Stand-Up Pouches for Food and Beverage Packaging

Consumers’ nomadic life-styles and the growing number of single and senior households favor a trend toward single and small-portion packs. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches constitute the ideal solution.

Stand-up pouches are becoming well established in flexible packaging market. According to a new report from PCI Films Consulting, the U.S. stand-up pouch market has seen dramatic growth over the past five years, increasing by 50 per cent in unit volume terms to approaching 17 billion units in 2013 – and will continue to grow by around seven per cent per annum to reach nearly 24 billion units in 2018, at least twice as fast as volume growth expected in the U.S. flexible packaging market as a whole, according to a new report.

Beverages and pet food are the largest end use categories, the report – by PCI Film Consulting – said, with each accounting for one-third of demand, closely followed by human food applications with around 30 per cent share. According to the report, future increases in volume are expected to come from a wide variety of end uses: frozen foods and fruit compotes, frozen spirits, cocktails, baby food, shredded and diced cheese, laundry and dishwashing refill packs and soups. “Other opportunities are only in the early stages of development but pouches used to pack motor oils, dietary meal solutions and possibly olive oil and fresh vegetables are forecast to grow in volume,” the report said.

The trend toward stand-up pouches packaging has been mainly driven by companies looking for ways to increase shelf appeal and differentiate their products from the competition and add consumer convenience. Stand-up pouches can be used as an additional marketing tool for brand owners looking to boost sales.

From an environmental point of view, pouches are more sustainable than traditional packaging formats (cans, boxes or rigid plastic container). They utilize much less material, improve the product to package ratio and eliminate over packaging and waste. Depending upon the application, pouches can weigh up to 95% less than rigid containers and take up less than 10% of the space typically used by rigid containers. In addition, pouches require much less landfill space than other containers.

In conclusion, stand-up pouches provide form, function and convenience. They are an innovative marketing approach to stimulate the sales of a stagnant brand or increase the acceptance and success of a new product introduction.

This post was originally published at PackAdvisors

Five Packaging Trends That Will Shape 2015

Here is my list of 5 packaging trends to watch closely in 2013:

 1. Sustainability
 2. Functionality
 3. Interactivity
 4. Flexibility
 5. Storytelling

Best wishes for a healthy, wealthy, sustainable and innovative New Year 2015!

Five Packaging Trends That Will Shape 2015 from Islem Yezza

Emballage alimentaire : cohabiter innovation, fonctionnalité et responsabilité environnementale

Les enjeux de l’industrie alimentaire sont multiples : sécurité alimentaire, prolongation de la durée de vie des aliments et réduction du gaspillage alimentaire. Dans ce contexte, l’emballage, peut offrir des pistes de solutions qui méritent d’être explorées.  Les nouveaux emballages apportent finalement une valeur ajoutée aux produits et garantissent un lien de confiance entre le consommateur et le produit, voire la marque. Finalement, faire cohabiter innovation, fonctionnalité et responsabilité environnementale constitue le challenge quotidien de l’industrie de l’emballage.

Emballage alimentaire : Pratique et flexible

Dans le monde de l'emballage, la praticité est une valeur porteuse. Par praticité, on entend la facilité d’ouverture et le confort d’utilisation.

L’augmentation des consommations nomades et les nouvelles exigences des consommateurs pousse vers de plus en plus d’emballages flexibles plus pratiques. Ces nouveaux emballages flexibles possèdent un meilleur bilan environnemental; moins lourds, ils nécessitent moins de matériaux et consomment moins d’espace lors du transport. Ils auront une place dominante dans l’emballage alimentaire. Autant appréciés par les consommateurs que par les industriels, ils n'ont qu'un seul défaut : ils échappent, dans la plupart des cas, aux filières de recyclage.

L’industrie de l’emballage travaille activement au développement d’alternatives aux impénétrables, polluantes, frustrantes, détestables et dangereuses coquilles en plastique rigide, source principale de la fameuse «rage de l’emballage », Frustration ressentie par l’individu qui tente de libérer un produit d’un empaquetage pratiquement impénétrable.

Emballage alimentaire : de passif à actif

Les emballages actifs, ils offrent bien plus qu’une simple protection, ils interagissent avec l'aliment, et dans certains cas, répondent à des changements du milieu environnant ou du produit lui-même. Les possibilités offertes par les emballages actifs sont prometteuses. La conservation prolongée des produits et la réduction au niveau des pertes dues à la dégradation des aliments procurent des avantages économiques considérables à l’industrie de l’alimentation. Au Québec, on s’en tient à quelques absorbeurs d’oxygène ou d’humidité et aux emballages sous atmosphère modifiée. Le marché est encore balbutiant et le principe de précaution, adopté dans plusieurs pays, demeure un frein majeur au développement des emballages actifs.

