Shrink Wrap Equipment Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Shrink Wrap Equipment Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% over the forecast period 2021-2026. Shrink packaging for various consumer goods offers multiple advantages, such as increased shelf life, easy-to-handle packages during transit and storage, eco-friendly as less packaging is required, safekeeping of the product, and numerous other benefits.

Key Highlights

• There are two main types of materials used for shrink wrapping: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyolefin. PVC is less expensive, but it is not widely used, owing to the health dangers it poses during creation and disposal. Polyolefin (POF) is by far the more commonly used and preferred shrink film. POF is extremely durable, clear, and is FDA-approved for various food material. POF shrink wrap is available in thicknesses that range from 35 to 100 gauge, and it is made from 100% recyclable materials and is more resistant to temperature changes.
• Shrinkwrapped products in trays, on pads, or bundled in polyethylene film are a cost-effective and sustainable way to transport palletized consumer products through the distribution network. Shrinkwrapping offers significantly lower material costs by reducing or eliminating the need for a higher-priced corrugated board.
• Owing to such reasons, the demand for shrink wrap equipment is significantly gaining traction in various industries. Besides this, shrink wrapping equipment offers a faster return on investments and consumes less energy than other packaging methods. According to MSK Covertech Group, shrink packaging equipment provides 40% energy savings depending on the film's thickness.
• Shrinkwrapping helps reduce production output time, faster payback period, and reduces cost by safely packaging equipment in less packaging material. Thus, this is driving the demand for shrink packaging equipment. For instance, Ply Gem, a leading manufacturer of exterior building products, adopted shrink wrapping packaging solutions from Texwrap, increasing production output by 150% with a payback period of under a year.
• The demand for semiautomatic shrinkwrapping tunnels is expected to command significant demand in the market. This is due to the growing demand from various SMEs adopting packaging solutions, e-commerce logistics, and food and beverage packaging solutions. However, automatic equipment demand is significantly high from the massive industries that use pallet wrapping solutions.
• Shrinkwrapping helps save packaging time in palletizing and reduces cost and waste compared to corrugated boxes. For instance, a client of Murphy Packaging Inc. was able to eliminate packaging waste and reduce labor hours spent on packaging the pallets. Thus, the new shrinkwrapping process saved 20- 24 hours per week.
• With the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for shrink wrap packaging saw a surge in demand. Moreover, it offers easy cleaning and disinfecting options for packaged goods, without water leaking into the product offering.

Key Market Trends

Food Industry to Hold Significant Market Share

• The global demand for processed food and other manufactured food is increasing significantly. With the growing demand for processed food, the need for shrink wrap packaging is gaining traction in the industry as well. According to the European Food and Drinks Industry, three major regions are production hubs for the market studied: the European Union (44%), the United States (20%), and China (19%).
• Moreover, with the growing population, the demand for food is expected to increase even further. According to the United Nations, by 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9.3 billion, and to feed such large population, agriculture production needs to grow by 70%.
• Shrinkwrap packaging holds a prominent position in meat packaging in cold packaging and processed meat packaging. This form of packaging offers delivery of the product in the safest, most new, and cost-effective solution. Additionally, shrink wrap is one of the most eco-friendly options.
• Furthermore, shrink wrapping equipment is known to increase the throughput of production lines in the industry. For example, a producer of English cucumbers in Quebec was capable of packaging 38 packs per minute. Its machine was wasting film due to re-wraps and lowering productivity due to machine downtime. With the adoption of BVM Genius shrink wrap equipment, the client's machine rejects rate went from 10-12% to 2-3%. The client was able to wrap 65 packs per minute, a 71% increase than the previous process. Owing to such developments, the demand for shrink wrap equipment is on the rise in the industry.
• Various prominent food manufacturers use shrink wrap to increase shelf life better. Shrink wraps are common in food packaging and bundling a fixed number or quantity of food items. For instance, Nestle, one of the world's largest food manufacturers, uses shrink wrapping to bundle its products across the globe.

Asia-Pacific is Expected to be the Fastest Growing Market

• The Asia Pacific region is expected to account for a significant share of the shrink wrap packaging system market due to the rapid expansion of end-user industries like food. There has been rapid growth in the food processing industry across the region, with countries like India concentrating on moving up the agri-value chain to derive higher profits from exports.
• As part of Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” industry plan, it has identified the pharmaceutical sector as one of the areas of focus for innovation and homegrown research and development. In the year 2017, the pharmaceuticals players in China obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals for more than 38 generic drugs. Going forward, China, along with India, is expected to drive the Pharmaceutical production of the globe. This shall propel the growth of shrink wrapping, of which pharmaceutical is one of the major end-users.
• The expansion of retail in the region in the form of brick and mortar and e-commerce is expected to aid the growth of the Shrink Wrapping. Recent investments point to the vibrant retail eco-system in the region. Alibaba, for instance, recently invested in the Southeast Asian e-commerce portal Lazada while JD.com, on the other hand, has invested in Vietnam-based Tiki.vn and Thai online fashion label Pomelo.
• The ability to shrink wraps to protect products from dirt, moisture, and other damages makes them ideal for e-commerce supply chains. Shrink wraps are being used to add shelf appeal to retail items like personal hygiene products, paper goods, toys and games, gift items, and many more.

Competitive Landscape

The Competitive Landscape of the market remains moderately fragmented. Players in the market adopt strategies like product innovations, partnerships, mergers snd acquisitions to increase their footprint globally. Some of the recent developments in the market are as follows:

• In August 2019 - Standard-Knapp, Inc.signed an agreement to partner with EoL Packaging Experts (EoL), an international company in end-of-line packaging solutions for the food and beverage industry. The merger can create a globally active industry leader for end-of-line packaging machinery and systems with an established presence in both America and Europe.
• In May 2019 - Aetnagroup acquired OCME. The consolidation strategy of the two industrial companies, ROBOPAC AND OCME, has been implemented to allow AETNA GROUP to optimize the technical, industrial, and commercial synergies to face new challenges.

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