Shortages of Closures With Pump Dispensers & Spray Triggers Leading to Innovations & Conservation

With hand soap and sanitizers among the industries seeing strong sales during this pandemic, more companies have jumped into the industry including distillers and perfume manufacturers. As a result, packaging suppliers are seeing the limits of global manufacturing capacity of pump dispensers. Spray triggers are also in shortage as sales of sanitizers meant for application on equipment and across larger areas (e.g., grocery carts, work stations, public restrooms) skyrocket as well

Not only are these dispenser largely made in China, but they are also complex to produce, making it difficult for other packaging firms to jump into this market to capitalize on the opportunity.

However, this is an opportunity for the packaging industry to innovate and shift consumer behavior. Soap and sanitizing suppliers are offering their products with flip-top caps or screw caps, instead of waiting for pumps, to be sure that they can keep their products available to the public without interruption. Others are selling their soap or other cleaning supplies in larger pouches or bottles that are intended to refill smaller containers.

Consumers are being encouraged to save their empty containers that already have pumps and simply refill them from the new packages, or, if it fits, move the pump or spray dispenser to the new container. Since pumps and spray triggers are often difficult to recycle, this is an opportunity to limit waste in packaging. While we are seeing a shift toward hygiene concerns keeping many consumers from reusable food containers and reusable shopping bags, this is an opportunity to “green” the packaging within a consumers’ own home.

The alternative solution is hand soap and hand sanitizer customers to switch to touch-free dispensers and other such products that are designed to be refilled. Such products do not require conventional plastic pump cap dispensers of any kind.

For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research on the packaging industry. Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.