Down-sizing trend driving US rigid food packaging

By Jane Byrne

The trend towards smaller, more portable beverage and prepared food containers will play a large part in the increased use of plastics in rigid food packaging in the US market, according to a new report.

The category is expected to expand by 4.7 per cent a year to £17.2bn in 2013, said Rigid Food Packaging, published by the US-based BCC Research.

Demographic changes such as greater numbers of single-person households and older consumers are supporting the demand for more convenient prepared foods and single-serving portions, increasing material use as smaller portions tend to use more packaging relative to their size.

Rigid plastic food packaging includes bottles, dairy, meat and deli containers, prepared food trays and a large group of containers mostly made for liquid foods.

PET is dominant

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is the dominant resin, according to the analysts, reaching over £7bn in 2007 and forecast to increase to £9.5bn in 2013.

The resin with the second largest share of the food packaging market, at £2.5bn in 2007, is high density polyethylene (HDPE). The material has a predicted growth rate of 4.1 per cent, and is forecast it to hit the £3.2bn mark in 2013, according to the analysts.

Polystyrene is expected to increase market share from an estimated £2bn in 2007 to £2.4bn in 2013 and polypropylene is also forecast to experience annual growth of 6.6 per cent to reach £1.6bn in 2013, claims BCC Research.

"Bottles are, by far, the most dominant plastic rigid packaging structure , most of which are based on PET, followed by the wide array of mostly blow moulded containers for liquid foods led by PET and HDPE," concluded the report.

European market slows

Meanwhile, Finnish packaging firm, Huhtamaki, in its interim results released on Friday, said that demand for consumer packaging in Europe is starting to show signs of a slow down.

Its Interim Report, which reflects the six month period up to 30 June 2008, showed improved earnings in the second quarter after slow start to the year. The company said that the price increases it implemented in the period managed to compensate for higher raw material, energy and distribution costs.

In 2008, the Group EBIT is expected to be below the 2007 underlying Group EBIT of €136m, according to the company.

Consumer goods rigid plastic production is ceasing at Huhtamaki's UK sites, with the facility at Portadown closing at the end of July 2008 and in Gosport at the end of September 2008, according to the financial report. The company said that it is also closing its rigid packaging site in Karlholmsbruk, Sweden by year-end 2008.

Andrew Lea, General Manager of Consumer Goods Huhtamaki UK, previously told FoodProductionDaily.com that the closure of the company's site in Portadown in Northern Ireland was the net result of Huhtamaki's shift towards more recoverable and renewable polymers like recycled PET.

The Portadown site had been primarily involved in the manufacture of thermoformed polypropylene thin wall food containers used for products like coleslaw and desserts.

Lea said that outmoded plant infrastructure, increases in manufacturing and energy costs and a decline in volumes were the reasons for the withdrawal of its rigid plastic production operations from Gosport.

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America's Most Expensive Hamburgers

Burger Double Truffle: $150

On May 26, millions of Americans celebrated Memorial Day with backyard barbecues. While most of our grills were filled with the usual Grade-A meat from local butchers and supermarkets, dozens of restaurants across the country served Kobe-beef burgers topped not with ketchup and mustard, but truffles and foie gras. The price tags on these wallet-busting burgers can reach $175.

According to Adam Kuban of Seriouseats.com, the appeal of the luxury hamburger is that it democratizes status symbol foods. “Most people don't get to say they've tried the best or most expensive truffles, caviar or wine,” he says. “But a $40 burger is arguably within reach of mere mortals. It's a chance to try the ‘ultimate’ example of something edible, and because it's a burger — well, who doesn't want to eat the ultimate burger?”

In Pictures: America's Most Expensive Hamburgers

High-end burgers have been around for years (the $17.50 caviarburger at Serendipity 3 in New York City, for instance) but there’s one chef to thank for the new trend: Daniel Boulud. In 2001, the French chef introduced a $27 hamburger stuffed with short ribs, foie gras and truffles at New York’s DB Bistro Moderne. A few months later, the Olde Homestead Steakhouse debuted a $41 Kobe beef burger; several other New York restaurants then followed suit, unveiling high-end burgers of their own.

Some of them didn’t last. For a time, Le Cirque was offering $24 mini-hamburgers, popularly known as “sliders;” Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Burger sold a $62 burger made from five ounces of beef. For whatever reasons, both restaurants have since taken them off the menu.

