Advantage: Flexible Packaging

Going forward, the State of the Industry report forecasts slow growth in the near term, with gradual improvement of 2 to 4 percent per year. It also predicts that the industry will experience further consolidation, along with challenges coming from raw material cost volatility and margin pressure.

Although this Great Recession has proven that the packaging segment isn't quite recession-proof, packaging in general, and flexible packaging in particular, do have distinct advantages versus commercial printing because of the markets they serve. For example, the largest category for flexible packaging sales is food (one of the more non-discretionary consumer categories), with the FPA reporting 56 percent of 2009 sales going for food products.