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Soap Box - have your say on oil and food prices
Packaging News wants to hear more of your views on the debate that's raging on the politics of packaging. That's why we're launching Soap Box, a weekly feature where we open the floor for our readers to have their say on the current hot topics in our vibrant sector.
This is your chance to air your views on how packaging is represented in the media and the wider world – is the industry getting a fair deal, or is the mainstream media getting it wrong on packaging?
This week we pick up on a BBC report on how the rocketing price of oil is forcing up packaging costs and therefore the price of food.
The film features Adam Barnett, marketing manager for Linpac, argues that a 12% price rise that his company is about to announce, forced on the firm by the soaring cost of oil, highlights an issue affecting the whole industry.
Rectangular packaging, the report goes on to claim, is less wasteful of materials than circular designs – and is therefore the key to fighting the inflation in oil costs.
Watch the video here.
So, over to you. How is the rising oil price affecting your business? Are you able to pass on price increases to your customers? And is the BBC right to suggest that packaging design is one of the key to fighting inflation? Log in and have your say below.
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Comments
Keren McCarron - 16 July 2008
There is no doubt that over the last year we have seen sharp increases in fuel prices, which have resulted in higher costs for packaging and transportation.
Food and drink manufacturers have in many cases been able to absorb these price increases, however if current trends continue this will not be sustainable and will inevitably carry implications for consumer prices.
Food and Drink Federation members are already working on ways to reduce the amount of packaging they use as an environmental priority, balanced against the needs of product protection and food safety. However, as fuel prices have increased and led to an inevitable rise in the cost of packaging, initiatives to reduce packaging are increasingly providing a win-win for companies in terms of cost savings.
Matt Whipp - 16 July 2008
Not sure whether pack design is key - but presumably rectangular designs are not only good for the packaging company but also the supermarket, as you can get more product into a lorry, making transportation more efficient as well. And as for challenging consumer opinion. Well pizza al taglio, or enormous rectangular pizzas where you simply order a slice, is the norm in Italy, the home of pizza. And even in London I've been to pizzerias where you order pizza by the metre, not diameter. So, not such an alien concept as the BBC report might have you think
James Smith - 16 July 2008
Rectangular pizzas are great - they fit in the oven far better as well. Good work Linpak, or whoever your customer is on that job! I would be amazed though if very many companies were able to pass on these price increases. It's certainly not our experience.
Julie Elliott - 16 July 2008
Using less and lighter cartonboard would be one way to save oil costs in the production of pizza boxes. As for rectangular pizzas - the ones I ordered in Pisa on holiday earlier this year produced less food waste because you ordered what you could eat.
Pack Man - 16 July 2008
Well done for pointing out how packaging design is providing a solution, rather than the usual moaning to reduce packaging.
As for prices going up, let's hope we can pass them on.
Mrs Housewife - 17 July 2008
What is the approximate % cost of packaging v the food it protects ? for example with milk ? Is the focus not in wrong area ?
Des King - 17 July 2008
The implication in the report is that plastics packaging is single-handedly ramping up the price of a pizza or a pinta - ao I guess it would have helped to introduce some perspective if the man from Linpac had mentioned that plastics represents just about 4% of the total oil barrel. Whilst to be fair it does show the positive impact of an imaginative design tweak on delivering a workable alternative solution, what it neglects to consider - and what similar national media news pieces invariably neglect to consider - is what the price of that other 96% of the oil barrel is having on food production itself and all the way along the rest of the supply chain. Packaging as soft target as usual.
Mrs Housewife - 18 July 2008
Packaging and packaging design from what I see has continued to work hard at innovation, lightweighting, recycling and overall minimisation. The plastic bottles for milk are a great example; Easy to use, they have a handle, 100% recyclable and more importantly they are recycled, re-sealable and above all fit for purpose, they are used by the whole family with ease.. Then along comes the milk bag ! A bag, a jug, a corrugated transport tray and a set of instructions that the BBC's own Technical correspondent couldn't understand.. It would put people off buying milk.. And having tried this "new" bag of milk it does leave a considerable amount of milk in the bag after use, you can't get it all out.. That's more food waste isn't it and that is the area we should all be focussed on, not just packaging !? Is it me...??
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