Rising Demand in the Global Liquid Packaging and Paperboard Market

The paperboard industry changes as the needs of society change, and it seems that there will be a few changes to the liquid paperboard and packaging industry over the next few years.

A new study has looked at the next five years of LPB, and they believe that the industry will grow significantly. This will be due to an increased demand for cartons for dairy products and dairy alternative products as well as cartons for juice.

An Increase in Demand

This will encourage a steady increase in demand for LPB products. The growth has already started to occur: a recent study that was published in “The Future of LPB to 2022” found that the liquid packaging board passed the 7.7 million ton mark in 2015 alone, showing a huge demand for the products.

The study also found that the demand for LPB products will continue to increase over the next five years at around 4.5% per year, which is a fairly significant increase. This means that the market value of $4.69 billion in 2017 will reach $5.83 billion in 2022, leaping just over a billion in five years.

This is great news for anyone who works in the LPB market, but it is worth noting that production of paperboard materials isn’t too common. LPB is currently only made in ten countries, although the consumption of these products is spread across the majority of global regions.

Some countries consume significantly more LPB than others: three-quarters of all LPB is used in Europe and America, while Asia only accounts for 17% of the market.

What Is LPB Mostly Used For?

Although LPB is very popular across the globe, it is generally only used to make a few specific products such as milk cartons, soy cartons, almond milk cartons and juice cartons. In fact, in 2016 over 70% of the LPB products were used in the dairy industry, while another 20% of the products went on to become juice cartons.

This shows that LPB is universally used for the same things, but recent years have seen a decline in the number of dairy products that are bought. Many people are making an effort to be more environmentally friendly and ethical, and so they are cutting milk out of their diet in favour of plant-based alternatives.

This many seem like bad news, but it isn’t too much of an issue as most dairy alternatives will be packaged using LPB.

The Dairy Industry

It is also worth noting that while Western countries have slowed down their milk consumption, places like Eastern Europe have seen an increased demand for dairy products, so the dairy industry is still booming in certain places.

Either way, the future of the liquid paperboard and packaging market is looking positive, and it is likely that there will be significant growth over the next few years.

Athena Executive Search specialise in recruiting senior leadership positions in the Print and Packaging sectors across Europe. For access to more articles on industry topics, recruitment and retention strategies, and our upcoming webinar series with industry thought leaders please subscribe here: https://athena50147.activehosted.com/f/1

Customised Packaging Innovation Set to Shake Up Print and Packaging

Just when commentators were ready to write off the Print and Packaging industry, it’s begun to enjoy a marked resurgence, led by brands which want to appear less corporate and to appeal more directly to consumers. The major corporates are leading the way with innovation in personalised Printing and Packaging, and this trend is now growing throughout the industry.

The fact is that personalised Printing and Packaging is now seen as a key way to add value to what are otherwise standard consumer products. A customer will pay far more for a bag of cookies with – say – their own or their partner’s or child’s name on it. So Printing and Packaging are seen as previously under-used ways of harvesting extra value on products. As brands jostle with competing products and generics on the supermarket shelves, personalised products are turning into increased sales at far better mark-ups. The most noticeable manifestation is probably the Coke bottles in your local store now bearing a selection of people’s names. Coke ads feature people holding the personalised bottles.

Digital Cheaper for Shorter Runs

The Financial Times recently reported on this trend and talked with Dion Weisler, who is CEO of HP (previously Hewlett Packard), so a man who knows what he’ talking about when it comes to printing innovation. He sees digital printing as the next big development in the print market. Because digital printing is now as good as analogue in terms of quality, a new market has suddenly opened up. Whereas analogue printing remains cost-effective for large runs of the same label, shorter runs are cheaper with digital.

Growth of 20% Predicted

It’s not just a case of printing popular names on products and then charging more for them. The personalisation can extend to targeting consumers’ gender, ethnicity, language, culture, nationality and other attributes. Although corporates could find themselves embroiled in diversity issues and will have to tread sensitively.

Smithers Pira, a sector consultancy, has forecast growth of 8% in digital commercial printing and 20% for digital printing on packaging, which shows the step change that is under way.

Added Value for Established Brands

The key driver of growth is the phenomenal value that can be added to brands by customising them. The FT quotes the example of a Melbourne department store that last Christmas sold Nutella in customised printed packaging. They sold these at AUD 12.95 each. That’s around £8.00 per jar. And they shifted 400,000.

Not to be left out, Kraft Heinz has been sending out “Get Well Soon” customised cans of tomato soup and charging about six times as much for them as for the standard product. The company would no doubt point out that this is still less than the cost of a decent get-well card, and you can’t eat a card. These examples give a glimpse of the massive potential market that is opening up.

The unlikely corporate love affair with randomisation is also influencing the digital printing and packaging trend. Algorithms are used during the print runs to introduce randomness. Diet Coke recently produced two million individually packaged bottles using this method.

Great Opportunities for Fresh Thinkers in the Industry

Companies are going to need executives who are abreast of these trends and understand the technology but also have a shrewd idea of where the print industry is going. Because of the massive innovation that is taking place, there’s going to be a need for managers who understand change management and can deliver new ways of working with different technologies.

Athena Executive Search specialise in recruiting senior leadership positions in the Print and Packaging sectors across Europe. For access to more articles on industry topics, recruitment and retention strategies, and our upcoming webinar series with industry thought leaders please subscribe here: https://athena50147.activehosted.com/f/1