The key drivers for paper-based packaging growth are growing GDP, changing demographics, sustainability and recycling concerns, technological advances, security and the ongoing drive for added value, which is driving innovation in luxury packaging, according to the white paper, Paper-based packaging trends to 2019, released by analyst Smithers Pira.
The company presented its findings at an industry roundtable event yesterday, at the Amba Hotel in central London, sponsored by papermakers Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which commissioned the report.
Smithers Pira packaging consultant Dominic Cakebread said paper and board was “an unloved backwater of packaging”, adding that much of the focus of R&D goes on plastic and “not so much on paper”.
Yet paper and board represents 35% of the world’s packaging sales in 2013 – a value of $280bn (£182bn), with cartonboard and containerboard 31% of the packaging market, according to the report.
Cakebread said this was increasing, as paper was seen more and more as a sustainable and attractive option for consumers and innovations in coatings enabled it to be used in more applications.
One survey found that 25% of men and 33% of women said their buying choices were influenced by how recyclable the packaging was.
In luxury packaging, paper and board has the biggest share of the market by value and is growing by an average of 4.4% a year.
Digital printing for packaging is beginning to take hold, with “huge opportunities available” Cakebread added. Currently 75% of carton packaging is litho printed and 16% gravure, while 76% of corrugated packaging is flexo printed.
“[Digital print] is still in its infancy in the packaging market. We expect it to have a big effect over the next few years. That will lead to much more individualisation of packaging," according to the report.
“It could take very significant parts of the market if the investment is there."
Representatives from APP, Marks & Spencer and Mayr-Melnhof discussed the findings of the white paper as well as further trends, the impact of online shopping and speculation on future innovations, although their comments were anonymised.
Roundtable chairman Adam Page, also of Smithers Pira, said packaging was “a bright spot for paper and board”.
