North America Protective Packaging Market - Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

Market Overview

The North America protective packaging market is expected to register a 3% CAGR during the forecast period 2020 - 2025. Protective packaging emerged as one of the most significant packaging techniques used for packaging of various ends user industry products, such as consumer electronics, pharmaceutical, and automotive, among others that safeguard and shield core product from damages during transportation or storage.​

• The rise in e-commerce purchases is the key factor expected to boost protective packaging films' demand and drives the region's growth. According to Statcan, the retail e-commerce sales in Canada accounted for CAD 3431.22 million in April 2020 that increased from CAD 877.35 million in January 2016.
• The market is expected to witness new partnerships and M&A activities to address new challenges emerging in the market and drive growth. For instance, in June 2019, Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, agreed to acquire Pregis LLC, protective packaging materials and automated systems manufacturer, from Olympus Partners, which after five years of ownership and a series of acquisitions resulted in Pregis LLC growing from 14 to 22 manufacturing sites in North America and Europe. ​
• The region hosts many protective packaging manufacturers such as Sealed Air Corporation, Sonoco Products, Packaging Corporation of America, Pregis LLC, among others who are making an increased investment in R&D to develop environment-friendly and sustainable protective packaging material. For instance, in September 2019, Sonoco announced its new EnviroSense sustainable packaging initiative for its different range of packaging products that include protective packaging products. ​
• Furthermore, the region's sustainable packaging coalition hosted the protective packaging design challenge where Flexi-Hex, ClimaCell, Cruz Foam, Returnity, and Ecovative Mushroom Packaging were five finalists announced in September 2020. For instance, ClimaCell is produced by TemperPack, who has patented a process for creating foam from paper and plant starch. The technology provides both thermal protection and protection from vibration and shock, along with other applications like void fill, cushioning, and blocking.​
• With the outbreak of COVID-19, the market for protective packaging is witnessing significant growth owing to a rise in demand from e-commerce, pharmaceutical, and other end-user industries. According to Adobe's Digital Economy Index's latest data, U.S. e-commerce jumped 49% in April, FY 2020, compared to the baseline period in early March before shelter-in-place restrictions came into effect. Online grocery helped drive the increase in revenues, with a 110% boost in daily sales between March and April. Meanwhile, electronic sales were up 58%, and book sales have doubled.​​

Scope of the report

Protective packaging are materials that are built to protect and add buffer to a product from potential harm or damages/destruction while shipping or warehousing. Protective packaging can be used either as a primary packaging or secondary packaging material depending upon the products’ end-use application.​ The scope of the market is comprehensive and is limited to North America.

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Key Market Trends

Food and Beverage Industry to Drive the Market Growth

• E-commerce is witnessing a growth in online food & restaurant service companies. The shelf life of several products in the food and beverage industry can be very short and delivering an item before its depletion period is the most common pain-point in the sector. The wide adoption of plastic packaging in the food and beverage industry, which includes bags, pouches, and shrink films primarily due to their flexibility and durability, are factors that create demand for plastic protective packaging solutions in the region.
• Brand owners are increasingly looking to packaging converters to design secondary packaging solutions that will prevent shipping-related damage. Moreover, for beverages made of glass bottles (most fragile items), packaging airbags are used nowadays. If any of the multiple chambers loses air in airbags, the balance remains inflated to provide continued protection. Airpack provides this solution to various e-commerce companies.​
• Molded pulp packaging is a newer type of packaging typically made from recycled materials. It is used for protective packaging, mostly for food and beverages. Additionally, molded pulp packaging benefits from performance advantages, including excellent cushioning, bracing, blocking, and providing backlash against single-use plastic products manufactured from expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam.​

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