Small packs to take off in Thailand

The changing consumer demographic in Thailand will drive changes in packaging demand, research firm Canadean says.

Thailand’s rapid urbanisation is seeing a significant influx of the rural population moving to urban areas. These consumers will have very tight shopping budgets and as such will need smaller packs in order to keep products affordable and attainable, Canadean predicts.

Thai consumers aged 65+ will constitute 13% of the total population by 2020 and will require packaging that is light and easy to open and handle. In addition, they are likely to prefer packaging with easy-to-read labelling such as large fonts and contrasting colours.

Canadean forecasts that that the demand for smaller packs will manifest in the market with packs at a maximum size of 250 mL, growing at an annual rate of 5.2% between 2013 and 2016 in the food and non-alcoholic drinks sectors.

“The substantial newly arrived urban consumer group, paired with falling household sizes, are driving demand for small affordable packaging, pushing manufacturers to produce reduced-size plastic packs,” said Kirsty Nolan, Canadean analyst.

Canadean says Thailand presents a favourable business environment with high urbanisation, low unemployment and rising consumer confidence. The continuing migration from rural to urban areas will create a larger low-income urban population in need of small, good-value products. This will attract foreign investment and increased competition will promote innovation into small, lightweight and cheap packaging.

These findings are based on the Canadean report ‘Latest Trends and Key Issues in the Thailand Retail Packaging Market’.