Kickstart: Bursting bubbles, making cuts as demand dips

Sales have been slowing in the consumer products and packaging end markets for much of this year, but recently the pace of announced cutbacks has been on the rise.

Berry Global Group Inc. first announced in May that it would close 15 sites due to "challenging overall market demand."

PN's Jim Johnson writes that Sealed Air Corp., the owner of the Bubble Wrap brand, which began using the corporate name See earlier this year, just told analysts Aug. 8 that it is cutting costs, with a target of saving up to $160 million annually, although it didn't specifically say if there would be layoffs or closures related to it.

Sealed Air's announcement comes shortly after Newell Brands, the owner of Rubbermaid, Sharpie and other popular consumer products, said it would reduce its employee numbers by 13 percent. Meanwhile, Tupperware Brands Inc. is continuing its restructuring operations to stay ahead of rising debts.

"The rapid increase in inflation over the last several quarters has impacted discretionary spending, resulting in decelerating market demand. Consumers are trading down from premium to lower-priced proteins. This dynamic impacted all regions," CEO Ted Doheny said during the conference call.

Sealed Air doesn't expect to see a recovery in demand until 2024. In its May announcement, officials at Berry likewise expected all of 2023 to "see challenging overall market demand."

With Berry set to release its quarterly results early on Aug. 9, we may get another glimpse into just how many more headwinds packaging and consumer companies are expecting in the coming months.

When is a shark in the water near a public beach a good thing? When it's a WasteShark patrolling the waters of Lake Ontario along the Toronto shoreline, vacuuming up plastics and other waste from the surface.

A team including the University of Toronto Trash Team, Ports Toronto and Ran Marine is launching a new waste collection system this summer that can autonomously patrol the waterways, collecting up to 500 kilograms of trash. WasteShark maker Ran Marine, based in the Netherlands, has already deployed similar systems in Europe, Australia, Asia, the southern U.S. and Central America, but this year it is debuting in both Toronto and the Hudson River in New York City.

But if you prefer your sustainability with an eye to the skies, here's a bit of news to "energize" your morning.

The Roddenberry Foundation, created by the family of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, is encouraging participation in the nonprofit group As You Sow, which — among other activities — works on shareholder efforts to force big corporations to adopt more sustainable business practices.

Foundation leaders said in a news release that As You Sow's actions match Roddenberry's vision of a greater emphasis on diversity and tolerance and moving with "big, bold ideas and empathy that can change the world."