Packaging Trends 2011

Leading paper packaging executives reveal their ideas about innovation, collaboration, cost containment, sustainability and capital investment.

paper packaging , corrugated boxes , injection molded packaging

Great minds don't always think alike. That's how we get different ideas to build on¡ªlike these from a top-notch panel of packaging experts from some of the leading companies in the world: Procter & Gamble, Kraft, PepsiCo, ConAgra, Pfizer, H.J. Heinz and Stryker Orthopaedics.

Packaging Digest, along with our sister publication Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News, assembled a panel of thought leaders for a "Meet the Press" style session at Pack Expo 2010. At this standing-room-only event, these packaging vps and directors talked candidly about the top trends in packaging for the coming year.

Let's listen in ...

(l to r): Perfecto Perales, director, packaging R&D, Kraft Foods; Denise Lefebvre, director, packaging innovation, PepsiCo; Joe Keller, packaging section head, Procter & Gamble; Sarah Grare, director, packaging innovation, Stryker Orthopaedics; Rich Hollander, vp, packaging services, Pfizer; Michael Okoroafor, vp packaging, H.J. Heinz; and Rob Weick, vp packaging, ConAgra.

PD: What are the top packaging trends at your company today?

Rob Weick: One of the trends is bringing the industry together as we approach sustainability and find the necessary solutions out there. That'll be a focus from my standpoint.

Mike Okoroafor: I am really focused on things that will drive our brand value to the next level. If we want to win, we're going to have to think about ways of collaborating to make sure that we have scale, efficiencies and innovative designs that will really make it worthwhile for the consumer.

Joe Keller: The biggest trend, if I had to pick one, is efficiency and doing more with less. Efficiency on cost and value to the consumer are key for me, as well as sustainability. 

Denise Lefebvre: One of the trends coming is called "Surprising Value." It encompasses the economy and sustainability and things like that. But it's really, today, an affordable package in emerging markets and in developed markets.

Consumers sacrifice. They sacrifice on quality. They sacrifice on the brand experience, most of the time. It's incumbent on us to dig deep and advance design, materials manufacturing and value engineering through all of our processes moving forward.

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• injection molded packaging

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• injection molded cases

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