AWA North America Narrow Web Pouch Seminar | 65AWA takes on flexible packagingAlexander Watson Associates held a two-day conference covering label and packaging platform, featuring a pouch converting seminar for the frst time. Luis Rodriguez reportslexander Watson Associates (AWA) held a two-day seminar featuring presentations from speakers across the label and packaging industry highlighting market trends, challenges Aand improvement opportunities for converters.Coinciding with Labelexpo Americas 2022, the seminar took place at the Hyatt Rosemont on September 11-12. “Companies are actively looking to invest in converters that can add fexible packaging to their The Packaging Lab’s presentation at the AWA event looked to show potential pouch converters how to get into fexible packagingbusiness portfolio”Each seminar had its own variation of the label and packaging local converters.industry’s shift to fnd sustainable materials to create a more ‘There’s been a lot of consolidation among the large companies, circular economy. but not as much in the big and small-cap companies. This means For example, Dr Ashish Datt, fexible packaging sustainability there’s a lot of pressure on the small to midsize converters because technology senior manager at Siegwerk, spoke about an easier the big companies are only getting bigger, leaving it harder to deinking method and the creation of mono-material pouches to compete,’ Blaige says.ease the recycling processes. And although many converters are adding fexible packaging Many converters in the North American label industry are looking to their offering, Dan Niblo, CEO, and Jeff Searson, COO of The to expand their offerings and have added or are looking to add Packaging Lab, think that the addition of fexible packaging isn’t fexible packaging capabilities. very simple.According to Mordor Intelligence, the North American fexible packaging market was valued at 40.70 billion USD in 2020 and is What to expect when you’re expandingestimated to reach 47.58 billion by 2026. ‘When we frst started out, we had this beautiful image in our AWA statistics show that the overall growth in the fexible heads on how quickly we could produce products and how easy it packaging market in Q3-2022 for Europe and North America would be, but as we started making inquiries, we started to realize represented 2.7 percent and 3.3 percent growth respectively, how diffcult it was. We even had equipment manufacturers asking whereas Asia maintains the highest growth rate with 4.2 percent us if we really wanted to get into making pouches,’ says Searson.during that same period. This growth was due, in part, to the Niblo adds that ‘it’s critical for converters to fnd where their Covid-19 pandemic when online food and household chemical value to the market is. Whether you want to be the fastest, the shopping was on the rise. The lightweight nature of the packaging cheapest, or just to be able to offer the all-around package, you still also appeals to the brands owners because of transport costs need to be aware of what’s happening in the market right now.’savings. AWA also says that fexible pouches showed more than a Niblo also recommends partnerships with companies already 60 percent lower environmental impact than its rigid alternatives. equipped for pouch-converting. This, at least to start, would help ease the capital investment and by giving converters solid ground Shift into fexible packaging to start with.Speakers from across the industry covered the fexible packaging ‘There’s kind of a hybrid loop to getting into pouch converting,’ landscape, showing how or why converters should consider adding says Searson. ‘We had a customer which, from the start of our pouch converting. conversations, said that it was using us to roll its market share until Sam Schlaich, counsel, government affairs at Flexible Packaging it get to the point when it could justify purchasing the equipment.’Association, says the fexible packaging industry has maintained For equipment alone, The Packaging Lab spent around 4 million steady growth and future projections show further growth patterns. USD, which can be a major hurdle, on top of the long learning curve However, considering recent infation rates, revenue and profts may that’s necessary to operate the equipment, but there are benefts to be slightly lesser than in previous years. this situation.Schlaich says that many of the larger label converting companies ‘Once you make the capital investment, you’ll have full are looking to acquire printers with fexible packaging capabilities. control over the production, the equipment, and the costs,’ adds ‘Companies are actively looking to invest in converters that can Searson. ‘The equipment can be complex and hiring the necessary add fexible packaging to their business portfolio,’ Schlaich says. personnel can also be a headache, but at the end of the day, if you ‘These companies see a future in fexible packaging, they can see can do all of the converting in-house, then that would be great for that it’s only getting bigger, it’s not going anywhere.’ your operation.’According to Thomas Blaige, president and CEO of Blaige & Company, over the past 21 years the number of M&A deals in the industrial, packaging and raw materials sectors have For more information, visit www.awa-bv.comdoubled, creating a diffcult environment for the mid-size and Oct - Dec 2022