Kickstart: A new leader faces big problems at Tupperware

A struggling Tupperware Brands Corp. has a new leader as it tries to restructure and improve its shelf life.

Latest: Tupperware to close its only US manufacturing plant in fall 2024

Laurie Ann Goldman is a former CEO of OVME Aesthetics, Avon North America and Spanx (which makes a very different type of product line aimed at containing things). She replaces Miguel Fernandez as president and CEO.

"Now is the right time to bring in new leadership, and Laurie Ann is exceptionally well-suited to advance our long-term strategy and accelerate growth," Susan Cameron, chair of Tupperware's board of directors, said in a news release.

While Tupperware has strong name recognition, it has struggled for years against cheaper alternatives. It announced in April that it was at risk of failing and seeking alternatives to its traditional operations that focused on home-based "Tupperware parties."

That has included more direct sales via its own website and through online shopping giants such as Amazon.

Among the newest product lines is one that leans into own history. Its Lessons in Chemistry collection collaborates with the TV series Lessons in Chemistry streaming on Apple TV+. The series (based on a book) is about a chemist, Elizabeth Zott, who becomes a TV cooking show host in the 1960s.

The Society of Plastics Engineers' automotive division is celebrating a design icon this year as the Hall of Fame award for 2023 goes to the first acrylic taillamp, a part that was key to the rear fins on the 1948 Cadillac.

The stylized fins quickly were adopted for other models and by other carmakers beyond General Motors throughout the 1950s, SPE noted in announcing the honor as part of its annual Automotive Innovation Awards.

The acrylic, or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), developed by Otto Röhm in 1932, was a "game-changer" as it replaced glass that was harder to shape and more likely to break.

Acrylic has continued to allow more flexibility to auto designers, SPE noted.

"From the perennial '50s shark fins' to the modern 'coast-to-coast' light bars, PMMA has played an integral role in the advancement of automotive lighting designs in both form and function," it said.

The Hall of Fame award is for parts that have been regularly in use in the auto industry for at least 15 years. It will be given at the Innovation Awards gala Nov. 8 in Livonia, Mich.

Hoffer Plastics Corp., an injection molder of packaging closures, is helping a local food bank support people in need.

The South Elgin, Ill.-based Hoffer donated $300,000 to Food for Greater Elgin to help fund the first of a three-phase expansion plan focused on the facility's cooler and freezer.

The charity aids more than 9,000 households in a 13-county region in Illinois. The expansion will replace existing equipment and triple its storage capacity for refrigerated and frozen foods to "ensure a consistent supply of essential items," Hoffer said in a news release.

The company donated the money through its Hoffer Foundation.

Hoffer Plastics won Plastics News' Processor of the Year Award in 2012 and received the Sustained Excellence Award from PN earlier this year.