Growth slows again in European flexible packaging market

Declining demand in a number of national markets, principally France and Italy, and the continuing lack of significant inflationary pressures, are the main factors behind growth in Europe’s flexible packaging market slowing to 1.3 percent in both value and volume terms in 2013, down from 2.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively in 2012.

This is one of the main conclusions from PCI Films’ latest annual report on the 12.3 billion EUR European converted flexible packaging market, with growth expected to pick up only slightly in 2014. The report includes statistics for 2013, estimates for 2014 and forecasts through to 2018.

Significant regional and national differences in value and volume demand trends are reported, with sales in Germany, Europe’s largest flexible packaging market, continued to see some modest growth, as to a lesser extent did the UK. However, demand in Italy, Greece and Portugal continued to contract, with negative growth seen in France for the first time since 2009.

Demand was most buoyant in some emerging markets in Eastern Europe, notably Russia and Poland, which grew at over four times the European average. Sales growth in Turkey, a major emerging market, while still strong relative to the European average, fell back compared with the previous year.

Report author Paul Gaster said: ‘The growth slowdown reflects the fact that a number of economies in the Eurozone are still struggling with the effects of recession, which has reduced demand for packaged foods in these countries.’

Flexible packaging opportunities for narrow web converters will be highlighted as part of this autumn's Labelexpo Americas 2014 event, taking place September 9-11 in Rosemont, Illinois.

Read more about the flexible packaging market through sister publication Packprint World - www.packprintworld.com