Bright future for packaging, says industry guru
The combination of Amazon's arrival in Australia and Anthony Pratt's $2 billion investment in Visy spells good news for the local packaging sector, says Tim Woods in the latest issue of industry bible Pulp and Paper Edge.
The report from IndustryEdge details how fibre packaging has grown strongly over the last few years. According to Woods, Pratt's Visy expansion is more than just a welcome strategic investment, but a big thumbs-up to the potential of packaging. "The announcement by Anthony Pratt, the owner of Visy Industries, that the company would invest AUD2 billion over the next decade in its Australian operations underscores the potential of the packaging sector to be the major growth engine for Australia’s paper and paperboard industry, long into the future.
"What makes this more interesting – and possibly more important – is that it comes as a signal of confidence in the future of packaging in general, and the fibre packaging sector specifically," Woods writes.
Woods adds that the move by e-commerce giant Amazon to establish a local service in Australia, starting with a warehouse in Dandenong South, Victoria, may be bad news for retailers, but is great for the packaging sector. "Packaging is set to be one of the big winners from the rise of e-commerce. Amazon’s deliveries, starting from distribution centres that will house hundreds of thousands of items, will of course be filled with corrugated cartons and folding boxes," Woods said.
Woods points to growth in packaging materials for e-commerce as one reason for the apparent 12.1 percent rise in consumption of packaging and industrial papers in 2015-16. "It is hard to know whether any winner – other than Amazon itself – will have the best of the new conditions, but packaging materials suppliers seem unable to lose in the next evolution of e-commerce," he said.