OEMs play a key role in the success of beverage packagers. However, as beverage packaging equipment expects increased investment over the next three years, some offerings to packagers could be improved, starting with customer support and service.
That’s according to PMMI Business Intelligence’s “Beverage Industry Packaging Trends,” a report done in collaboration with Advantage Research to provide PMMI member companies and the broader industry with insights into beverage packaging trends that will impact the packaging and processing industry. The research stems from a quantitative online survey conducted from Nov. 21, 2024, to Jan. 21, 2025, and fifteen in-depth interviews conducted between Dec. 2024 and Jan. 2025 among CPG companies and contract packagers in the beverage industry.
In-person and remote support is important, and industry participants want to feel as though they have a consistent and reliable relationship with OEMs throughout an equipment’s life cycle.
“You definitely don’t want to feel like you’re on your own with heavy machinery. You want to feel like that relationship continues with that customer service and maybe even set up some sort of long-term program where they’re coming out every six months or once a year to check up or to service those sorts of things,” said a president of a private label contractor.
“We always want more support, more education, more ideas around what the future holds for new equipment. We constantly strive for that—daily, weekly support inside of our plants. Some of our big machine users will actually have a person in our plant on call 24/7. These machines are very complex,” added a manager of packaging at a global beverage company.
Affordability is another need mentioned by smaller businesses in the beverage industry. Most find it hard to invest on a smaller scale and feel lack of affordability is a significant barrier of entry.
“Small beverage businesses are not being served. Plain and simple. When I started in 2019, there was nothing in existence that I could buy on a small scale to help me scale to the next level. You either go big or you go home. I had to beg, borrow, and steal to try to figure out how I was going to do what I was going to do,” an owner of a beverage company asserted.
SOURCE: PMMI Business Intelligence: Beverage Industry Packaging Trends
For more insights from PMMI’s Business Intelligence team, find reports, including “2024 Snack Foods Packaging Trends” and “2024 Technology & Workforce: Using Smart Technologies to Bridge the Skills Gap” at pmmi.org/business-intelligence.
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