Thermoforming fell 3 percent in fiscal year 2024

It's ranking season again! Time for our annual look at thermoformers in North America. Our last issue in December is our collection of rankings and lists, published over the course of the year. Then I get a little break while the fiscal year winds down.

Now we wind everything back up again with the 209 thermoforming companies that are ranked for our 2024 fiscal snapshot. Showing a combined $16.4 billion in related sales, numbers are down about 3 percent vs. fiscal year 2023, despite a rise in the raw material costs of the top materials used.

The biggest bite came off food packaging. Packaging represents the biggest portion of products in this ranking at 87 percent with $14.2 billion.

View this ranking online in our Data Center.

In total, thermoforming itself makes up about 10 percent of the overall sales we track for all six of our processor rankings.

For our listings, not everyone participates. When companies do not respond to our requests for updated figures, we turn to the research team. Hey, that's me!

Looking at data submitted by competitors, public documents detailing financial data, plus our own story archives, I look for trends and indicators to estimate those nonrespondents.

Looking at the current results in aggregate, here are my takeaways:

• In packaging, neither higher prices nor new products were enough to offset declines in sales. Those declines represent a bit of a continuous cliff coming off the COVID-19 pandemic. As for nonpackaging products, automotive and recreational vehicle markets were up, while most other industrial-related products saw a slight decline.

• The biggest news comes from mergers and acquisitions. A Pactiv Evergreen Inc. and Novolex Holdings LLC acquisition agreement will expand the gap in our top spot with about $4 billion in related thermoforming sales.

In the second-biggest deal, Amcor Flexibles N.A. Inc. is buying Berry Global Group Inc. Both deals are expected to close mid-2025.

• Once again the Society of Plastics Engineers' thermoforming division has named a Thermoformer of the Year. Don Hylton, an industry veteran, who previously received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the division, was honored with its 2025 award.

• And last but not least, happy 75th anniversary to custom thermoformer Eck Plastic Arts of Binghamton, N.Y.

• L.T. Hampel Corp. of Germantown, Wis., moved up eight spaces to No. 42.

• Pinnpack Packaging of Oxnard, Calif., moved up four spaces to No. 83.

• Engineered Plastic Products Inc. of Stirling, N.J., is up four spaces to rank at No. 175.

• General Plastics Inc. of Milwaukee is up two spaces to rank at No. 90.

• DK Plastics of Archer, Iowa, moved up two spaces to rank at No. 202.

• R.C. Westburg Engineering Inc. of Laguna Hills, Calif., moved up two spaces to rank at No. 203.

• Aubright LLC, a plastic fabrication company in St. Cloud, Minn.

• Biosculptor Corp., an orthopedic and podiatric thermoformer in Hialeah, Fla.

• Key Packaging Co. Inc., a custom thermoformer in Sarasota, Fla.

Considering plastics thermoforming has been around for nearly 90 years, it makes sense that most processors in this ranking were established after 1950.

I've tallied up the founding dates of our ranked companies. Amcor Flexibles North America in Oshkosh, Wis., is the oldest, with roots running back to 1860. Redline Plastics LLC of Manitowoc, Wis. is the newest, having started up in 2018. It's interesting that both are in Wisconsin.

Missing from the ranking? Contact me at [email protected].

Find all our rankings and lists online at www.plasticsnews.com/businessdata.

Keller is editorial research coordinator for Plastics News and author of the All Things Data blog. Follow her on Linkedin.