RPC Group reports rise in demand for specialised cosmetics packaging

The company makes a range of specialised plastic containers, including packaging for Nivea's skin care range where shares rose as much as 6.3% to a year high. 

The brand's revenue grew 7% to 1.04 billion pounds ($1.74 billion) in the year ended March 31, with acquisitions accounting for 3% of the growth.

Those acquisitions mainly include personal care and pharmaceutical companies as well as the food industry.

Back in December, RPC acquired UK firm Maynard and Harris whose clients include L'Oreal and Estee Lauder and by May had further expanded operations in Asia with the acquisition of Hong Kong-based packaging specialist ACE Corp Holding.

That deal seen the Group gain access to five manufacturing plants in China, including one in Hefei city next to Unilever's biggest Chinese plant.

Now, according to Reuters, RPC is said to be in talks with two large potential customers in China in personal care and fast-moving consumer goods.

State of the global packaging scene - and consumer expectations​

Global packaging player MeadWestvaco recently looked at how consumers expect the packaging of their skin care products to contribute to “sensorial and emotional experience​” of their beauty regimes.  

Based on 23 ethnographies and 16 focus groups with participants from across Brazil, China, France, South Korea, the UK and the US, the research revealed that when it comes to skin care, consumers have five clear steps, with each relying on a different sensorial experience.

The study outlined the steps as follows: firstly, consumers tend to initiate skin care routines with a cleansing product, a step characterized by ‘feeling refreshed and cared for’, which can be enhanced by “packaging that can be operated with one hand, dispense the proper amount of product and prevent spills​."

Controlled dispensing is apparently a feature of packaging called up by step two, ‘moisturize and hydrate', while limited waste from dispensers was demanded by the more luxurious third step of ‘renew and brighten’, according to the study.

In packaging of products which meet the needs of step 4, ‘protect’, like sun screens, products benefit again from controlled dispensing and portability, the latter a trait shared with packaging for step 5, ‘beauty base’, which includes BB/CC creams.