging with the benefits of recoverability, improved graphics, better flavor, recipe labels, longer shelf-life, and in some cases, cost savings. They are able to do this gradually with reduced risk by outsourcing the pouch jobs to contract converters, Calamusa said.
FLEXIBLE PACKAGING FACES a bright outlook for 2004. Currently, flexible packaging—a $20 billion industry—is the second largest packaging category in the United States, according to the Flexible Packaging Association's Web site. Furthermore, industry experts and studies only expect the market to see continued growth over the next several years, despite a slowly recovering economy.
"There's going to be continued growth in the market," said Dennis Calamusa, president of ALLIEDFLEX Technologies, Inc. and a sales and marketing consultant providing global flexible packaging machinery to the North and South American markets. "The typical growth we've seen is 10-15 percent, and as much as 20 percent in some market segments."
Several factors are anticipated to drive the growth. According to a study by The Freedonia Group called "Converted Flexible Packaging," much of the expansion will stem from developments in barriers, breathable films, resealable stand-up pouches, and the need for performance packaging with enhanced graphics.
Areas of growth
Food packaging will continue to contribute the most growth to flexible packaging, with projected annual increases of 2.6 percent to 5.1 billion lbs. in 2008, according to The Freedonia Group. This success will be due in no small part to the proliferation of pouches on store shelves—a phenomenon well on its way.
StarKist® set an example for U.S. brand food companies when it introduced its Flavor Fresh Pouch of tuna less than five years ago. In that time, use of retort foil pouches has grown to make up about 10 percent of the company's total tuna sales, Calamusa said. What's more is the pouch's sustained success with the company's new marinated tuna StarKist Tuna Creations®, introduced in July 2003. The new product represents 4 percent of all pouched tuna sold and exceeded the company's expectations by 37 percent, according to an August 2003 company press release.
Pouches are a trend that's catching on with some of the nation's largest brand food companies, who want to see what replacing their traditional packaging with flexible packaging can do for them. As a way of testing the marketplace without a large capital investment, multinationals have started to introduce pouches as value-added packaging with the benefits of recoverability, improved graphics, better flavor, recipe labels, longer shelf-life, and in some cases, cost savings. They are able to do this gradually with reduced risk by outsourcing the pouch jobs to contract converters, Calamusa said.
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