Flexible Packaging: Converters Break Free from COVID-19's Shadow for a New Day

摘要

Although we all may be weary of looking at everything through the dark lens of COVID-19, the pandemic is a good starting point for assessing the state of the flexible packaging industry in 2021. Shifts in consumer demand brought on by COVID-19 were generally favorable to printers and converters of flexible packaging. Sales of frozen foods, household goods, and many other products sent to store shelves in flexible film containers surged. As people scrambled to stock up on items they feared would grow scarce, their appreciation of the convenience of pouches and other film-based packaging structures also grew. Sensing this new awareness, the industry doubled down on research aimed at making flexible packages easier to use; nicer to look at; more protective of the product inside; and closer to what consumers expect - from brands and makers of packaging, if not also from themselves - in terms of sustainability. The carryover of these market forces into 2021 means that "manufacturing in our sector is still way up," according to Alison Keane, president of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA). She says that the more diversified a converter's customer base is, the better the converter tends to do in conditions like these. On the other hand, those skewed to COVID-impacted customers such as schools, colleges, hospitals, and cafeterias have not fared as well.