Outlook 2022: Cap liners ride high on e-commerce growth

HYGIENE, safety, and security are crucial in product packaging, and these will continue to drive demand for sustainable cap liners. Last year alone, the e-commerce boom tested the capability of manufacturers to deliver.  

Made of materials like aluminium, plastic, foam, and foil, a liner is secured between a cap and its corresponding bottle, to prevent product leakage and to offer tamper evidence.

According to Davis Mo, general manager at Glory Charm International, “2021 was both a challenging and busy year,” saying that demand for aluminum induction liners and foam gaskets from the company’s China and US markets skyrocketed as a result of new packaging requirements for liquid products that are being sold online.

Davis Mo, general manager, Glory Charm International 

Mo also explained that several online shopping sites now require that liquid products come with seals or plastic bags for added protection during courier delivery.

“The demand for induction seal liners soared over the past 12 months due to this new online product delivery policy,” he said. “Some products had to change their packaging design to include a seal onto the bottle to fulfil this regulation.”

Glory Charm was established in 1994 as a HK base company and has two production facilities in Guangzhou, China for manufacturing induction heat seal liners as well as PE foam gaskets, offering tailor-made liner sealing solution services to achieve customers' requirement in mainland China, Asia Pacific and Europe. It offers both one piece easy and clean peelable liners, two pieces for tamper evidence and PE foam co-extrusion primary liners which are being sealed to plastic containers and glass bottles.

Additional layer of protection for products sold online spurs demand for induction seal liners (Photo courtesy: Glory Charm) 

While demand has hit an all-time high this year, the packaging sector is still wrestling with raw material price increases and unstable supply due to the pandemic.

“COVID 19 is still impacting the price and stock of all raw materials – prices are increasing rapidly in the global market. The supply chain, order lead time, ocean transportation costs are very unstable,” Mo said. 

“There is a lack of supply for some key materials particularly from the United States. Order lead times can take like more than 300 days,” he said. “But we are all trying to secure our sources. We have no choice but to increase our stock level and re-structure our sourcing from the West and look for sources in Asia to minimise the impact.” Mo added that through localisation, Glory Charm is able to stabilise their supply.

Unfortunately, it won’t be any different in 2022. Mo expects supply chain disruptions and demand and material costs to rise further this year.

“The main challenge is how to increase production capacity in order to achieve the coming demand,” he said. This year, Mo said that the company will explore overseas market share. 

While in trends and innovation, the focus is on how to create packaging that is substantial as well as easy to recycle, according to Mo.

“For instance, we are developing both PP and PE foam gaskets to match the type of plastic closure. This way, the entire lined closure can be easy to recycle.”

Glory Charm has been working to provide green liner solutions to its customers and brand owners, helping them reduce packaging waste but at the same time ensuring the integrity of products.