Suppliers focus more on contract packagers (sidebar)

While about a third of suppliers participating in the survey sell only to contract packagers within the United States, more than 56% sell to CPs in Canada, and another 46.5% sell to CPs operating in Mexico. Another 32% service CPs in Central or South America, and 31% sell also to Europe. In terms of company size, about 44% of these suppliers report their companies have 100 or fewer employees, whereas 23.5% report 500 or more. The companies are almost evenly divided between those companies that sell equipment (46.6%) and those that sell materials (43.5%). The other respondents, nearly 10%, are providers of packaging services. The highest percentage of these companies said they serve companies in the food industry, and another 15% typically sell to beverage companies. About 16% of the respondents said their companies provide products for industrial packagers, and 12% serve the medical/pharmaceutical businesses. Although the supplier respondents hold a variety of individual job titles, a full three-quarters of participants said they have sales or marketing positions. Geographically, these packaging suppliers were often from the Midwest or the Northeast. The Southeast and the West were also important regions, as was Canada at over 6.8% of respondents.

See the story that goes with this sidebar: Suppliers focus more on control packagers