The UK’s Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) and the Packaging and Industrial Films Association (PIFA) have reached agreement to enter into formal talks aimed at merging the two leading trade associations.
The new organisation would represent a much broader sector of the flexible and rigid packaging and industrial films market, with members representing over 80% of the market, with a combined turnover of £2bn.
While historically operating in different parts of the flexible and rigid packaging market, the two associations say the many mergers and acquisitions resulting from globalisation mean members now have many common challenges and interest “which can be better met and served by a single powerful voice.”
Via an increased breadth of service and support “channelled through one coordinated focal point” they say the new association will not only be able to offer more potent representation at government levels and through the supply chain, but will also “bring efficiencies in the use of company professionals’ time in attending industry discussions and meetings”.
Speaking on general industry trends at PIFA’s annual lunch in London to over 250 association members, politicians and senior civil servants, Sealed Air Corporation senior vice-president Stuart Prosser predicted continuing strong packaging innovation would secure the sector’s long-term future in line with global shifts and population changes.
Forecasting “a new global economy” in twenty years’ time, Prosser, who has 37 years’ packaging industry experience, said the big “BRIC” economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China had “found their place and we had better find out how to live with them”.
Prosser believes the population explosion in these countries will “drive greater demand for sophisticated packaging and distribution systems”, adding: “The world population will be around eight billion and it will need feeding and it will need packaging. All the current global demographic indicators favour our industry.”
