Consumer trends have contributed to a gradual replacement of rigid pack formats by flexible packaging during the last decade or so. Total flexible packaging sales were at $219.5 billion in 2016, with growth expected at an annual rate of 4.3% to $282.6 billion by 2022. 

Render, a food company based in Healdsburg, Calif., just launched a snack line called State Bird Seed. A collaboration with award-winning chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, owners of restaurants State Bird Provisions and The Progress in San Francisco, State Bird Seed is a crunchy mix of puffed quinoa, seeds, herbs and spices that can be enjoyed as a snack or crumbled as a topping on oatmeal and yogurt to salads and meat.

Shrink sleeve labeling equipment and consumables provider American Film and Machinery (AFM) has relocated its operations to the company’s headquarters in Brooklyn Park, MN. 

va-Q-tec, a provider of thermal packaging solutions for temperature controlled transportation, has opened a headquarters and operations facility in Langhorne, PA. The site will become the U.S. welcome and innovation center and showcase va-Q-tec’s latest products. The company will manufacture small box containers in the new facility, and use the location as a key hub for its rental and repair station.