VERTICAL PERSPECTIVES S
ince the packaging industry serves so many disparate markets, we tend to think of ourselves as a horizontal industry. We cover a whole lot of CPG, food, beverage, and pharmaceutical real estate, but we tend to focus on a comparatively narrow band of operations in the supply chain that centers around the packaging step. That’s why it’s always interesting to piece together our now-annual Vertical Perspectives section, which appears in every PACK EXPO Showcase issue. My colleague Joyce Fassl, editor of Packaging World’s sister publication ProFood World, joins our six editorial counterparts at Sosland, a publisher of food industry publications, in diving into their respective markets from points of view that packaging-focused CPGs might not consider. While each vertical market has its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, there are a few common takeaways. The biggest shared theme is that while demand prospects for food and beverage are strong and getting stronger, and producers are seeking new equipment to support this growth, the biggest obstacles remain on the input side of the equation. Consumers are returning to foodservice destinations, eating snacks and comfort food, and feeding their pets (at remarkable rates, in fact). But workforce shortages, ongoing supply chain disruption for both equipment and ingredients, and that dirty word inflation are common hurdles across these industries. The workforce and supply chain wrinkles are interconnected since even if a processing facility might be able to effectively replace human labor with automation, where is that automation coming from? How quickly will it get there? Will you be able to get change parts? Some of these questions can be asked of material inputs and ingredients, too. Assuming you can procure and install that automation, are you ready for all that data? How quickly will you be able to leverage it for continuous improvement? And, of course, data usage only invites the specter of cyber breaches, which many food producers have experienced of late, as Joel Crews mentions in his piece. Also, for obvious shelf-life and cold-chain related reasons, the food and beverage industry has lagged behind other CPGs in e-commerce, but could pet food be a breakthrough market in the space? Can other processors learn e-comm tips from this outlier that got such a boost during the pandemic? Meanwhile, reports of sustainability’s demise—at the hands of the pandemic and at the altar of hygiene—have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, today’s consumer may be even more attuned to global health matters, as Charlotte Atchley suggests on page 6, and the big brand owners are taking notice with aggressive sustainability goals for their entire operations. All these issues are interconnected; none of them exist in a vacuum. How to navigate between them is the real question. I’ll leave it to the following seven experts to better explain, and hope you enjoy theses columns as much as I have.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
–Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor, Packaging World 4
THE PROCESSING ZONE SHOWCASE
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SEPTEMBER 2021
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