Flexible packaging will grow into a $25 billion business in North America during the next five years, according to a new forecast.
The market totaled $20.7 billion in 2013, with 88 percent of those sales coming in the United States, 7 percent in Canada and 5 percent in Mexico, PCI Films Consulting Ltd. of Guilsborough, England, said in a new report.
North America represents about 30 percent of the global consumption of flexible packaging.
Annual growth is expected to run at about 4 percent during the next five years in North America, the flexible packaging consulting firm said.
"While the economic slowdown adversely impacted the flexible packaging industry's profitability, volume growth has continued to be sustained by servicing primarily defensive markets such as food, pharmaceuticals and pet food," PCI consultant Paul Gaster said in a statement.
Thanks to evolving technologies, flexible packaging also is increasingly becoming what Gaster called a viable alternative to rigid packaging.