Page 44 - Packaging News July - August 2019

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FLEXIBLE PACKAGING
Flexibles driven to grow
Market research specialist Smithers Pira says there will be continued growth in the global market for flexible packaging for the next five years, even in the face of the current furore over plastics.
RIGHT:
O.F Pack’s Kookaburra Worm Farms flat bottom bag with perforated side gussets providing the required oxygen levels for the living product inside. The self-standing and rectangular bag offers optimal space-utilisation for both packing and shipping procedures compared to other formats.
BELOW: O.F Pack’s SUP
for Brookfarm muesli is made from a laminate that is fully recyclable.
THE global US$228bn flexible packaging market will grow by 3.3 per cent per year over the next five years, according to Smithers Pira in its The Future of Flexible Packaging to 2024 report, which says the flexibles market doubled in size over the decade to this year. Geographically, Asia-Pacific has been the largest consumer of
flexible packaging in terms of regional tonnages in 2019, and this is forecast to continue through 2024.
Smithers Pira says flexible packaging is replacing more traditional packaging, such as glass jars and metal cans at a greater rate each year, as its benefits are acknowledged. These benefits include extended shelf
life, lower pack weights, and lower transport costs. Flexible packaging also allows improved cost economics due to requiring less energy and resources than other packaging types, which means that the cost of production per packaging unit is less, according to
Smithers Pira.
Global urbanisation has increased the demand
for flexible packaging, as have e-commerce and technological advancements in barrier protection, active packaging, and digital printing.
Global consumption of flexible packaging is projected to reach 30 million tonnes in 2019 and is forecast to increase at an annual average rate of four per cent. Flexible packaging consumption has continued to grow at a fast rate over the 2014–19 period, and is expected to keep growing at an
equally rapid rate over the forecast period.
Growth will come from both industrial packaging (used during manufacturing processes) and consumer packaging (used in the retail environment), with industrial packaging making up a more significant percentage of the total sales than consumer. It is expected that in the years to come this relationship will start to balance, with consumer packaging growing faster than industrial packaging, resulting in it picking
up a larger market share.
POUCHES STILL STANDING FIRM
PKN spoke to Joe Foster, director of O.F Pack, about how pouches are faring in the face of the growing negative consumer sentiment around plastics.
“I do not not believe there has been a drop-off on the uptake on stand-up pouches (SUPs) despite the negative senti- ment around plastics,” Foster says. “What we find interesting is that we are still seeing growth in this area driven by baby foods in spouted pouches, among other categories using these packs such as single-serve pet food sachets.
“Also interesting is that there has been a swing from SUPs to flat-bottom bags over the past seven years, especially in Australia where we now see products that were traditionally packed in SUPs moving across to this new format. We have seen this in markets like fish, dry pet foods, breakfast muesli, protein powder, super foods, and coffee, which are a natural fit for this box-shaped pouch,” he says.
“That said, we see little liquid-based product moving to this format. Shelf stable
retort pouches, for example, are a better fit for SUPs.”
One of O.F Pack’s innovations to address the sustainability challenge is an SUP made from a laminate that is fully recyclable and also ticks the boxes from a performance point of view.
“The SUP has been an easier spec to work with from a recycla- ble point of view compared to that of the flat-bottom pouch, which still needs quite a bit of work in terms of
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July-August 2019