Flexible Packaging: Brands and Consumers Drive Rapid Growth

摘要

If there are any downsides to being a provider to the flexible packaging market, the upsides make them easy enough to live with. Consumer trends driving demand for pouches, shrink sleeves, and other flexible packaging formats remain healthy, prompting brand owners to move many of their products out of rigid containers and into flexible alternatives. Graphic design possibilities have never been richer. Innovations abound in printing, converting, and film manufacturing technologies, and the economic returns from producers' investments in them continue to be strong. Less positively, printers and converters are kept guessing by fluctuations in the pricing of flexible films. Sustainability issues also create some drag — but nothing the industry feels it can't overcome with initiatives aimed at improving recovery and recycling rates and building public awareness of the undeniable green advantages of flexible packaging. It's therefore not surprising to find the outlook among producers decidedly upbeat. R. Craig Curran president of Gurnee, Ill.-based label and packaging provider Nosco, says package designers and engineers planning product launches more frequently ask, "Is there a way we can do this in flex pack?" The swell of enthusiasm for the medium is one reason why Curran expects his flexible packaging business to grow by $2 million to $3 million annually over the next five years.