Case Study | 31 December 2025
From Stagnation to Innovation: How a Global Packaging Corporation Harnessed Customized Research to Redefine Market Leadership?
Posted by : Abhishek Bhardwaj
In a period that is readily defined by a surge in technological disasters and the international mandate for sustainability, a notable packaging corporation experienced stagnation after years of continuous growth and development. The sudden transition of customer consciousness to eco-friendly strategies and complications in smart packaging implementation have effectively disclosed barriers in its overall market approach. However, in this case study, we will discuss the company partnering with Research Nester to ensure in-depth personalized research analysis, which has fundamentally renovated its business approach. By focusing on generic market expectations to a data-based and customer-centric model, the organization reclaimed its competitive edge and also successfully positioned itself as a modernizer for the circular economy, thereby providing a new industrial benchmark for responsibility and growth.
An overview:
- The packaging giant witnessed meteoric growth in the first decade. However, by the end of 2020, the company’s development trajectory flattened, since there was a drastic shift in market dynamics towards digital implementation, along with sustainability. This, in turn, eventually left behind the company’s conventional product portfolio, which severely struggled for gaining relevance.
- Innovative approaches, such as automated lines, as well as biopolymers, were successfully achieved with lower market integration, owing to an increase in expenses, performance risks, and misalignment with precision in the demand for both B2B clients and consumers. This resulted in diminished returns on significant capital investments of the overall organization.
- The existence of the corporate leadership effectively set a striving target, with the objective to achieve a 15% share in the international market by the end of 2035. However, in the absence of a clear and data-backed understanding of the revolutionary landscape, this insightful goal clearly seemed to be increasingly unachieved.
- By carefully demanding a transformative solution, the packaging organization’s board engaged with Research Nester to create and adopt a wide-ranging and personalized research approach. This aimed at significantly realigning the overall organization with futuristic market realities, thus successfully re-establishing efficacy and driving profitability.
The Story
The Canada-based packaging company was founded in October 2010, when a team of veterans from the industry deliberately acquired a mid-scale packaging manufacturer in Toronto. Initially focused on specializing in metal containers and high durability for the food and industrial sectors, the organization vigorously expanded. Through a sequence of tactical acquisitions between 2016 and 2021, which includes a German-based specialist in pharmaceutical-grade glass, along with a Finnish developer for molded fiber packaging, the packaging company readily categorized its portfolio and effectively established a suitable presence across Europe and North America. By the end of 2021, the organization’s revenue had successfully increased to an outstanding USD 960 million.
This duration of expansion, however, screened a growing weakness. The international packaging industry was experiencing a seismic transition. Besides, the presence of strict of the latest regulations, including the single-use plastics directive from Europe, along with a strong consumer movement requiring sustainable alternative options commenced to erode the need for conventional packaging. In mid-2022, the company unveiled the EcoVantage line, which consists of recycled and compostable plastics, cardboard. Meanwhile, despite the actual fanfare, the line failed and achieved only a mere 9% growth against the anticipated 26%. In addition, materials witnessed disapproval for restricted shelf-life due to high costs and humid conditions, based on which retailers and distributors were not willing to absorb.
Furthermore, in an equivalent strategy to ensure upliftment, the company readily invested in packaging automation in 2023 end. However, this approach was overwhelmed by challenges in integration with the current client system, a significant barrier in skills within the organizational workforce, and the absence of flexibility for small-scale productions. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic also exposed these challenges and caused more of supply chain disruptions. By the beginning of 2024, revenue had radically stagnated at an estimated USD 1.5 billion, and the organization’s market share drifted around 7.5%, which is far from its 15% goal. Therefore, it was clear that a reactive and piecemeal strategy was actually failing, and the leadership was in increased demand for a paradigm shift in operational strategy, and this is when analysts from Research Nester provided a research-based overhaul.
Our Solution:
The diagnostic aspect of Research Nester disclosed a severe flaw, wherein the packaging company was advancing in a vacuum. The product development was highly attributed to broad industrial reports and internal assumptions, in comparison to ground-level and nuanced demands of stakeholders, ranging from manufacturers and raw material suppliers to end-consumers and distributors. Thereby, the solution provided was a customized and multi-phased research approach, which was designed to implant in-depth market intelligence into each and every business decision.
- Rounded market analysis through primary and secondary research approach: The analytical team from Research Nester adopted a dual-stream research strategy. The secondary research effectively synthesized data from more than 125 industrial reports, patient filings, scientific publications on material science, and international regulatory database to identify the regulatory and competitive landscape through 2024. Besides, concurrently, a huge primary research campaign was also introduced.
- In-depth primary research to gain ground-level insights: This readily included quantitative surveys with more than 15,500 end-consumers across different key markets to comprehend purchase drivers, willingness to pay a premium, and sustainability literacy. Besides, Research Nester successfully conducted more than 250 qualitative interviews with brand owners, retail executives, and supply chain managers. This, in turn, revealed unmet requirements, including the longing for packaging that tends to diminish shipping expenses through optimized shelf-ready and lightweight display features.
- Progressive data interpretation and analysis: By the utilization of artificial intelligence-based analytics, Research Nester cross-referenced customer data with B2B client pain points, pertaining to operations. This analysis recognized suitable key patterns, including mono-materials demand for complicated multi-laminates, smart labels with QR codes, and a severe gap in high-barrier.
- High-growth market segment identification: The research significantly pinpointed three essential segments, such as reusable packaging systems for delivery logistics, plant-based gap coatings for paper packaging, and smart and connected packaging for premium pharmaceuticals and beverages, which is predicted to increase at a growth rate of 19% by the end of 2035.
Results
The application of this customized research strategy resulted in a huge turning point for the packaging company. The stagnation in the organization’s growth in 2020 was successfully reversed with the newest data-backed product lines powerfully resonated in the market. Besides, the Circula line introduction of reusable transit packaging, particularly for e-commerce at 2022 end effectively resulted in achieving 35% of the nascent segment within 1.5 years. Further, the smart packaging division provided essential track-and-trace data for pharmaceutical firms, owing to which the company emerged as the leader in the high-margin market.
Moreover, from a revenue of USD 1.5 billion in 2024, the global packaging company’s sales are predicted to boost to USD 3.8 billion by the end of 2035, along with a surge in its market share by 9.7% within the same duration. In addition, the company successfully shifted its brand identity to an advanced and solution-oriented partner in sustainability from a conventional manufacturer. To conclude, by focusing on the tactical and in-depth decision and customized intelligence initiated by Research Nester, the packaging company not only adapted to the market’s evolution, but also commenced to redefine it.
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