L’avenir des emballages actifs dans l’industrie alimentaire semble être conditionné par la réduction de leur prix, combiné à une plus grande acceptation de ces produits par tous les acteurs de la chaîne, et surtout augmenter la durée de vie de l’aliment sans compromettre ses propriétés organoleptiques.

Emballage Alimentaire : Mettez de l'intelligence dans votre étiquette

Les progrès technologiques ont permis le développement d’emballages dits intelligents intégrant de nouveaux systèmes d'étiquetage. Ces nouvelles étiquettes mettent à la disposition du consommateur une information claire et objective sur l’état de conservation d’un produit. En proposant des dispositifs d’information qui « parlent » directement au consommateur, les emballages intelligents devraient permettre de garantir la traçabilité, la qualité et la sécurité des produits jusqu’au consommateur.

Les emballages intelligents devraient connaitre, dans les prochaines années, une croissance rapide, grâce notamment à l’émergence d’indicateurs temps-température (ITT) à prix abordable. À cela s’ajoute une véritable prise de conscience par le consommateur du rôle que peuvent jouer ces ITT dans la sécurité alimentaire. Ces indicateurs sont généralement irréversibles, constituant une méthode sûre et infalsifiable pour contrôler la chaîne du froid. Ils apportent finalement une valeur ajoutée aux produits et garantissent un lien de confiance entre le consommateur et le produit, voire la marque.

Sustainability and Functionality at the Heart of Packaging Innovation

1. In the near future the role of packaging will change, we will see packaging as a resource rather than a resource waster 
2. Keeping the molecule in play will gain momentum (recyclability) 
3. Bio-based packaging materials will grow, but not necessarily biodegradable. 
4. Bright Future for Stand-Up Pouches: Standing for protection, Standing for communication, Standing for convenience, Standing for sustainability 
5. Increasing health and environmental awareness, rising food prices and food safety concerns and improved purchasing power will drive growth in the smart packaging market. 

Sustainability & Functionality at the Heart of Packaging Innovation from Islem Yezza

Five Packaging Trends That Will Shape 2014: Smart, Social, Flexible, Convenient and Sustainable

Here is my list of 5 packaging trends to watch closely in 2014:

      1) Food waste, Smart Packaging a part of the Solution

In a world of 7 billion people, set to grow to 9 billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense Economically, Ethically and Environmentally.

Food safety and Food waste is a bigger environmental problem than packaging waste. Packaging has a vital role to play in containing and protecting food as it moves through the supply chain from farm to fork. Shelf-life extension is the Holy Grail for the food industry.

                                                   

Smart packaging (active and intelligent) has been focused on retailer-benefits, namely: food safety and security, spoilage reduction and extending shelf-life. In the future expect it to be more consumers focused: delivering enhanced freshness and better information to elevate product quality for consumers.

According to Freedonia Group (2012), US Demand for smart packaging is forecast to climb 8% annually to $2.3 billion in 2015, significantly outpacing overall packaging demand. Advances will be driven by the availability of products with more reasonable price points and those offering enhanced shelf life and/or improved quality. 

      2) Stand-Up Pouches are growing rapidly - Standing for protection, communication, convenience, and sustainability

Consumers’ nomadic life-styles and the growing number of single and senior households favor a trend toward single and small-portion packs. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches constitute the ideal solution.

The top three packaging characteristics cited by packagers as reasons for choosing stand-up Pouches are cost savings per individual package, improvements in shelf appeal and better barrier performance. The top three manufacturing performance justifications for the choice of flexible packaging are decreased operating costs, increased output, and greater flexibility in manufacturing change-over.

According to PCI Films Consulting (2013), US demand for stand-up pouches is forecast to grow by 42% over the next five years to reach almost 24 billion units in 2018. Beverages and pet food are the largest end use categories, closely followed by human food applications with around 30% share. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increase in demand for convenience in packaging.

      3) Bio-based packaging materials will grow, but not necessarily biodegradable

Recyclable PET made from renewable resource (Sugarcane) is projected to offer significant growth potential over the longer term, particularly as large corporations, especially those in the soft drink industry, are investing heavily in the development of this material.

According to European Bioplastics (2013), the production capacity of biobased PET today is around 600,000 tonnes a year.  This volume is reported to grow to roughly 5 million tonnes by 2016. Regarding rigid applications, PET is mainly used to make beverage bottles, other transparent bottles or rigid trays and films.

