FROM PRESERVATION TO INNOVATION
>> By Diane SEARS
Tupperware Brands Evolves into a True Space-Age Company
D
avid Kusuma was listed as a speaker at the 2017 International Space Station Research & Development conference in Washington, D.C., and attendees were wondering why. As a vice president of Tupperware Brands, he represents a company known for plastic food storage containers used in the kitchen — not on rockets carrying astronauts. But it all made sense when he gave his presentation. “Tupperware is a brand not normally associated with the space industry,” Kusuma told the audience. “But I want to tell you about how technology and advanced materials have become part of our modern-day DNA.” The $2.3 billion global corporation based in Kissimmee has become one of hundreds of suppliers that contribute to experiments in space. In fact, when Kusuma returned to the conference this July after not attending
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the event in 2018, people asked where he had been. Since his presentation, Tupperware Brands has been fielding inquiries from at least eight companies interested in partnering on aerospace projects. The company has become part of the club. “I don’t know where this will go,” said Kusuma, who oversees research and product innovation for the publicly held company. “I think people still are a little bit surprised when they hear Tupperware is now considered, at least in NASA circles, a spacerelated company. We don’t know where we can take it from here, but it’s exciting that a number of aerospace companies are interested in working with Tupperware, especially on food related projects.” The focus on aerospace is just one of the ways Tupperware Brands is staying current and has
remained a technology and innovation company in addition to a household goods manufacturer.
Preserving the Planet Kusuma was on stage at the 2017 conference with commercial R&D experts to discuss activities that were taking place in low Earth orbit and insights on the future of space travel. But to put Tupperware’s venture into space contracting into perspective, he began with a little history about the company. Founded in 1948 by inventor Earl Tupper in Leominster, Massachusetts, the company became famous for its innovative sales techniques involving home sales parties where housewives and mothers invited friends to play games and, incidentally, buy pastel-colored containers that would keep food fresh in their refrigerators. Each container had a lid — or seal as Tupperware
