What was the state of the plastic film industry in 2021? Who were the big players? The plastic film industry continues to grow and is expected to reach a whopping $220.25 billion by 2026. The food industry is still the largest end-user of plastic films, but various other sectors, includingpharmaceuticals, construction, industrial, and electronics, are also driving growth.

In addition, environmentally friendly packaging products are also becoming very popular, leading to more opportunities for innovation. Now, more than ever, brands in all industries are being challenged to use packaging solutions that consume fewer natural resources, minimise waste, and are recyclable. This shift toward sustainable plastic film solutions has been a major focus of many companies on this list. And with the global sustainable packaging market projected to be worth $620.98 billion by 2030, it’s also an excellent opportunity for further expansion.

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This list will look at the top ten plastic film manufacturers in 2021 based on revenue. Let’s get started.

1. Berry Global Group

Revenue: $13.85 billion
Location: Evansville, Indiana, United States

Coming in at the number one spot, we have Berry Global (formerly Berry Plastics), one of the leading US manufacturers of injection-moulded plastic packaging. The company has five core product lines, including aerosol overcaps, drink cups, open-top containers, custom moulding, and housewares alongside lawn/garden products. Berry Global has contracts with many household name businesses, including Gillette, McDonald’s, Burger King, Walmart, and Coca-Cola.

2021 was an excellent year for Berry Global, with annual revenue reaching $13.85 billion, an 18.29% increase from 2020.

The company also has ambitious plans for sustainability, committing to making 100% of its fast-moving consumer packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.

2. Amcor PLC

Revenue: $12.86 billion
Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Although Amcor’s 2021 growth isn’t quite as impressive as Berry Group’s, the company still managed to grow 3.15%, achieving an annual revenue of $12.68 billion. The company offers a wide range of plastic products, including PET bottles, plastic bottles and jars, speciality folding cartons, capsules and closures, rigid containers, laminates and flow packs. It primarily sells packaging products to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, and personal-care sectors. In addition, Amcor is considered one of the world leaders in sustainable packaging. In 2018, the company pledged to make all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.

Amcor has existed in some form since 1860, making it the oldest company on the list. And it’s still going strong today – as of June 2021, the company employed 46,000 people.

3. Sealed Air Corporation

Revenue: $5.53 billion
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Sealed Air’s annual revenue for 2021 was $5.53 billion, an impressive 12.86% increase from 2020. The company provides packaging solutions that aim to make the food chain safer and less wasteful and protect valuable goods shipped around the world. Sealed Air is best known for its popular brand products, including BUBBLE WRAP, CRYOVAC, NEXCEL, and AUTOBAG.

As of 2021, Sealed Air has 16,500 employees and operates in 114 countries.

04. Avient

Revenue: $4.8 billion
Location: Avon Lake, Ohio, United States

Avient Corp manufactures and sells a variety of plastic-based products and chemicals, including plastic resins, concentrated colour and ink blends, and specialised polymer materials used in food packaging, transportation, construction, cosmetics, and healthcare. Avient distributes more than 3,500 grades of engineering and commodity resins. As of 2021, the Avient workforce was 8,700 employees strong.

05. Reynolds Consumer Products

Revenue: $3.56 billion
Location: Lake Forest, Illinois, United States

Formerly known as RenPac Holdings, Reynolds Consumer Products manufactures and distributes household packaging products, including plastic wrap, oven bags, plastic food storage containers, waste bags, and slow cooker liners. In 2021, it boasted a $3.56 billion revenue, up 9% over 2020. Currently, the company has 5,600 employees and operates manufacturing facilities in the US and Canada.

06. Novolex Holdings

Revenue: $3.4 billion
Location: Hartsville, South Carolina, United States

With the help of its more than 10,000 employees, Novolex develops and manufactures plastic packaging products and sustainable materials for the food, retail, health and industrial markets. Food packaging products include plates, bowls, cups, utensils, tray liners, salad containers and more. The company operates an impressive 62 manufacturing facilities in Europe and North America, including two world-class plastic film recycling centres.

07. Sigma Plastics Group

Revenue: $2.6 billion
Location: Lyndhurst, New Jersey, United States

Sigma was founded in 1978 with just one facility, but today it has 42 manufacturing facilities and produces an annual throughput of over 2 billion pounds of resin.

Recently the company announced it plans to expand its production of Sigma Stretch Vanish to all five production facilities across North America. This product, powered by SPTek Eclipse bio-assimilation technology, is crucial to the company’s sustainability plans because it’s designed to degrade within six to 24 months.

08. Inteplast Group

Revenue: $1.2 billion
Location: Livingston, New Jersey, United States

Interplast manufactures plastic products, including biaxially oriented polypropylene films, stretch films, can liners, grocery and food service plastic bags, and corrugated plastic sheets. The company has approximately 1000 employees and primarily serves customers in the United States.

The company is also committed to sustainability, and except for a few highly-specialised items, all of Inteplast’s products are fully recyclable.

09. Printpack Holdings, Inc

Revenue: Approximately $1-2 billion
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Printpack is a world-leading flexible and specialty rigid packaging company founded in 1956. The company has 17 plastics manufacturing plants across the US and Mexico and more than 3,900 employees.

In a commitment to sustainability, by 2025 they hope to achieve a 20% reduction in the amount of waste going to landfills and improve recycling in all plants from 80% to 85%.

10. Winpak

Revenue: $1 billion
Location: Winnipeg, Canada

Winpak and its 2,500 employees operate in the dairy packaging, protein packaging, food & beverage packaging, healthcare packaging, and packaging machinery markets. Its products include vacuum pouches, modified atmosphere packaging, stand-up pouches, tray lidding films, thermoforming films, and more.

The Canada-based packaging material supplier reported revenue of $1 billion for 2021, a 17.5% increase from 2020. The company also saw annual sales volume grow an impressive 9.7% during 2021, representing the highest annual growth rate since 2014.