Edge, the new consultancy business of STFI-Packforsk, provides a much needed injection of energy, enthusiasm and thought leadership for the packaging supply chain. Look out for our newsletter, opinion pieces and articles to hear new and informed views on the issues affecting your business.
With packaging at the forefront of the current environmental debate, packaging manufacturers and users must be seen to take action to improve the sustainability of their packaging. Reducing the carbon footprint is one element of this, but how should we go about this? And sustainability is not just about climate change – how do we identify and make trade-offs between the different elements of sustainability? Edge uses a variety of tools and environmental evaluation techniques to help our clients to identify sustainability implications of their packaging and to use this information to make informed choices.
Credit crunch, profit warnings, raw material and energy price increases. In the current financial climate M&A activity has slowed, but now could be an ideal time to invest in the packaging industry. Overcapacity in some key sub-sectors coupled with low profit margins makes consolidation an inevitable strategy. Edge provides M&A due diligence services for businesses, venture capitalists and banks looking to finance deals in the packaging sector.
China is a diverse, complex and rapidly emergent economy full of apparent contradictions and data minefields. This makes interpretation of information awkward without inside knowledge and knowledge of the Packaging Sector. Nonetheless, such knowledge of the local economy, market dynamics, business practices and culture is an absolute must for a successful business strategy.
Packaging manufacturers and packaging users wishing to be involved in the China market need to be able to cut through the hyperbole and make informed decisions based on sound data and local knowledge, so the latest Edge market report, China 2012, is written by a Chinese national and based on painstaking analysis of data from Chinese sources supplemented by primary research.
While your time is taken up with firefighting and managing the very real impact of increasing raw materials and energy prices, who is thinking about future strategy? Technology innovations, emerging markets, sustainability, biomaterials, M&A’s, retailer strategies……Edge helps businesses in the packaging supply chain see and understand the bigger picture.