      4) Inbound Marketing - Social media and social selling

Social selling has rapidly gained influence as a powerful B2B strategy for building customer relationships, as well as generating sales opportunities. People want to buy from a company they can trust as being honest and transparent. Your positive and social interactions in social media networks will go a long way in establishing the credibility of your brand. The more people feel they can trust you, the more people they will tell about you.

It is clear that marketing is changing on a fundamental level as the internet continues to revolutionize how we find, buy, sell, and interact with brands and their products or services. The days of annoying consumers with intrusive advertising and marketing tactics are fading. Traditional Marketing was about pushing messages out. Today it’s about pulling people in. Inbound marketing is a marketing focused on getting found by customers. The new age of marketing is about providing value and earning customer loyalty instead of simply pounding a message into consumers heads and hoping it will stick.

From a recent Canadean report “Global Packaging Industry CEO Business Outlook Survey 2012-2013”, advertising budgets, “email and newsletters,” “social media and networking sites” and “public relations” are expected to register the highest investment, identified by 47%, 44%, and 36%, respectively. Conversely, “television,” “outdoor,” “radio” and “newspaper” advertising is expected to decline.

      5) e-Commerce – a sales channel for growth

It’s no secret that online retailers are gaining serious market share. Consumers spent a total of $5.3 billion online over Thanksgiving weekend, an increase of 22% over last year, when shoppers spent $4.3 billion online. Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year, broke yet another record this year as shoppers spent $1.74 billion online, marking a record for the most dollars spent online in a single day. By 2017, eMarketer estimates that e-commerce spending will reach $440 billion

The growth in e-commerce presents an opportunity to assess the whole supply chain, to consider new types of packaging. As e-commerce grows, it may be possible to use simpler retail packs, make them smaller, leave them unprinted or perhaps remove them entirely.

The continuing popularity of online shopping will propel healthy gains for corrugated boxes used in the fulfillment of Internet sales (Corrugated & Paperboard Boxes, Freedonia 2012).

Best wishes for a healthy, wealthy, sustainable and innovative New Year 2014!

Convenience Food Packaging Changed Our Lives

Recloseable packaging and microwaveable plastic trays were named top packaging breakthroughs that most impacted peoples’ lives over the last 25 years in an on-line survey hosted by DuPont. Together the two categories of invention captured 48 percent of the votes. The online survey was available to industry professionals from April 9 through May 10, 2013.

Reclosable packaging, which includes food-storage zipper locks and stand-up pouches, earned 27 percent of the votes. Microwaveable meals, enabled by “oven-able” packaging materials, captured 21 percent of the votes. Recycled content in consumer, industrial and community programs that support social goals earned 18 percent of the votes.

“Over the 25 years, the DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation has attracted a wide variety of truly innovative packaging developments, making this anniversary event the perfect time to honor those past achievements,” said Shanna Moore, leader/of the DuPont Packaging Awards program. “In reflecting back on these breakthroughs, it’s hard to imagine what everyday life would be like today without them.”

DuPont created the voting project after reviewing hundreds of past winners and identifying six breakthrough groups that impacted our lives. Descriptions of those breakthroughs – which range from packaging that has enabled our current “on-the-go” lifestyle to centralized processing and packaging of meat that reduced waste and kept meat fresh longer – can be found on line here.

DuPont announced the breakthroughs that most transformed our lives during the company’s celebration of the winners of the 25th DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation in Wilmington, Del. Nearly 300 people voted on the breakthrough choices.

Read more…

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.

Five Packaging Trends That Will Shape 2013

Here is my list of 5 packaging trends to watch closely in 2013:

1)   Bio-Based Plastics: Recyclable PET made from renewable resource is projected to offer significant growth potential over the longer term, particularly as large corporations, especially those in the soft drink industry, are investing heavily in the development of this material.

2)     Smart Packaging: The focus of active and intelligent packaging has moved from specific retailer and manufacturer driven benefits like shelf-life extension, traceability and food waste reduction, to include more consumer focused benefits such as food quality and safety, freshness and information.

3)     Stand-up Pouches: Packaged food makers are thinking outside the bottle and can. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches provide Maximum Flexibility, Sustainability and Convenience.They are an innovative marketing approach to stimulate the sales of a stagnant brand or increase the acceptance and success of a new product introduction.

4)     Retail Ready Packaging (RRP): continues to gain traction in North America as a greater number of retailers start to consider implementation, and others broaden the scope of existing initiatives into additional categories

5)     Packaging and social media: Getting found by customers. The new age of inbound marketing is about providing value and earning customer loyalty instead of simply pounding a message into consumers heads and hoping it will stick.

