A Global Flexible Packaging Market SWOT statement to 2016

Another remarkable article from the Converting Curmudgeon. Mark Spaulding is sharing with us UK-based PCI Films Consulting president Simon King SWOT statement from his keynote presentation on the“Global Flexible Packaging Market”.

Strengths

• The global flexible packaging market (at $71 billion in 2011) will grow by around 5.0% a year, reaching $90 billion in 2016. North America and Central/East Asia will be the top two regional markets with 25% and 24% shares, respectively.
• Flexible packaging is an industry relatively immune from global economic downturns.
• In 2016, 42% of the industry will be in Asian markets, which are growing at about 7% a year — the fastest growing region is Southeast Asia and Oceania, driven by high demand in India with 15-20% annual increases.
• The global arena remains “local” with regional converters supplying the vast proportion of local packaged-goods customers’ needs. Only 4% of flex-pack production is traded outside the region in which it is manufactured.
• Amcor, Bemis and Sealed Air are the top three product converters with 9%, 8% and 4% global market share, respectively.
• Flex packs’ inherent source-reduction characteristics (thin materials, lighter weight) allow packaging-waste reduction over rigid formats.

Weaknesses

• Flexs packs have a reputation for being hard to recycle — especially multilayer laminated structures that are often not accepted in curbside recycling programs.
• Higher raw-material costs and lack of suitable barrier properties of biodegradables and compostables mean that so far these materials have had little impact.
• Economic uncertainty has encouraged only short-term buying, just-in-time delivery by customers in some regional markets.
• Western Europe (and to a lesser extent, North America) is suffering from low value growth (1-2% a year) compared to other regions. Volumes are being sustained primarily by serving only defensive end-use markets.
• Mature flex-pack markets in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore) are growing only 1-2% a year.

Opportunities

• Global personal disposable incomes are rising, encouraging consumers to buy more packaged goods of all types.
• Standup pouches, the dominant format in Western Europe, are a vanguard of positive environmental and consumer-convenience trends for flex packs.
• High oxygen- and moisture-barrier, metallized laminates  and coextrusions are likely to extend the value-added sector.
• Multinational brand owners are sourcing globally, driving inter-regional M&As among converters, or converters adopting strategies for a global presence.
• Investment in new plants, equipment in places such as Russia, India, Indonesia is boosting lower-cost, more-efficient production.
• Converters need to establish lower-cost production in countries where access to cost-conscious markets is free (Mexico, Poland).
• Promotion and possible investment in breakthrough pyrolysis systems are needed to boost this important new flexible-packaging recycling process for laminates and aluminum-foil structures.

Threats

• Flex-pack converters must address environmental issues to cut packaging waste, promote growth in lighter weight products as cost-effective alternatives to rigid packaging.
• Sustainability has now become just as important as the above traits.
• Legislative pressures may force adoption of non-oil-based materials.
• For North America, low-cost imports from Asia are increasing, especially onto the US West Coast. Converters with Mexican plants are exploiting the low-cost base to competitively supply into the US. And growth in imports of pre-packaged products into the US from Mexico translates into reduced demand for US-made flexible packaging.