The Global Stick Packaging Market Trend Analysis In 2021-2026

The stick packing is tubular slim packing with sealed ends, it is one of the most popular packing types because of its sustainability and convenience. The bag size of stick packing is relatively small, which promotes people’s low-carbon life. Generally, the length of the stick sachet is at least four times its width. Stick packing has been widely used in the pharmaceutical, health care, food, beverage, cosmetics, and personal protection industries, it is an ideal packaging solution for mobile applications and provides customers with convenient disposable packaging.

First of all, the stick pack provides the convenience of carrying, no matter where the consumer is, he can carry the small packaging bag anywhere. Secondly, stick packing is conducive to immediate use. Nowadays, products with stick packs are becoming a very popular part of finished packaging, its core advantage is the ability to maintain the freshness of products and extend the shelf life of foods and medicines.

The products packaged in stick sachets include food and beverages, medicines, consumer products, nutrition and health products, etc. On December 11, 2020, RESEARCH AND MARKETS published a report on the development of the global stick packaging market. It is expected that during the forecast period (2021-2026), the stick packaging market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9%.

In the stick packaging market, the food and pharmaceutical industries have created huge opportunities for stick packaging. According to related surveys, in food retail terminals, consumers who like to buy portable packaging are mainly divided into three categories – one is living alone, the other is travelers, and the third is young people who like to try new products.

The first category is the main consumer—travelers, who are on business or travel. In order to carry easily and save space, many people will buy small-dose stick sachets and portable packing products. In terms of price, because the small packing product has a small dosage and low price, it is also easy to be accepted by people. Big-volume packing products are suitable for families with large populations in the past, but now the solitary population, small and micro families are the mainstream, this part of consumers is beginning to seek smaller and more convenient packing products.

The small sachets products have a short service life, and a small dosage, and are convenient for the experience of new products. The third type of young consumer group is also one of the important consumers of portable packing products in the future. They have strong purchasing power and fast renewal speed, and they like to try different products, such as new flavors of coffee, beverages, honey, etc. For them, choosing a small package can better meet the excellent experience of different series products.

In the pharmaceutical industry, there are five main requirements for pharmaceutical packaging materials:

(1). Certain Mechanical Properties

The packing material should be able to effectively protect the product, so it should have a certain degree of strength, toughness, and elasticity to adapt to pressure and impact. The influence of static and dynamic factors such as vibration.

(2). Barrier Performance

According to the different requirements of product packaging, packing materials should have a certain barrier to moisture, water vapor, gas, light, aroma, peculiar smell, heat, etc.

(3). Good Safety Performance

The toxicity of the packing material itself should be small, so as not to pollute the product and affect human health. The packing material should be non-corrosive and have anti-insect, anti-moth, anti-rodent, and anti-microbial properties to protect product safety.

(4). Appropriate Processing Performance
Packing materials should be suitable for processing and easy to make into various packaging containers. It should be easy to mechanize and automate packaging operations to adapt to large-scale industrial production. It should be suitable for printing and easy-to-print packaging signs.

(5). Better Economic Performance
Packing materials should have a wide range of sources, convenient materials, and low cost. The used packing materials and packing containers should be easy to handle, and should not pollute the environment or cause public hazards.

For traditional pharmaceutical big packages, multiple opening and closing will generate moisture, pollution, and waste ingress, so compared to larger packing, strip sachet packing can well meet the requirements of all aspects of packaging materials for pharmaceuticals, and is more efficient than traditional packaging materials.

The excessive commercialization of traditional pharmaceutical packing has brought many problems, such as the surplus of large doses of medicine, the lack of awareness of drug safety in children, and so on. In the face of the general trend of creating a simple society and reducing the burden of medical treatment, small-packaged drugs will receive more and more attention and become a new development direction of the pharmaceutical packaging industry. The stick pack provides the dosage and uniformity during use, so it focuses more on serving size control. In addition, the use of stick packaging also eliminates the difference in dosage and the confusion of related risks.

The growing working population in the region, coupled with their busy lifestyle, has spawned a high demand for mobile consumer products because it enables people to carry and consume easily. This main reason is expected to drive the continued demand for stick packaging in the region to increase. According to data from the International Monetary Fund, the number of employees in the United States is expected to increase from 139.08 million in 2010 to 158.3 million in 2020.

Stick-shaped packaging is widely used for various forms of products, such as ready-to-eat mixed spices, jam, honey, coffee powder, solid beverages, meal replacement products, and so on because it can keep the product fresh and thus provide a longer shelf life. More and more food and pharmaceutical companies are adopting strip packaging.

