Just this morning there was an article about Bemis, the worldwide gorilla in flexible packaging, stating how their earnings are way off as a result of lower than normal demand for high barrier packaging along with rising raw material costs.  Consumer products packaging includes flexible packaging and in particular high barrier packaging.  Of course my first reaction was to climb out onto the ledge, high atop StandUpPouches.net world headquarters, and take matters into my own hands!  But not like you might think.

In my humble opinion, consumer products packaging and high barrier packaging has SO MUCH to look forward to.  While Bemis laments profits of "just" $75,000,000 versus $119,000,000 (million) during the same period last year, companies like StandUpPouches.net (that's us) are hard at work finding creative ways to allow companies of all sizes compete to with the "Big Boys" like Bemis.  Am I saying that we had any impact on Bemis' earnings by allowing companies to have the same or better high barrier consumer products packaging than Bemis?  Not at all, we don't exist in their world...yet.

Here's my point.  High barrier consumer products packaging, like stand up pouches, continue to grow in popularity.  Each month there are new applications being introduced (like the Kraft YES spouted pouch for salad dressing) where companies have embraced the environmental impact of printed stand up bags to reduce the amount of packaging they currently use, minimizing how much is sent to a landfill.  At the same time there are many companies who realize they do not need to purchase 50,000 pieces of a particular SKU (probably a Bemis minimum run quantity) in order to custom print a stand up bag.  At StandUpPouches.net, we can run as few as 5000 pieces per SKU, allowing companies large and small to have the same high end consumer products packaging the giants like Nestle and Hershey have.  With this type of high end Rotogravure printed pouches, small companies can either get on a store shelf for the first time or large companies can test and trial new products at a minimal cost.  That's something to be excited about!

Yes, Bemis has posted lower profits and they are singing the blues and closing factories.  Other companies, like us, see opportunities and so much to be positive and upbeat about.  Rest assured, if Bemis isn't happy with your business or order quantity, we'd be happy to take a crack at it.