Give Flexible Packaging It's Due

Let’s give Flexible Packaging its due; the growth rate is much more optimistic.

Cannibalization of tradition packaging formats is actually the route of acceleration for flexible packaging. How can I justify it, on a number of accounts actually? Timing is everything and flexible’s have enter the packaging arena just as the global conscience is screaming for sustainable packaging. We know today there is no single solution for going green. The best the industry can do is honor the R’s, reduce, reuse, recycle, return and so on. Flexible packaging is all about material optimization, reclosablity, light weighting for logistics and the most important motivator there can be; there are no dominating suppliers.

Look to the early sixties when Tetra Pak entered the world stage with the aseptic carton and their subsequent position of dominance. Not bad, with 80% of the global market today, SIG Combibloc is the number two @ 15% who can compete? Not the case with flexible’s, there is opportunity due to the low entry barrier and the rate of innovation. In fact the aseptic carton is a target for cannibalization as are all the other packaging formats.

Print qualities, closures, side gussets, retort, microwaveable, RFID, flat bottoms, resealability, integrated straws the list of options appears to have no limits. All of which means there is a lesser chance that a single supplier can dominate the market. For these reasons we can expect to see a significant growth in flexible package, think of it as the path of least resistance.