Bakery Packaging Has Two Jobs, and They Pull in Opposite Directions
Baked goods are one of the hardest categories to package well, because they fail in two completely different ways. A cookie can arrive in perfect condition and taste stale. Or it can taste perfect and arrive in pieces. The first is a barrier problem, the second is a structural one, and a brand that solves […]
Frozen Food Packaging Is Going Fiber. The Freezer Does Not Make It Easy.
The freezer aisle is one of the fastest-growing corners of the grocery store, and it is also one of the hardest on packaging. Frozen and prepared foods put their packaging through an unusual combination of stresses: sub-zero cold that makes materials brittle, condensation that soaks and weakens fiber, and long frozen distribution that crushes weak […]
Packaging Beyond the Bottle: A Craft Beverage Guide to Secondary Packaging
For a craft beverage brand, most of the attention goes to what’s inside the can or bottle, as it should. But once the liquid is in the container, a second set of packaging decisions begins, and it’s the one that shapes how the product looks on a shelf, how it travels, and how much of […]
Shrink film and plastic rings are on the way out. What the shift to fiber-based multipacks means for your secondary packaging.
For decades, the beverage multipack meant plastic: shrink film around a case, or those familiar plastic rings around a six-pack. That is changing fast. Major bottlers have already replaced plastic shrink and rings on can multipacks with fiber-based paperboard carriers, and regulation is now pushing the rest of the market in the same direction. For […]
The four packaging challenges that decide whether high-value electronics arrive intact, clear customs, and ship consistently
For electrical and electronics manufacturers, packaging is where four separate problems meet: fragile, high-value products that damage easily in transit; export shipments that can be held at a border over a compliance detail; manual packing that protects inconsistently; and a fragmented set of vendors that makes all of it harder to manage. Each of these […]
Can Your Co-Packer Handle a 50% Holiday Spike?
Food and beverage demand does not arrive in a smooth line. A holiday promotion can triple volume in a week. A retailer reset, a viral moment, or a seasonal swing can spike orders far above forecast, then drop them just as fast. The question that decides whether a co-packer is a partner you grow with […]
The Damage You Pay For Happens After the Truck Leaves – In-Transit Damage Protection for High-Value Electrical Manufacturers
A transformer bushing leaves your dock in good shape. Three weeks later it reaches a customer in another country, they open the crate, and the porcelain is cracked. Now you are re-machining the part, paying air freight to get the replacement there fast, running the customs paperwork a second time, and processing a warranty claim. […]
Why the Hidden Costs of Vendor Sprawl Have Become Impossible to Ignore in 2026
Ask a VP of Operations how many packaging vendors their company manages and the answer is usually vague. “Seven, maybe eight. Plus a couple we use for specialty stuff.” Ask the same person how much that vendor sprawl actually costs—not in unit pricing, but in total operational burden—and the answer is almost always: “I don’t […]
Amazon’s FFP and SIOC Rules Are Getting Stricter — Here’s What That Means for Your Packaging Spec
If you sell through Amazon and you have not updated your packaging specs in the last 12 months, you are probably losing money right now. As of January 15, 2026, Amazon began charging new packaging fees for small bulky and large bulky products that are not enrolled in its Ships in Product Packaging (SIPP) program—the […]
The Compliance Cliff: Why Manual Packaging Can’t Survive FSMA 204
The FDA just blinked. After intense industry pressure, the agency extended the FSMA Rule 204 compliance deadline from Jan. 20, 2026, to July 20, 2028. For many operations directors, this 30-month extension feels like a reprieve. The panic is off. The capital project can wait until next fiscal year. This is a mistake. The regulatory […]