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Packaging industry

Research guide

Published: 25 May 2017 Updated: 19 Oct 2023 Update History

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Access to our exclusive resources is for specific groups of students, subscribers and members.

Use our industry guide to find key background information, market research, import and export guidelines, statistics, legislation, trade bodies and trade publications.

The Business & Industry Guides series is produced by the Library & Information Service for ICAEW members and ACA students.

We can compile tailored key players reports, mailing lists, market reports, benchmarking reports and industry news. Our enquiry team can also research other industry-specific information, such as taxation, for you. Call us on +44 (0)20 7920 8620 or email library@icaew.com.

Trends and forecasts

Packaging industry trends: the shift towards a sustainable future
Report from BDO published in December 2022 on the packaging sector. Covers major challenges, the innovations driving opportunity, the structure and evolution of the market and M&A activity. Free registration required to download the report.

No ordinary disruption: Winning with new models in packaging 2030
Report from McKinsey & Company on changes expected within the global packaging industry in the next decade and how companies can prepare for them. Major trends highlighted include e-commerce, changing consumer preferences, FMCG and retail-margin compression, sustainability and digitalisation. Published in May 2019.

Market research

  Market research reports focusing on this business sector are available from a number of market research specialists. In most cases these reports are available to fee-paying subscribers or on a pay-as-you-go basis. 

Some free information is available from the following market research specialists, ranging from industry news to executive summaries of the reports.

Euromonitor
A full listing of reference products and research reports for the packaging industry from Euromonitor, with a range of global, country and company level reports. Each report provides a contents listing and a useful executive summary reporting on the key trends in each country report.

IBISWorld
Business and industry research specialists offering reports on a wide range of sectors. Topics include wooden container manufacturing; cardboard packaging and paper bag manufacturing; plastic packing goods manufacturing; and light metal packaging manufacturing. Report snapshots, table of contents and a sample report are available. The company also produces global industry research reports.

Mintel
Glogal packaging trends 2019. Free report from Mintel on four packaging trends in 2019.

Other reports

Global Forest, Paper & Packaging Industry Survey 2016
Annual survey from PwC looking at the performance of the world’s largest forest, paper and packaging companies and the issues impacting the industry.

Industry news

The Library can carry out industry news searches for ICAEW members and ACA students.

Statistics on the UK

Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI)

The CPI provides statistics on the industry covering consumption and production, raw material usage and exports.

Office for National Statistics

The Annual Business Survey (ABS) from the Office for National Statistics collects financial information covering UK production, construction, distribution and service industries. Statistics available include:

  • number of enterprises;
  • total turnover;
  • approximate gross value added at basic prices;
  • total purchases of goods, materials and services;
  • total employment costs;
  • total net capital expenditure;
  • total net capital expenditure – acquisitions;
  • total net capital expenditure – disposals;
  • total stocks and work in progress – value at end of year;
  • total stocks and work in progress – value at beginning of year;
  • total stocks and work in progress – increase during year.

The dataset Non-financial business economy, UK: Sections A to S includes statistics for:

  • Manufacture of articles of paper and paperboard (17.2)
    See Section C: Manufacturing
  • Manufacture of plastic packing goods (22.22)
    See Section C: Manufacturing
  • Manufacture of light metal packaging (25.92)
    See Section C: Manufacturing
  • Packaging activities (82.92)
    See Section N: Administrative and support service activities

Statistics on Europe

Eurostat

Eurostat, the EU statistics hub, collates detailed Structural Business Statistics giving the latest figures for industry, construction, trade and services by sector and country. The indicators available include:

  • number of enterprises
  • turnover or gross premiums written
  • production value
  • value added at factor cost
  • gross operating surplus
  • wages and salaries
  • social security costs
  • gross investment in tangible goods
  • gross investment in land
  • gross investment in existing buildings and structures
  • gross investment in construction and alteration of buildings
  • gross investment in machinery and equipment
  • number of employees
  • number of persons employed per enterprise.

Statistics within the database are available for:

  • Manufacture of articles of paper and paperboard (C172)
    See database section ‘SBS – industry and construction’
  • Manufacture of plastic packing goods (C2222)
    See database section ‘SBS – industry and construction’
  • Manufacture of light metal packaging (C2592)
    See database section ‘SBS – industry and construction’
  • Packaging activities (N8292)
    See database section ‘SBS – services’

Global statistics

UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade)

The UN compiles and publishes international import and export statistics in the Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade), giving figures for goods traded by value, quantity and weight for each country.

Statistics are available for:

  • Paper & paperboard, articles of pulp, paper and board (48)
  • Glass and glassware (70)

UN Industrial Commodity Statistics Database

The UN provides statistics on the quantity of goods produced by country in the Industrial Commodity Statistics Database.

Figures are available for:

  • Sacks and bags of paper and other packing containers of paper or paper-board (32)
  • Sacks and bags, of plastics (36)
  • Boxes, cases, crates and similar packing articles, of plastics (36)
  • Carboys, bottles and similar articles of plastics (36)
  • Bottles, jars and other containers of glass (37)
  • Containers (other than for compressed or liquefied gas) of iron, steel or aluminum (42)

Employment

UK

The Office for National Statistics publication Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) includes average employment costs within this sector which can be found in Table 14. Average employment costs are provided for full-time employees, part-time employees and all employees.

The data includes average employment costs for packers, bottlers, canners and fillers.

The annual Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), published by the Office for National Statistics, includes total employee and employment estimates for different industries for Great Britain and the UK. Figures are broken down to show full-time/part-time and public/private splits. The dataset Industry – Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES): Table 2 includes statistics for:

  • Manufacture of articles of paper and paperboard (172)
  • Manufacture of plastic packing goods (22220)
  • Manufacture of light metal packaging (25920)
  • Packaging activities (82920)

Other regions

Please see individual country profile pages for links to sources of national statistics.

Legislation and regulation

UK

GOV.UK offers guidance and information on packaging topics, including:

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a section on health and safety in the paper industry, which includes latest regulations affecting this industry.

Other regions

The World Packaging Organisation provides links to packaging regulations in China, the EU and Turkey.

Import and export

UK key players, ratios and trends

A range of reports on this sector are available to ICAEW members and ACA students via the Library.

Valuation

Reports on this sector can be supplied by the Library to ICAEW members and ACA students.

UK benchmarking

The Library can supply benchmarking reports to ICAEW members and ACA students.

Trade bodies

Trade journals and publications

Trade journals, B2B magazines and specialist consumer magazines are another useful source of news and statistics.

Further reading

Articles and books in the Library collection

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to book loans.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports by post or email through our document supply service.

Can't find what you're looking for?

The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information given in this Business & Industry Guide is correct. However, the content of websites changes frequently and users should satisfy themselves that the information they contain is suitable for the purposes for which they wish to use it. We would be grateful to receive notification of any broken links at library@icaew.com.

Disclaimer

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided ‘as is’ with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

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