Buoyant Business

As always, however, there’s no “gravy” markets in today’s competitive landscape. Although flexible packaging offers a fair share of opportunity, package printers are having to scratch and claw for everything they get.

2006/2007

One of the major concerns over the past year—and most likely to continue for some time—is the high costs of raw materials. Higher material costs were driven by fluctuating, but generally higher, energy prices, says Marla Donahue, president of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA). “With these volatile resin prices, some converters indicated periods of material shortages caused by tight global supply. This resulted in difficulty for converters passing along rising costs in flexible packaging product (sales) prices. The overall impact on converters was pressure on margins and profitability in 2006,” she reports.