Huhtamaki completes a sale of real estate in Thane, India

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD), a leading global provider of marketing, packaging, print, and supply chain solutions, highlights the impact of continued eCommerce growth based on its 2023 (Un)Packaging Reality Report. Sixty percent of RRD’s survey respondents reported continued upticks in eCommerce orders through 2022, and of those, 62% said they are working to level-set expectations for inventory due to over-corrections on COVID-19-related shortages. Findings also suggest brands are giving similar attention to packaging design for online and in-person retail. Survey respondents represented packaging and labels decision-makers from a wide range of different product categories. The top categories seeing upticks in eCommerce orders were center aisle food brands (77%), personal care and cosmetics brands (72%) and household products (68%). Across all categories, 92% of affected respondents reported an increase in packaging needs and 86% saw an increase in labeling needs over the past year. However, respondents from the appliances and durable goods category seemed uniquely impacted. While 64% of packaging and label decision-makers in this category reported a rise in eCommerce orders, 98% reported increased packaging needs tied to eCommerce activity.

Imagine walking into the liquor store on a Friday night. You look past the brews you’ve already tried for something new. You spot a silver and gold capsule of a can, with a strange goggled figure on the label. The copy tells you this beer was formulated to fuel your journey through the multiverse, and it contains a sci-fi album as the soundtrack. To get the album, there’s a special hashtag. By tweeting it, you’ll receive a message telling you what you’re doing right now in a parallel reality, and a link to the music. Curiosity piqued, you bring it home, crack it open, take out your phone, and experience audio, visual, touch and taste in a single moment in time.

The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is facing new challenges following damages at feedstock monoethylene glycol (MEG) plants. The damages resulted in a force majeure declaration by three MEG producers, which in turn led to a force majeure declaration by a PET producer. Asia is being considered as a possible supplier of MEG until domestic plants resume operations. Local sources are hopeful that water and power at the affected plants in Louisiana may be restored in early October, but believe that the impact on PET availability will be significant. This has tightened supply as demand has remained robust. Although resin imports from Latin American may offset part of the shortage, many believe that pellets prices are likely to increase. Inquiries to Asian PET suppliers have shown an increase as prices in the region are low at $650-680/tonne FOB, but delivery would take weeks.