Best wishes for a healthy, wealthy, sustainable and innovative New Year 2013!

1. Biobased Plastic future

According to a recent Smithers RAPRA study (2012), worldwide consumption of all polymers reached about 259 million tonnes in 2012, with bioplastics representing 0.4% at 890,000 tonnes. So why haven’t bioplastics captured a larger market share?  There are four reasons: 

1.   Performance is not matched to brand owner or consumer expectations;

2.   Time-line to market acceptance not realistic;

3.   Bioplastic companies marketing efforts not given enough field support and

4.   Difficulties selling to an uninformed customer base and an uninformed end-user base. 

With abundant feedstocks of sugarcane, corn and biomass, it is not surprising that activity remains strong in Brazil and the US. According to The Freedonia Group, global demand for biodegradables and bio-based plastics will more than triple to exceed 1m tonnes, worth $2.9bn, in 2015. US demand for bioplastics is forecast to climb at a 20 percent annual pace through 2016 to 550 million pounds, valued at $680 million. 

2. Smart packaging: active and intelligent packaging

Increasing health awareness, rising food and safety concerns and improved purchasing power in emerging economies will drive growth in the global active and intelligent food and drink packaging market. The terms active packaging and intelligent packaging refer to packaging systems that help extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, improve safety and increase convenience. Recently this has been updated to include intelligent functions (sensing, detecting, recording, tracing, communicating and applying scientific logic) in order to extend shelf life, enhance safety, improve quality, provide information and warn about possible issues.

Robust growth is anticipated for intelligent packaging, propelled by rapid advances for time-temperature indicators (TTIs) and the emergence of other smart packaging systems offering product differentiation at less costly prices. Smart technology could be able to detect food germs and to trigger colour changes in the packaging to alert the consumer if the contents have gone bad.

According to a recent study by MarketsandMarkets, the global market for active and intelligent packaging technology in food and beverages is expected to grow to $23.474 million in 2015, at an estimated CAGR of 8.2% from 2010 to 2015.

3. Flexible packaging: Stand-up Pouches: Maximum Flexibility, Sustainability and Convenience

Consumers’ nomadic life-styles and the growing number of single and senior households favor a trend toward single and small-portion packs. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches constitute the ideal solution.

Flexible packaging has been shaking up the packaging industry for many years now, especially in the food packaging market, where flexible materials are introducing a wide range of new design concepts to minimise waste (both in terms of conservation and cost), attract consumer attention and maintain the freshness of the products within.

The market of flexible packaging is expected to see annual growth to over 22 million tonnes by 2016.within the flexible market the stand-up pouch has continued to evolve and offer suppliers, brand owners and consumers, solution that looks set to dominate and expand its influence on the flexible packaging markets over the next few years. According to The Freedonia Group, demand for pouches in the US is projected to increase 5.1 percent per year to $8.8 billion in 2016, driven by faster gains for standup pouches stemming from sustainability, functional, and marketing advantages over alternative packaging media.

4.  Retail Ready Packaging

Over time, and under pressure from retailers seeking to improve in-store efficiencies, RRP has emerged as a system designed to reduce the amount of handling required to place products on the retail shelf whilst providing the consumer with easy access to products. Numerous benefits have been identified for these RRP systems, including:

• both consumers and store employees indicating better product recognition
• 'one-touch' shelf replenishment
• streamlined restocking
• less product damage and more attractive, neater shelf appearance

A new study has revealed that retail-ready packaging (RRP) demand is expected to reach 32.1 million tons, worth $63.4bn, by 2017. In 2011, the demand totaled 27 million tons of material, worth over $54bn. According to Smithers Pira's study, titled 'The Future of Retail Ready Packaging to 2017', corrugated board accounted for three-quarters of the total volume of materials used in 2011. Within the segment, die-cut display containers make up more than half the market, decline-wrapped trays constitute 17% of demand and modified cases constitute 5%. RRP demand will be primarily driven by the development of supermarkets, especially in underdeveloped economic regions.

5. Packaging and social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest…

It is clear that marketing is changing on a fundamental level as the internet continues to revolutionize how we find, buy, sell, and interact with brands and their products or services. The days of annoying consumers with intrusive advertising and marketing tactics are fading. Traditional Marketing was about pushing messages out. Today it’s about pulling people in. Inbound marketing is a marketing focused on getting found by customers. The new age of marketing is about providing value and earning customer loyalty instead of simply pounding a message into consumers heads and hoping it will stick.

