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Countless brands, from small businesses to retail giants, have gravitated to flexible packaging in the past few years, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, Statista estimates that the flexible packaging market will grow significantly in the coming years, reaching over $304 billion by 2030 — a number that’s up from $210 billion in 2022.
What’s behind this trend? In addition to the many benefits flexible packaging provides, it’s also seen numerous innovations in recent years, allowing for a wider variety of use cases and products, even for things like wet pet food and Costco’s famous rotisserie chickens.
With its adoption by leading brands and even retail giants like Costco, it’s safe to say that flexible packaging has become a movement. Whether you’re currently packaging in a rigid format or launching a new product and wondering if flexible packaging is for you, here’s what you’ll want to consider.
What is flexible packaging? A packaging format with a host of benefits.
Before we get into the benefits of flexible packaging, it’s important to know what constitutes flexible vs. rigid packaging. Flexible packaging refers to any packaging materials characterized by their flexibility — think bags, films, wraps or pouches. Flexible packaging is usually made of plastic films, paper, foil, a combination of these materials, or even post-consumer recycled content. Flexible packaging can take shape as stand-up pouches, flat pouches, or single-use pouches.
Rigid packaging, on the other hand, is made of solid, inflexible materials, such as glass, aluminum, tin steel or rigid plastic.
An illustration of flexible packaging sustainability from the FPA End-of-Life Position Report.
Cost Savings
Flexible packaging achieves all of these benefits while saving on costs—whether those savings come from transportation, packaging materials, added space on the retail shelf, or less obsolescent packaging. Flexible packaging’s low weight and smaller profile means you can ship much more of your product than in rigid containers—think of the amount of rigid container of coffee takes up compared to a pouch, for example. This feature translates to savings both in shipping costs and energy savings.
Availability
You’re less likely to face packaging shortages or large order minimums with flexible packaging than certain rigid packaging formats. The COVID-19 pandemic brought packaging shortages and supply chain challenges that still remain, and flexible packaging can help you potentially avoid those challenges — or more easily pivot to alternative options should shortages arise.
Flexible packaging sustainability is evolving every day.
As consumers show increasing concern about the environment and plastics use, the packaging industry has made numerous strides in sustainability, both in rigid and flexible packaging formats. While flexible packaging provides numerous sustainability advantages over rigid packaging, it has, until recently, posed challenges when it comes to recyclability and compostability. These challenges were largely due to the material composition of flexible packaging—it is often made of multiple sources (plastics, foil, and paper), making it difficult to recycle.
However, packaging engineers have now designed single-source, recyclable flexible packaging and other sustainable alternatives that illustrate the evolution of flexible packaging' sustainability.
But, your options aren’t limited to rigid vs. flexible packaging.
While the dominant conversation in previous years has focused on rigid vs. flexible packaging, it’s not always an either/or scenario—a flexible format may not be the most viable for your product, but a completely rigid format may not be, either. Or, maybe some products in your portfolio lend themselves to flexible pouches and others to a rigid container.
With recent innovations in both the flexible and rigid packaging spaces, depending on your product, you can reap the benefits of both formats. Belmark’s Sealutions™ line, for example, allows produce and other food brands to utilize a rigid container with a flexible lidding film. This solution delivers the sustainability, source reduction and cost savings benefits of flexible packaging while more effectively preserving shelf quality than a flexible pouch or traditional clamshell container would alone.
So, what format — or combination of formats — is best for your product?
Instead of starting with the format, start with your product, goals, retailer requirements and most importantly, your consumer. What does your consumer need out of the packaging, and what format will deliver on those needs?
These questions will help you narrow down the solution that’s best for your consumer — and your bottom line.
Belmark: A Flexible Packaging Manufacturer That Scales With You
As a manufacturer that understands both rigid and flexible packaging, Belmark can provide an unbiased perspective on the ideal solution based on your product, consumer and budget, offering label, lidding or flexible packaging solutions. We stock a wide range of materials and packaging types to help reduce overhead, storage and unnecessary inventory for our customers. And, with no order minimums and an average turnaround time of 3 weeks or less, you can count on Belmark to meet your packaging needs on your timeline.
When you partner with Belmark, a dedicated account team will work closely with you to guide your packaging project from start to finish. From consulting on packaging materials to quality assurance, Belmark is committed to providing world-class packaging solutions that scale with your business.
