FDBusiness.com

The latest European packaging manufacturer to announce it would be passing on raw material cost increases is UK company Paccor, which makes rigid plastic food packaging.

It is active in 13 European countries and has 19 manufacturing sites across Europe and makes packaging for products ranging from ice cream and confectionery to ready meals and dairy products.

In a statement, the firm’s managing director Chris Hart said it would keep prices as low as it could, but that some form of increase was inevitable.

“We want to continue to run a viable business, therefore we have to manage significant increases in the raw materials market in order to remain competitive and sustainable.

“Our prices have been kept very low over a number of years. It is important to stress that Paccor price increases are significantly below the polystyrene (PS) Q1 2013 global material purchase increases.”

Further raw material increases forecast

He said he expected costs to keep growing. “Polymer purchase is by far the largest contributor to the cost of our products. There are further raw material increases forecast in the coming months, which are expected to be in the range of 10-15%.

“Although oil prices seem to have stabilised, we did not see any significant effect on reducing PS purchase pricing as a consequence. In addition, the Euro to Dollar exchange rate remains week and is predicted to stay at its current level, or lower, for some time.

“Faced with these spiralling costs, we have to react to these market trends.”