(1). In August 2018, Celsius Holdings Inc. announced the launch of two new flavors in the brand’s SKU product line, both flavors products are packaged in a powder stick that is easy to carry. These two new flavors combine the clinically proven functional CELSIUS formula.

Strip packaging provides great convenience to consumers’ demand for instant health foods and beverages because they are light in weight, small in size, easy to transport, can be eaten anywhere, and are easy to open. Therefore, consumers increasingly prefer to buy stick-packing products.

(2). In June 2019, CKD Healthcare launched the MicrobiomeX. BALAN CURE, a stick packaging formula for intestinal health.

(3). In October 2019, Drink Nutrient, a start-up company headquartered in the United States, launched a series of nutritional beverages in its domestic market. These products include stick-packed liquid nutrients, vitamin Booster+, and vitamin coffee.

(4). In December 2019, ROAR Beverage company launched the electrolytic powder stick, which is a three-SKU single-serve mixed packaging product line.

(5). In January 2020, Sanofi-Aventis installed a new stick packaging production line capable of producing 800 sticks per minute.

The growing demand for precise dosage and portion control is one of the prominent factors driving the demand for stick packaging in the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, the stick sachet is very suitable for the pharmaceutical industry. Since the stick packaging is produced on a dedicated machine, it has high productivity, small size, and low cost per piece.

In addition, compared to conventional serving size packaging, stick packaging generally uses less material, which makes them environmentally friendly and less wasteful. Compared with the same rectangular bag, stick-packing requires 10% to 40% less flexible packaging materials, which greatly promotes the adoption of stick packaging in the pharmaceutical industry.

The stick packaging machine is a vertical high-automatic continuous packaging machine, can automatically complete all tasks such as metering, bag making, filling, sealing, cutting, counting, and hot pressing batch numbers during the packaging process. The types of stick sachets usually have the three-side seal, four-side seal, back seal, and special-shaped seal.

The stick packaging machine is a vertical high-automatic continuous packaging machine, can automatically complete all tasks such as metering, bag making, filling, sealing, cutting, counting, and hot pressing batch numbers during the packaging process. The types of stick sachets usually have the three-side seal, four-side seal, back seal, and special-shaped seal.

With its unique charms, such as slender shape, convenient carrying, the high utilization rate of packaging materials, elegant and smooth tearing, clean and neat dumping without splashing, etc., stick-packing is widely used in more and more industries, especially in milk powder, food, medicine, solid beverage, and other industries. The rise of the consumption concept of multiple varieties and small specifications has greatly promoted the rapid development of stick packaging.

The stick packaging machine can be used not only to pack loose powder and granular materials with a certain fluidity but also to pack viscous liquids and sauces. It is widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, and daily chemical industries, such as sugar, Oatmeal, medicine powder, coffee, honey, hand washing gel, solid beverage, protein powder, milk powder, tea powder, glucose powder, pearl powder, whole grains, nuts, pet food, feed, veterinary medicine, plastic particles, hardware particles, melon seeds, beans, etc.

Depending on different packaging speeds, the strip packaging machine has a single-lane and multi-lane stick packaging machine.

The two types of stick packaging machines are mainly different in price, operation, and packaging speed. The single-lane stick packaging machine has only one bag former, which is cheap. It is relatively simple to set and adjust the bag-making and filling parameters. The packaging speed is slower than the multi-lanes strip packaging machine.

Multi-lanes stick packaging machine has multiple bag formers for simultaneous packaging, packaging speed is very fast, can up to several hundred bags per minute. However, the setting and adjusting related parameters are more complicated, and the price of the machine is very expensive.

Its biggest advantage is that the packaging speed is very fast, up to 200-600 bags per minute. Plastic packaging laminated packaging film roll coils have no waste edges, reducing the waste of packaging roll films and reducing production costs. The biggest disadvantage is that it is more complicated to adjust the length, width, sealing, and other parameters of the bag, which requires strong after-sales support from the supplier or manufacturer. Before purchasing the machine, the customer must send enough products and plastic laminated packaging roll films to the manufacturer for repeated filling tests.

Usually there are 4 lanes, 6 lanes, 8 lanes, 10 lanes, and 12 lanes.

Suitable for BOPP/CPP, PET/AL/PE, and other conformable laminated packaging roll films that can be heat-sealing. The quality of the coil will also affect the sealing of the bag and the packaging effect.

(1). PLC Control System
Set and adjust packaging parameters, intuitive display production data, it also has the functions of automatic fault alarm, automatic shutdown, and automatic diagnosis.

(2). Bag Former
The metal bag maker makes the bag beautiful and does not deform.

(3). Measuring Device
Different materials have different metering devices. Powder materials are measured by augers, viscous liquid materials are measured by piston cylinders, and particles are measured by measuring cups or electronic scales.

