Chicago — Tim Burns has a question. But he already knows the answer.
"Who would have thought putting dollops of sour cream on your tacos would be such an interesting phenom? People are infatuated with this product. And it's not possible without a dispensing system," he said.
The well-known packaging advisor and industry analyst said the creation of an inverted pouch with a dispensing cap for Daisy Brand LLC sour cream has absolutely energized the product, pushing both sales and per ounce pricing higher.
Dispensing systems maker Aptar Group and Daisy rolled out the packaging in 2015 and quickly gained notice and market traction, winning a slew of awards along the way.
The approach has fundamentally changed how certain products are being presented to consumers, allowing brand owners to freshen their presentation while also raising prices.
For consumers, the inverted pouch with stand-up cap also helped make dispensing Daisy sour cream less messy compared to the traditional tub-and-spoon approach. A squeeze of the pouch forces the product through a dispensing valve and allows for greater control.
This, Burns said at the recent Plastics Caps & Closures 2019 conference in Chicago, is a prime example of how dispensing closures can help drive change and profit for many categories.
The plastics caps and closures business brings in an estimated $29 billion annually and is only going to keep growing, Burns said. That's about 56 percent of the overall caps and closures market.
The beverage market is the top segment for plastic closures at 31 percent of the total, followed by pharmaceutical at 23 percent, food at 17.5 percent and health care at 11 percent, Burns said at the conference organized by Plastics News.
Holding most of the closures market already, that segment has a projected growth rate of 7.5 percent through 2026, he said.
Dispensing closures, like the Daisy sour cream cap, currently is a $5 billion category and is expected to grow by almost 8 percent a year through 2026.
The stand-up pouch with dispensing closure is a "category buster. And we're seeing more and more of this in the marketplace today," Burns said, senior advisor for packaging at Pirella Weinberg Partners LP. He also founded his own firm, Cranial Capital Inc.
Fancy new caps and closures certainly cost more money to develop and produce. But Burns provided plenty of examples of consumers seeing value through the new dispensing systems even when the product price is increased.
"The bottom line from what we can see here is people don't pay for stuff they don't need. People don't pay for products they don't feel they are getting good value," Burns said.
"Brand owners are marketing upscale using largely dispensing technology for better efficacy, better functionality and the consumer likes it and is paying for it," he said.