Other eateries were happy to take up the slack. And two restaurants, both in Las Vegas, went to the extreme. The Las Vegas branch of Hubert Keller’s legendary Bay Area restaurant Fleur de Lys serves the FleurBurger 5000: a Kobe beef patty topped with foie gras, black truffles and truffle sauce and served on a brioche truffle bun. No doubt, the burger itself would command a pretty penny, but this truffle overload comes with a bottle of 1990 Chateau Petrus (and a second burger for a guest). The wine, not the burgers, push the price tag to a cool $5,000.

Another burger gimmick comes courtesy of the kitchen at the Palms. They'll pair a $6 Carl Jr.’s hamburger with a 24-year-old bottle of French Bordeaux. This ultimate combo meals costs $6,000.

In most cases, luxury hamburgers are opportunities for chefs and restaurant owners to prove their creative mettle. In Beverly Hills, Spago’s burger is a comparatively modest $22, but it’s made with Kobe beef, Vermont farmhouse cheddar and a garlic aioli. Fellow Beverly Hills restaurant Circa 55 offers another $22 burger topped, instead, with Portobello mushrooms. They may not be the most expensive hamburgers in the country, but they're among the best.

Not content to let the West Coast take the lead, New York City-based steakhouse chain Olde Homestead got in the race. They recently decided that their original $41 20-ounce Kobe beef hamburger wasn’t enough, and introduced an $81 burger. It's made with 14 ounces of 100 percent “Grade Five” Kobe Wagyu beef — with a four-ounce medallion of Kobe sirloin tucked inside. That still doesn't compare to DB's Double Truffle burger, served with 20 grams of shaved black truffles—and a $150 price tag. (Believe it or not, there's an even more expensive burger — dusted with gold — also served in New York.

What of our compatriots who live abroad? Do they suffer from hamburger withdrawal when barbecue season starts back home? Oh, cry not — the luxury burger knows no borders. In Jakarta, Indonesia, the local Four Seasons hotel offers a one-million rupee ($108) hamburger topped with Asian pears, foie gras and Portobello mushroom. Hong Kong’s Steak House restaurant charges HK$490 ($63) for a deluxe 12-ounce burger topped with foie gras and gruyere cheese. Even Burger King’s British locations are getting in the act — as a publicity stunt, the chain recently announced a $200 burger at select London restaurants (the beef used is Wagyu, and garnished with Italian truffles).

Whether they're stuffed with steak, or topped with rare truffles, luxury hamburgers are more than a publicity stunt for many of America's top chefs. They're year-round favorites for the customers who love them, no matter the hefty price tags.

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For teens, the future is mobile

Posted by Stefanie Olsen

SAN FRANCISCO--Marketers convened here this week to figure out how best to reach teens on the Internet. The answer: It's all about the mobile phone.

Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that's where they're spending much of their time--either online, with cell phones or playing video games. What's more, teens wield an estimated $200 billion annually in discretionary spending.

Fuse, a marketing agency based in Vermont, talked in recent weeks to senior technology executives from companies such as Sony, MTV Networks, Yahoo, and Nokia to find out what the future of technology will look like for the teen market.

Among the predictions: Mobile phones in the United States will surpass the popularity of desktops for teens. Only an estimated 20 percent of teens currently own a smartphone such as the iPhone, but mobile phone and content companies are counting on the idea that smartphone adoption will spread fast among teens in middle America and other areas.

"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device. Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods," said Bill Carter, a partner at Fuse, who presented the findings here at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference on teens and technology.

That's likely why geographic ad targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years. Right now, mobile phone providers analyze an estimated 4 billion Internet Protocol addresses to provide street-level targeting to consumers. Companies like U.K.-based Blyk, for example, are reaching teens through the phone with ads and information on nearby nightspots. Teens sign up for the service.

"When you combine this new technology with teens giving their permission to market to them, the growth could be exponential," Carter said.

But, he said, mobile phone providers likely won't succeed as the entertainment leaders for the phone, despite their efforts to sell ringtones, games, and music. Other companies like Apple, Google, and Yahoo will be more effective at "side-loading" the cell phone with services.

Case in point: Most teens download music to their iPod that's been ripped from a friend's collection as opposed to bought from the iTunes music store. "There's a natural gravitation to get content on a device that's different than the one the manufacturer intended," he said.

As a corollary, he said that most teens will eventually buy subscription-based music services, much like the cable TV model. He predicted that Apple's iTunes will offer an unlimited monthly download service for music. Mobile phone companies, too, will launch music subscriptions on the smartphone.

Another prognostication: Other technology platforms will save, not kill TV networks, Carter said. The analog-to-digital conversion will make it possible for teens to watch live TV on portable devices. The technology will help the television networks target programming to specific audiences, and that will buoy the cost of advertising, he said.

"The device is inconsequential compared to the content," he said.

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