From a recent Canadean report “Global Packaging Industry CEO Business Outlook Survey 2012-2013”, advertising budgets, “email and newsletters,” “social media and networking sites” and “public relations” are expected to register the highest investment, identified by 47%, 44%, and 36%, respectively. Conversely, “television,” “outdoor,” “radio” and “newspaper” advertising is expected to decline. 

13 Emerging Flexible Packaging Markets

In a new study, PCI Films Consulting have identified 13 emerging flexible packaging markets comprising of Poland, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nigeria and South Africa. Collectively these markets, valued at $14 billion, have grown by almost 70 percent since 2006 and now account for 20 percent of total world demand.

One of the key findings is that although a number of these emerging markets have been affected by the global economic downturn, they have weathered the crisis well, with demand growth averaging almost 11 percent per annum since 2006, led by countries including India, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia. In general, all emerging markets have illustrated strong growth over the past five years, with only three of the thirteen posting overall growth of less than 30 percent between 2006 and 2011.

The report identifies the major driving forces in flexible packaging demand within these emerging markets including strong GDP growth, high population growth, liberalization in a number of markets, continued urbanization and the development of mass retailing. In addition, changing consumer lifestyles and increasing disposable incomes have encouraged the development of new convenient packaged food and non-food products.

For further information click here

Flexible Packaging Reduces Energy Consumption First

The flexible industry is claiming to be the most energy efficient in a paper released last month (Here).  Most sustainability energy mantras say “Reduce first and then optimize”, with renewable where possible.

According to Flexible Packaging Europe, because flexible packaging can be assembled at the filling plant from rolls of material, there is no need to transport the empty, but already formed packaging, from the packaging converter to the filling/packaging facility, hereby saving a significant number of truck journeys on our congested European road network. For example, it would take approximately 26 truck journeys to transport the equivalent quantity of pre-formed packaging from the manufacturer to the filling factory whilst it would require only one truck load for the equivalent quantity of rolled flexible pouch material.

Flexible packaging not only occupies minimal space during the inbound transport, but also on the outbound transport of the filled product to the retailer/consumer.

Optimized transportation of filled packs made from lighter and thinner materials means more product per truck load which in turn equals less energy consumption. Comparing the difference between transporting a beverage packed in a 0.2l flexible stand-up pouch with a 0.2l glass bottle, we see that product packed in foil-laminated pouches requires half the number of standard truck loads due to the lower weight and reduced space between the products says the flexible packaging body.

These energy savings translate directly to a reduced overall environmental impact. On top, the reduced truck loads along the supply chain help reduce traffic congestion in the cities and on the highways. And this leads to more energy savings due to a more fluent traffic and less frustration for drivers.

Flexible packaging provides both effective and efficient packing solutions according to the industry body because it can optimize the combinations of different materials to maximise the practical functionality of the packaging and optimize the cost whilst reducing the environmental impacts throughout the product’s lifecycle.

To learn more about how Flexible Packaging aids more resource efficient consumption and lifestyles

check out ‘A Perfect Fit’ on www.flexpack-europe.org.

US demand for Pouches to Reach $8.8 billion in 2016

Demand for pouches in the US is projected to increase 5.1 percent per year to $8.8 billion in 2016, driven by faster gains for standup pouches stemming from sustainability, functional, and marketing advantages over alternative packaging media. Unit demand is expected to expand 3.0 percent yearly to 90 billion.

Burgeoning consumer acceptance of pouches as an alternative to rigid containers will buoy demand, as will such advantages as superior aesthetic appeal, portability, light weight, reduced material use, and significantly lower shipping costs than rigid containers.  In addition, heightened use of reclosing and dispensing components will increase the competitiveness of pouches against rigid containers. These and other trends are presented in Pouches, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.  

Standup pouch demand is forecast to expand 7.2 percent annually to $2 billion in 2016. Advances will be well above those of the overall packaging industry, reflecting heightened interest among packaged goods companies resulting from savings achieved in shipping costs due to the benefits of lighter weight and lower material use compared to rigid containers. Also supporting gains will be attributes of product differentiation; aesthetics; the presence of convenience features (e.g., zippers, spouts); and the perception, especially among younger consumers, of pouches being a more contemporary packaging format than cans, bottles, and cartons.

Demand for flat pouches is forecast to increase 4.5 percent yearly to $6.8 billion in 2016, fueled by above average gains for four-side-seal pouches based on rising demand in medical and pharmaceutical markets and in food uses such as meat, poultry, and seafood; and cheese.  Advances will also be aided by improved barrier structures and solid gains for pouches employing self-venting films to enable steam cooking of contents in the package.  Additionally, robust growth is expected for stick packs (small tube-shaped flat pouches), based on differentiation and material savings over conventional single portion configurations.