L.E.K. Consulting 2026 CPG and Foodservice Brand Owner Packaging Study

Foodservice companies are investing in packaging innovation, specifically in substrates that enable them to reach goals related to sustainability and food safety, while both consumer packaged goods (CPG) and foodservice brand owners are optimizing stock-keeping units (SKUs) in order to minimize supply chain complexity, more effectively align with demand and manage their costs. In the meantime, even as the use of digital tools becomes standard practice and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly becomes a source of differentiation in the packaging value chain, packaging multisourcing remains a core procurement strategy.

Indeed, packaging is extremely important to brand owners and continues to be a compelling use of investment because it not only conveys the brand message but also represents a very small portion of spend relative to total retail value. Micro and challenger brands in particular view packaging as highly important to their success, while in terms of end markets the importance of packaging is emphasized most in food and beauty and personal care.

These are some of the top takeaways from L.E.K. Consulting’s annual proprietary study of CPG and foodservice brands’ packaging needs, which we conducted during the fourth quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026. Now in its eighth year, the L.E.K. 2026 Brand Owner Packaging Study provides longitudinal insights into the needs of decision-makers and their perspectives on packaging trends. It reveals how much packaging is impacting CPG and foodservice brands’ success, how they’re leveraging digital tools and AI, and the types of packaging innovation foodservice companies specifically are investing in, as well as which procurement strategies they’re using.

Key topics for 2026

For our brand owner packaging study, we posed a series of questions related to the most pressing issues currently facing brand owners, then summarized their answers in four distinct articles, arranged by topic:

The impact of packaging on brand success — How important is packaging to a brand’s success? How does relative spend on packaging vary, both by end market and customer segment?
The importance of digital tools and AI to brand owners — Which digital tools and AI use cases are brand owners using or planning to use? What impact are the tools they’ve already implemented having on the packaging value chain?
Foodservice companies’ approach to packaging — What’s important to foodservice companies when it comes to evaluating packaging choices? Are they investing in packaging-related innovation?
How brand owners’ sourcing strategies are evolving — How many suppliers do brand owners typically utilize for packaging materials? What is the typical share of spend for each supplier?

The impact of packaging on brand success

Packaging remains a critical driver of brand success. Nearly all — 98% — of our 2026 survey respondents rated packaging as highly important to brand success, which was in line with our 2023 (98%) and 2024 (99%) survey findings (see Figure 1).

Brand owners across end markets also rated packaging as highly important to the success of their brands, led by food and beauty and personal care; healthcare was the only laggard on a relative basis (see Figure 2).

Brand owners are also actively planning changes to their packaging. Nearly all brand owners (roughly 99%) indicate that they expect to make changes over the next three years, primarily driven by a desire to increase sustainability, change aesthetics and extend shelf life (see Figure 3).

Drivers of changes in packaging materials in the next three years (2026)

To learn more about brand owners’ packaging needs in 2026, be sure to read each of our deep-dive summaries of survey findings. Our second article looks at how brands are leveraging digital tools and AI across the packaging value chain, and in our third article we break down how foodservice brands are approaching packaging and how that differs from CPG brands . The fourth and final article in our series makes clear how brand owners’ sourcing strategies are evolving.

About the study

We surveyed 450 U.S. CPG and foodservice brand owners and packaging stakeholders for our eighth annual proprietary study to understand their packaging needs and get their views on the trends driving demand.

In addition to surfacing packaging trends and spend by CPG and foodservice brands, the study looks at how sustainability in packaging is evolving. It also breaks down current SKU dynamics and the impact they’re having on packaging demand, packaging sourcing and digital/AI use cases, as well as how perspectives on all of these topics have changed over the past few years and are expected to change going forward.

For this year’s study, we targeted brand managers and other packaging decision-makers at CPG (N=389) and foodservice (N=61) companies who were:

Responsible for or directly involved in making packaging decisions for a brand or foodservice establishment
Responsible for a CPG or foodservice brand that is sold in the U.S. but may also be sold into international markets
Responsible for a brand within the food, foodservice and beverage, beauty and personal care, household and wellness, healthcare, and consumer electronics end markets

If you would like access to the full results, please contact us.