REFLECTING ON 2021 AND LOOKING FORWARD TO 2022

How would you summarise 2021?  

It has been a difficult yet successful year for Taylor Packaging, as we faced many industry challenges throughout the year, such as problematic supply issues and rising costs of raw materials. 

Despite the forementioned challenges, we have seen the business grow throughout 2021 with the majority of our customers doing well. At the beginning of the year we were unsure if this was going to be possible, particularly when the January lockdown was put in place in the UK. Therefore, it feels like a great achievement to have overcome these challenges and to still have achieved business growth. 

Is there a business lesson you’ve learnt in 2021?  

With so many external factors affecting businesses within the industry, we have learnt the importance of regularly reviewing business costs in detail, such as the cost of raw materials, in order to stay up to date with the latest changes and keep trading successfully throughout the year. 

This past year has highlighted the importance of being flexible and the ability to diversify and adapt to meet our customers’ needs and the ever-changing marketing landscape. For example, with the demand for e-commerce packaging continuing to surge, we increased our product portfolio, this involved creating a new e-commerce category on our website and the introduction of new products including moulded pulp paint tin fitments.  

What industry changes or demands did you witness in 2021? 

As well as seeing raw material prices increase significantly, we also experienced longer lead times on supply and deliveries due to a number of global factors, including increased demand for materials such as wood and paper and container shipping delays.  

At the beginning of the year there was also a shortage of LDPE, which is used to manufacture a wide range of products, including grocery bags, plastic wrap and film, flexible packaging materials, and injection molded parts. This made planning and purchasing more difficult as we had to plan much further ahead in order to manage stock and supply of our range of products. 

What industry changes/trends do you anticipate for 2022? 

I expect many of the same difficulties to still be apparent in 2022. For example, the demand for paper-based products will continue to increase, also many of the same supply issues will continue to impact the industry.  

Sustainability will also continue to be increasingly important in 2022, especially with the introduction of the new Plastic Packaging Tax on the 1st April 2022. This is to encourage the use of recycled plastic rather than new plastic within packaging and will in turn stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste. Therefore, things like returnable systems and environmentally friendly materials will be hot topics of conversation and hopefully adopted by many more businesses within the industry. 

Looking ahead, what will 2022 bring for Taylor Packaging? 

Sustainability will continue to be a major part of our business in 2022 and we’ll continue to learn about and adopt new materials and packaging systems in line with our customers’ needs and remain flexible to adapt to any industry changes that may occur. 

If you require support in streamlining your company’s packaging with eco-friendly and sustainable packaging solutions, get in touch with our team here.