Want to get a glimpse of where the US packaging industry is headed? Take a look at what your customers are buying.

In the same way you can get an idea of trends in the converting field through tracking purchases of everything from digital-CTP platemakers and gearless CI-flexo presses to servo-driven in-line presses and zipper-equipped bagmakers, knowing what kinds of capital equipment your end-user, packaged-goods customers (CPGs) are investing in can tell you a lot.

One way to do this is through the annual Shipments and Outlook Study conducted by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (www.pmmi.org). The results of the just-released 2007 edition show that sales eclipsed $6 billion last year for the first time—a 6 percent increase over 2005 and the fifth consecutive year of overall growth. US shipments are forecasted to rise another 3.1 percent annually, reaching almost $6.7 billion by 2009.

A closer look reveals a number of machinery categories with healthy statistics that particularly should warm the hearts of flexible-packaging converters and labelmakers. Sales of wrapping machines grew 18.6 percent last year; form-fill-seal bag and pouchmakers climbed 6.5 percent; labelers of all types rose 4.2 percent; and shipments of pre-made bag filler/sealers increased 3.6 percent. When combined, the end-use markets of foods, beverages and pharmaceutical/medical products made up about 75 percent of packaging-machinery sales in 2006.

And it's not just US demand that's doing well; machinery sales to foreign markets will grow throughout the 2007-2009 period, especially to emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Eastern Europe, says the PMMI study. Foreign CPGs as well as US multinationals are investing.

A few of the many driving factors behind all these new equipment buys: A stronger focus on manufacturing/packaging cost reduction and/or productivity improvements to combat rising labor, energy and raw-material costs (sound familiar?). A need for flexible machinery to accommodate shorter runs with a wider range of package styles, sizes and configurations (also sound familiar?). Continued pressure to add package security and tracking such as anti-counterfeiting and anti-contamination detection (good news for hologram, ink, adhesive and RFID-label suppliers).

Your customers have the same kinds of challenges as you. Look at the concepts behind what they're buying, provide the right solutions, and your success awaits.