Consumers choose retort: at the forefront of technological development, the flexible retort pouch continues to erode market share from its tenacious foes, metal cans and glass bottles.(Cover Story)

In October of 2002 Flexible Packaging magazine dedicated its cover feature to retort packaging. In that issue we asserted that retort packaging was poised to penetrate deep into markets held by traditional rigid packaging forms. In the past two years retort flexible packages have made inroads into markets traditionally ruled by rigid packaging, but not nearly to the degree expected. Why?

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Most packaging experts are quick to identify the extant bottle- and can-filling infrastructure as the main reason retort packaging has yet to reach its full market penetration potential. This infrastructure is so productive and so entrenched, they say, that flexible retort packaging will never be able to match its efficiencies. In a country where most project implementation is based on ROI, it may appear, at first glance, that taking market share away from cans and bottles will be difficult and even then will never be more than an incremental erosion. While it is true that this infrastructure has long ago been amortized there are myths surrounding the "total cost" of the process that must be dispelled if there is ever to be a truthful and honest comparison of these rival packaging forms.

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Sheer lunacy

Day in and day out the largest trucks that can legally navigate American roads pull up to processing plants and unload their contents: empty cans and bottles intended for filling.

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When it comes to comparing the merits of a can or bottle versus a retortable pouch, the discussion has always been limited to the cost of a can versus the cost of converting a flexible retortable pouch. Dennis Calamusa, president of AlliedFlex Technologies, insists we take a step back and look at the big picture. He suggests we also consider the cost of warehousing space, the fuel for the trucks as well as paying and insuring the drivers of this huge fleet of trucks. "What money are we making off of that," he wonders. "We take this huge can-based infrastructure for granted and act as if that's the way it has …