For Flexibles, Stable Doesn't Mean Stagnant
March 1999
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Flexible packagers must stay alert to hints of change, even in the face of repetitive annual growth rates.
By Susan Friedman
The numbers make it tempting, but flexible packaging converters can't afford to be lulled into a sense of predictability.
By Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) estimates, the industry grew at a rate of 3.7 percent in 1998, to a shipment level of $17.5 billion—a rate almost dead even with 1997's 3.5 percent annual growth.
The same 3.7 percent growth rate emerges in FPA's forecast for 1999—with familiar rainmakers like multi-web rollstocks, rigid to flexible conversions and stand-up pouches still firmly in place. However, if converters respond to this prediction by setting their businesses on cruise control, they may not be positioned to act decisively under a sudden wind of change. A closer look at 1998's business climate reveals several areas where converters' current course could shift.
Fads or enduring trends?
Multi-web paper/foil and paper/film roll stocks were among the most dominant forces behind flexible packaging's growth in 1998.
Fifty-two percent of flexible packaging suppliers and converters polled in FPA's 1999 Outlook Survey said they are now involved with stand-up pouch roll stocks, marking a more definitive jump into the technology after involvement had held steady at 47 percent in the 1997 and 1998 surveys. This latest data, says FPA Director of Business and Economic Research Bret Biggers, "suggests that stand-up pouches aren't a fad."
FPA data also indicate the continued switch from rigid to flexible package constructions as a source of growth in 1998. The aging baby boomer population is expected to create a hot new application area for these conversions: medical and ethical drug packages.
New orders for flexible packaging to replace rigid are down slightly, with 55 percent of converters receiving orders in 1998 compared to 61 percent in '97. Consumer food packages are still at the top of converters' rigid-to-flexible request list.
Has the rigid-to-flexible turnover hit a peak or a plateau? The long-term prospects of this source-reduction trend aren't yet certain.
"It's out there, it's a novelty, but I don't think it's completely accepted yet," says Andrea Mandel, who heads consulting firm Andrea S. Mandel Associates in Princeton Junction, NJ.
Mandel sees rigid packages containing liquid product replaced with flexible materials most often. She also acknowledges successful flexible transitions for granulars, powders and cereals, but maintains that larger flexible package designs with cap or spray mechanisms are still viewed by consumers as a little too unwieldy.
By Susan Friedman
The numbers make it tempting, but flexible packaging converters can't afford to be lulled into a sense of predictability.
By Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) estimates, the industry grew at a rate of 3.7 percent in 1998, to a shipment level of $17.5 billion—a rate almost dead even with 1997's 3.5 percent annual growth.
The same 3.7 percent growth rate emerges in FPA's forecast for 1999—with familiar rainmakers like multi-web rollstocks, rigid to flexible conversions and stand-up pouches still firmly in place. However, if converters respond to this prediction by setting their businesses on cruise control, they may not be positioned to act decisively under a sudden wind of change. A closer look at 1998's business climate reveals several areas where converters' current course could shift.
Fads or enduring trends?
Multi-web paper/foil and paper/film roll stocks were among the most dominant forces behind flexible packaging's growth in 1998.
Fifty-two percent of flexible packaging suppliers and converters polled in FPA's 1999 Outlook Survey said they are now involved with stand-up pouch roll stocks, marking a more definitive jump into the technology after involvement had held steady at 47 percent in the 1997 and 1998 surveys. This latest data, says FPA Director of Business and Economic Research Bret Biggers, "suggests that stand-up pouches aren't a fad."
FPA data also indicate the continued switch from rigid to flexible package constructions as a source of growth in 1998. The aging baby boomer population is expected to create a hot new application area for these conversions: medical and ethical drug packages.
New orders for flexible packaging to replace rigid are down slightly, with 55 percent of converters receiving orders in 1998 compared to 61 percent in '97. Consumer food packages are still at the top of converters' rigid-to-flexible request list.
Has the rigid-to-flexible turnover hit a peak or a plateau? The long-term prospects of this source-reduction trend aren't yet certain.
"It's out there, it's a novelty, but I don't think it's completely accepted yet," says Andrea Mandel, who heads consulting firm Andrea S. Mandel Associates in Princeton Junction, NJ.
Mandel sees rigid packages containing liquid product replaced with flexible materials most often. She also acknowledges successful flexible transitions for granulars, powders and cereals, but maintains that larger flexible package designs with cap or spray mechanisms are still viewed by consumers as a little too unwieldy.
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