Welcome to the second installment of Packaging news and industry reports! This will continue to be a quarterly email to the Packaging team with news about packaging and our customers and updates on industry reports available. The goal is to use the newsletter to better share information, stay up to date on market developments that affect out businesses, and progress towards our vision of being a formidable $1B Global Provider of Packaging Solutions!

Please share feedback, as well as any articles that you think the Packaging team should know about, with Madeline DuCharme.

Packaging News

Navigating the Squeeze: Brand Owners Expect — and Are Planning for — a Rise in Packaging Costs in 2025: Brand owners expect packaging costs to rise in 2025 and plan to pass on some of these costs to consumers. They will also continue to demand more from their packaging, so converters must innovate with sustainable, high-value solutions.

This Is Every Trend and Change You Can Expect in Food Packaging This Year: The packaging industry is focused on sustainable materials due to increasing regulations, such as California's push for recyclable and compostable packaging, and the impact of rising tariffs on international supply chains. There will also be a shift toward QR codes for product transparency and evolving design trends as brands seek to engage consumers with more visually appealing and informative packaging.

Target Launches Paper Bottle in 1200 Stores with Own-Brand Wine: Target has become the first major U.S. retailer to roll out wines in Frugalpac’s low-carbon paper bottles, launching the Collective Good brand in nearly 1,200 stores in a move projected to save over 98 tons of CO₂ emissions. The innovative Frugal Bottle, made from 94% recycled paperboard and a recyclable pouch, significantly reduces weight and carbon footprint compared to glass.

Industry Reports 

(stored on Packaging Market Research Sharepoint)

2025 Beverage Industry Packaging Trends (March 2025)

• Increased Machinery Investment: Beverage packaging machinery investment is expected to grow significantly over the next three years due to consumer demand, co-packer opportunities, and the need to upgrade existing infrastructure.
• Focus on Flexibility and Support: Cost, speed, efficiency, and flexibility are key factors in purchasing decisions, with a strong emphasis on finding reliable suppliers who offer ongoing support beyond the initial sale.
• Sustainability and Innovation: Consumer demand for sustainable, recyclable packaging and a shift away from rigid plastics is driving packaging innovation, with a focus on smaller, ready-to-drink options and the integration of new technologies to improve packaging operations.

Aftermarket Parts & Service Report (March 2025)

• Stocking Parts and Growing Budgets: Most end users stock standard and critical wear parts, often purchasing from OEMs, with both end users and OEMs predicting growth in aftermarket parts and services budgets over the next three years.
• Collaboration for Innovation: Strong communication between end users and OEMs is essential for advancing remote access, managing obsolescence, and ensuring proper documentation.
• Key Challenges: Meeting delivery and lead time expectations, along with having the right technician available for servicing both new and legacy machinery, are identified as the top challenges for the upcoming year.

2025 Embracing Operational Readiness (April 2025)

• Report Purpose: This report summarizes key insights and recommendations from the 2025 Top to Top Summit, where OEMs and CPGs collaborated on solutions to shared challenges.
• Three Phases for Operational Readiness: The event explored interconnected phases—Vertical Startups, Operator Training, and IT-OT Integration—each building upon the previous to ensure workforce, operational, and technological readiness for optimized production.
• Themes: Across all phases, themes like early collaboration, clear checklists, planning, and standardization are emphasized to create a digitally connected, high-performance manufacturing environment.

2025 Richardson Selling Challenges Research Study

• Buyers Are Hesitant and Disorganized: In today’s fast-changing landscape, buyers frequently stall, add surprise objections, and default to inaction—making the sales cycle unpredictable and harder to control.
• Sellers Must Become Confident Guides: To succeed in 2025, salespeople need to act as consultative partners—building buyer confidence, aligning stakeholders, and leading them toward tangible business outcomes.
• Skills For Sellers: The report includes "10 Key Skills for Addressing the Core Challenges Facing Sellers Today" on pages 18-20.

Customer News 

Tariffs and Supply Chain Uncertainty: A few of our key customers have shared aspects of their strategies to mitigate the impacts of tariffs and supply chain uncertainty. Understanding BW Packaging's Local-for-Local strategy can help you talk with customers about how we can support them in these efforts. 

• Nestle discussed strategic investment choices, including localized sourcing as a strategy to mitigate risks such as supply chain disruptions.
• Unilever says its strategy to respond to tariffs is built on a flexible supply network that allows quick adjustments, with most U.S. products made and sourced domestically, and continued investment in U.S. manufacturing like its new Liquid I.V. factory in Jefferson City, Missouri. 
• Kraft Heinz discussed investments in price, product, marketing, and technology, but did not specifically address tariffs or their impact on US manufacturing investments.
• Danone is diversifying its geographical sourcing and implementing hedging strategies to manage price volatility amid supply chain constraints. The company is also reducing single sourcing to mitigate risks.
• Cargill CEO Brian Sikes emphasized that uncertainty in U.S. trade policy, particularly around potential tariffs, poses significant challenges for the global agribusiness, potentially impacting food costs and supply chains.

PepsiCo Buys Prebiotic Soda Brand Poppi For Nearly $2 Billion: PepsiCo’s $1.95 billion acquisition of Poppi highlights the rapid rise of better-for-you sodas and signals a major shift in the soft drink industry toward health-conscious, functional beverages.

Feedback

Thank you for reading through the Packaging newsletter! We want this to be useful, so please send feedback and any articles you think should be included in next month's newsletter to Madeline DuCharme.