How can we better predict the business opportunities facing the packaging business in the next economic cycle?
According to BBC reports, several recent studies at the London School of Ecomomics found that packaging is not only the leading indicator of industrial activity, but also that when the brand logo stays in people’s memory for a longer period of time, When a strong brand effect becomes more mature, packaging is also a lagging indicator of this social trend. Older customers may prefer more traditional packaging for appearance, color, and materials, while trendy and exotic packaging will better capture the psychology of young consumers. If packaging does not resonate in both of these aspects, then the packaged product may be eliminated due to lack of innovation or the end of the product's lifespan due to neglect of older but loyal customers.
One of the eternal changes in the discussion of future trends is that shortages are the main driver of technological product innovation. Within the industrial area (EU, North America and East Asia), the main shortages are space, energy and skilled workers. The quality, use and production of packaging are affected by these shortage factors. In addition, packaging is particularly driven and influenced by social trends, customs and beliefs. According to the BBC, social trends have moved along with the demand, and in addition to a few freakish thoughts, the trend has come from a basic economic principle. For example, the economic principle of a car is different from the economic principle of industrial production. When the basic principles of social groups are different, the motivation to adopt or accept new technologies and products will weaken.
The question we are now exploring is whether our main business portfolio - folding cartons, food cartons and corrugated cartons - is the same or different from the rest of the world.
The papermaking industry in the world, including the papermaking industry in the United States and Canada led by Scandinavian/Finaish papermaking, adopts European production technology. This situation has been maintained for nearly 40 years, but due to changes in the foundation of this industry, the future situation is still unpredictable.
The use of corrugated cartons is commonplace all over the world. There is no doubt that due to the excellent fiber raw materials of boxboard, the United States is leading in the quality of corrugated cartons. However, the United States has not produced enough products to load these cartons. On the other hand, Asia has enough product output to load cartons, but almost every cartons are made from used (recycled) fibers.
In the field of folding cartons, economic globalization and global marketing of products have created a market for high-end boxes that are delicately processed and printed. Europe, Asia and North America all have a strong folding carton processing industry, and have reached a very high level in the production machinery, which is almost the same as each other.
In addition to the high-end cartons, ordinary folding cartons are the main packaging for retail products worldwide. Paper-based food packaging, especially beverage packaging, is far more popular in Europe than in North America; this is a trend that merits attention. The principle of this trend is not yet clear, but the need to increase space utilization when transporting and storing products is certainly one of the factors. The idea that individual product sizes have become smaller, that is, the convenience of focusing on the individual packaging of products, is another trend in Europe and Japan, and it is possible to spread across the oceans across North America. (US Head Office)