Rigid packaging: Clarity, speed, and no rest for the weary

Clarity continues to be the driving trend in injection and blowmolded rigid food and beverage packaging, one reason why PET continues to experience better than 8% annual growth in demand.

But as PET steals its way from single-serve beverage packaging—a relatively high-margin and high-growth business—to more mature markets such as household cleanser packaging (April 2003 MP/MPI), suppliers of competitive materials such as PP and PE are developing materials better suited to fight off the PET menace.

More transparent grades of PE are said to be in development at many of the leading suppliers. PE is a less expensive material—though it remains to be seen how transparent grades will be priced—and it enables processors to take advantage of the extrusion blowmolding or injection molding equipment they already possess, rather than making adjustments for PET.

Polyolefins continue to see use in innovative packaging, of course. Only last September, the Folgers coffee division of P&G (Cincinnati, OH) began marketing its 39-oz Classic Roast coffee, the firm''s most popular size and bean, in blowmolded high-density PE containers. The firm intends to transition all of its coffee to plastics packaging from metal cans. The plastic cans are processed by Liquid Container/Plaxico (West Chicago, IL), with an injection molded snap-on lid produced by Erie Plastics (Corry, PA).

Processors can expect pricing pressures to increase—or worse, more rigid packaging to be made by captive processors, as end users continue to merge and acquire competitors, according to Thomas Reiner, managing director at Bernd & Partner Packaging Consultants (Berlin, Germany).

Processors should also expect to show more flexibility in supplying different packaging shapes, as end users such as shampoo makers market their wares to more targeted consumer segments. Whereas once there was simply children''s shampoo and regular shampoo, now there are products aimed at virtually every conceivable consumer sub-group, Reiner notes.

Speed—to help develop custom packaging and move it from conceptual phase to commercial use—is and will remain an important selling point for processors. Large processors such as RPC Bramlage (Lohne, Germany) use their swiftness to convince customers they are worthy of their business. Such clients include cosmetics manufacturer Schwarzkopf-Henkel, which tapped RPC to devise and process a custom jar (pictured, top right) for hair-care products that the processor brought from art to part in only 13 weeks. The 200-ml jars are injection molded with a double-walled, blue PS outer layer and a transparent inner layer of PP. Labels—front, reverse, and cap—are also added by the processor.

Bulking Up on Bulk Packaging

In bulk packaging, more stringent regulatory controls, especially concerning transport of chemicals and waste, will drive demand for value-added packaging, according to market research from The Freedonia Group (Cleveland, OH). Rigid intermediate bulk containers (IBC) will see strong demand growth of 7% for the next few years, it predicts.

For processors, a downside is that demand growth will be somewhat offset by the increased reusability of packaging, since few processors have the assets necessary to expand into the market for collection, cleaning, and reshipment of these containers.

Beyond IBCs, plastic containers are expected to continue to take market share from packaging made from competing materials. One case in point is reusable plastic containers (RPCs), which are rapidly grabbing market share from corrugated products and wood in the transport of fresh produce. Among the influential proponents of RPCs is U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart (December 2003 MP/MPI).

Matt Defosse [email protected]