(4). The Plastic Packaging Roll Film Pulling System
The servo motor controls the packaging roll film pulling to ensure that the length or width of the bag is more accurate.

(5). Heat Sealing and Plastic Packaging Film Roll Hob Separating Device
It can be used for paper-plastic composite, plastic composite, aluminum-plastic composite, and other heat-sealing plastic packaging roll film with high sealing quality. The cutting edge is flat, and it can be cut in a single package or in a continuous package.

(6). Automatic Printer
Print the production date and batch number and other information.

First, the stretched film needs to be transferred. After the position of the trademark pattern on the packaging material is detected by the photoelectric detection and control device. Because the length of the packaging film is relatively long when it is transported, it needs to be longitudinally heat-sealed by a longitudinal heat-sealing machine to obtain a sealed tube, and then control the unloading and weighing of the raw materials. When getting the required weight, the system will automatically control it to stop, and then move the cylindrical packaging film roll to the position of the horizontal sealing position, and seal the packing film in the horizontal direction.

Usually are round angle (A), straight angle (B), regular angle (C), and irregular angle (D). If you want to achieve different angles in the same sachet, you only need to buy more sets of different cutters for replacement.

If they have the same width but different lengths, can be packaged with the same machine. Theoretically, within a certain range, one stick packaging machine can be used to pack bags of different sizes by exchanging different bag formers, but we do not recommend that customers do this.

Although it is relatively simple to replace the forming device, frequent modification of the packaging parameters of the machine will greatly affect the accuracy of the packaging of the machine or the effect of the bag forming. Therefore, it is best to use one machine for packaging for one size sachet.

The difference in machine cost is mainly in four aspects—labor cost, machine design, the precision of machine workmanship, and machine configuration.

(1). Labor Cost Difference.

Two machines with the same function, manufactured in Shenzhen and in an unknown small town in China, have completely different labor costs.

(2). Differences In Machine Design.

For example, for the powder stick packaging machine, some manufacturers may block the material when unloading the material due to the auger design problem.

(3). The Degree Of Precision Of The Machine’s Workmanship.

For example, the appearance of the machine is stainless steel polishing, but the cost of polishing and fine polishing is different.

(4). The Difference Of Machine Configuration.

For example, for the same type of packaging machine, the cost differs much between PLC system made in China and importing PLC system.

All in all, you should never imagine that you can buy a very high-quality machine at a low price! Because the price is directly proportional to the quality and after-sales service. The use effect and lifetime of the machine at $4000/set and the machine at $7000/set is definitely different.

First of all, the price difference between the two is big. The price of a 10 lanes stick packaging machine is much higher than 10 sets single-lane stick packaging machine.

Secondly, 10 sets of single-lane stick packaging machines are more convenient in use. Assuming that the bag size is the same, if the packaging parameters of one machine need to be adjusted, just stop the machine to debug, and the other nine machines can work normally. But for a ten-lanes stick packaging machine, if the packaging data of one lane needs to be corrected, then the whole machine will stop working, and the other nine lanes will have to wait for it to be debugged before they can work together.

Finally, 10 sets of single-lane stick packaging machines occupy a large area, and one 10-lanes stick packaging machine needs a small area in the workshop.

Yes, it’s easy, correct maintenance of the stick packing machine can ensure the best packaging performance of the machine.

(1). During normal operation of the machine, it is forbidden to switch the operation button frequently and frequently change the parameter setting value at will.

(2). Foreign objects are forbidden to be mixed in the raw material during the packaging process, otherwise, it may cause the problem of material blockage, inaccurate measurement, or damage to the parts when discharging.

(3). The worn parts of the machine should be replaced in time.

(4). When the packaging machine finishes working, we need to clean up the machine for the next day’s work.

(5). Regularly adding lubricating oil to the mesh of each gear, the oil hole of the bearing, and each movable part of the stick packaging machine. When adding lubricating oil, do not drip the oil on the transmission flat belt to prevent the belt from accelerating the aging.

(6). If the machine is left unused for a period of time, please do the anti-rust and anti-corrosion maintenance work.

Sywen Packaging is a professional high-quality stick packaging machine manufacturer in China, our stick packaging machine adopts the imported servo motor to ensure the smooth delivery of the plastic laminated film roll and the smoothness of the bag forming. Imported brand air cylinders are used to ensure the good sealing performance of the bag and clear sealing lines, prevent air leakage of the packaging sachets and reduce the rejection rate. It adopts the world-known brand PLC system, imported drivers and imported brand touch screen, with advantages of man-machine interface, high degree of automation, simple operating procedures, and high touch screen sensitivity. You can also customize a multi-language operating system according to your needs.

If you need professional advice on stick packaging, please contact us immediately!