Food service cup demand will grow 3.3 percent annually through 2021, says the recent study "Foodservice Single-Use Products in the U.S." by Freedonia Group.
After seeing this, I thought it might be interesting to look back five years at the average sales per company from the top 100 of our thermoformers ranking that listed the cups/lids end market. There were 26 firms total from the caps/lids market in that 100.
To see what kind of impact increased demand would have, we'd first need to set equal parameters. Establishing a basis for comparison is difficult, which is why market analysts and researchers make the big bucks.
For our armchair look, let's assume three things. One: paper and plastic will rise together; two: resin pricing and pass-through will, on balance, remain the same (insert Frank Esposito harrumph here); and three: cups make up 50 percent of the sales for our major players.
