New environmental regulations could cause major challenges for packagers globally in 2010, study says.

Meeting environmental/climate change challenges is among one of the key challenges facing packaged goods manufacturers in the coming year. That’s according to a new study, “What the Global Packaging Industry is Planning in 2010-2011: Procurement, Spend and Industry Outlook,” from ICD Research.

This challenge is noted as being among the top eight concerns for global packaging industry buyers and suppliers, with 20% of North American respondents, 18% of European, 35% of Asia-Pacific, and 30% from the rest of the world indicating it is a concern. Other top challenges noted include “responding to pricing pressures,” “rising competition,” and “cost containment,” among others.

Says the report, “Rising environmental problems have compelled governments to place strict regulations on environmental aspects. This could force packaged goods manufacturers to use more recyclable packaging products, reduce wastage, and decrease non-decompostable content.

“This could raise the capital expenditure of companies; thereby affecting the balance sheets of low investment companies, which are already struggling to deliver low-priced products.”

Higher spending levels expected for green
In another area of the report, ICD notes that “'package design/branding’ and ‘environmental/sustainable packaging’ are the products and services that could expect to see the greatest spend among smaller, medium, and large companies.

In addition to these, the report notes, smaller companies (turnover up to $100 million) expect to experience an increase in spending for “inspection/quality control solutions.” Mid-sized companies (turnover $100 million to $1 billion) expect an increase in “supply chain management/logistics solutions,” and large companies (turnover more than $1 billion) also expect an increase in spending on “plastics.”

When respondents were asked to predict the fastest growing industry sectors, they chose recyclable packaging (25% very strong growth) and biodegradable packaging (19%) as the top two areas.

To learn more about the report or to purchase, contact Matthew Rogerson, director of business intelligence – Consumer with ICD, at mrogerson@progressivedigitalmedia.com.