Publish Date: September 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The 2026 Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing Market Report covers the $15.1 billion industry which produces flexible packaging for consumer, commercial, and industrial applications. Competitive structure includes both integrated packaging corporations and specialized manufacturers focused on particular bag/pouch technologies. Market demands increasingly balance performance requirements for product protection and convenience with growing emphasis on sustainability through material reduction, recyclability, and renewable content. Manufacturers face challenges balancing processing technology requirements, material engineering, converting efficiency, and tariff implications affecting both film resin imports and international market access. Industry leaders differentiate through advanced processing technologies improving performance and efficiency, material science expertise optimizing barrier properties, innovative designs enhancing functionality while reducing material usage, and increasingly sustainable solutions addressing environmental concerns in a sector experiencing significant pressure from plastic waste concerns while continuing to deliver essential packaging functionality across diverse applications.
Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing Industry Description
Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing produces flexible packaging including shopping bags, food storage bags, pouches, and flexible packaging used across retail, food, and industrial applications. Companies extrude plastic films and convert them into bags and pouches through cutting, sealing, printing, and finishing operations. These businesses serve retailers, food processors, consumer product companies, and industrial users with packaging that provides product containment, protection, and display functions. The industry creates practical everyday packaging solutions, increasingly developing recyclable structures, bio-based alternatives, and designs requiring less material while maintaining essential packaging performance.
NAICS Code: 326111
Number of Companies: 273
Number of Plants / Facilities: 336
Total Employees: 32,138
Market Size: $15.1 billion
TARIFF IMPACT (Summer 2025 – Download Report for Updated Analysis)
This report has in-depth analysis on the recent US tariff changes on material costs, quantifying import dependencies, tariff exposure rates, and key source countries for the plastic bag & pouch manufacturing sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $680 million
Relative Tariff Impact: VERY HIGH
Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing Market Report is 63 pages of deep insights into the trends, dynamics, and forecasts shaping the industry. Professionals leverage this market report to develop a deep understanding of the market for business strategy, planning, forecasting, benchmarking, industry analysis, valuations, identifying organizational inefficiencies, financial analysis, and more.
With more than one hundred industry analyses and data sets covering trends from 2017 to 2025 and forecasts for 2026 and 2030, this report is one of the comprehensive assessments of the industry. The report includes revenue & cost trends, 26 expense categories, dozens of financial metrics, forecasts, inventory trends & analysis, composition of balance sheets, segmentation by business size and structure, top 50 companies analysis, production material costs, profitability metrics, state metrics analysis, plant productivity benchmarks, workforce composition, 4 years of inflation analysis, wage analysis, revenue per employee trends, and more.
Below are a few page images from the report and check out the table of contents for a complete overview.
Report Table of Contents
Evaluate the table of contents to understand the extensive statistical data sets in this report and why thousands of executives, consultants, bankers, accountants, and other professionals trust Kentley Insights for their market research needs.
For this report, the core data is sourced from comprehensive business, operational, and economic surveys conducted by government and private institutions and filled out by a statistically significant number of companies in the plastic bag & pouch manufacturing industry. The forecasts in the report are modeled by our research analysts using the latest economic forecasts, industry analysis, and historical trends.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources & Methodology
– Sector Definition & Examples
– Market Commentary
4 – Report Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Report Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies, & Facilities
– Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company and Plant
– Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
10 – BCG Matrix – Income vs. Revenue Growth
11 – Total Industry Sales by Month & Year (2021-2025)
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year (2021-2025)
13 – Months of Inventory (2021-2025)
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Business Concentration, Size, & Structure
15 – Market Size by State
– Market Size and Rankings
16 – Market Size as a % of State GDP
17 – Sales as a % of State Manufacturing
18 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
19 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
– Business Size Segments – 1-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-250, & 250+ employees
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
20 – Segmentation by Concentration (Top 50 Companies)
– Concentration Segments – Top 4, 5-8, 9-20, & 21-50 companies
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
21 – Market Share of Top 50 Companies
22 – Subsector Market Share of Top 50 Companies
23 – Segmentation by Business Structure
– Business Structure Segments – C-Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships, & Sole Proprietorships
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
24 – Revenue per Company by State
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
28 – Subsector Market Size & Growth
29 – Subsector Sales per Company & Plant
30 – 5-Year Consolidation Analysis
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities & Employees per Company
COST, CAPITAL & FINANCIALS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
Page 36 – Balance Sheet Metrics
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– 16 Current & Non-Current Assets Categories
– 15 Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX Analysis
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Plant
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– 6 Employee Expense Categories
– 8 Cost of Material Categories
– 6 Buildings and Equipment Categories
– 8 Other Operating Expense Categories
-Inventory Breakdown: finished goods, work-in-progress, materials and supplies
40 – Production Material Costs & Tariff Analysis
– Top Production Material Costs Breakdown
– Industry & Material Tariff Analysis – % of costs, import %, tariff costs, source countries
41 – Producer Pricing Index
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
– Monthly PPI Figures for the Past 4 Years
42 – Plant Utilization & Hours
– Plant Utilization Rate
– Plant Operational Hours per Week
– 2022-2025 Historical Figures by Quarter
43 – Reasons for Non-Full Production
– 7 Categories Quarterly Survey Results for Past 2 Years
44 – Productivity & Employment
– Revenue per Employee
– Total Number of Employees
– Employees per Company
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
48 – Payroll
– Payroll per Employee, Company, & Plant
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
49 – Payroll per Company by Segments
50 – Payroll per Plant by Segments
51 – Payroll per Employee by Segments
52 – Payroll per Employee by State
53 – Employee Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
– Pay Bands
57 – Employees per Company by Segments
58 – Employees per Plant by Segments
59 – Facilities per Company by Segments
60 – Total Employment by State
61 – Population to Every Employee by State
62 – Employees per Facility by State
63 – Overview of Kentley Insights
Download a Sample Report
Below is a free sample report download. The 2026 Plastic Bag & Pouch Manufacturing Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Single-web film specialty bags, pouches, and liners
Multiweb film/film combination specialty bags, pouches, and liners
Plastics bag manufacturing, nsk, total
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Thermoplastic and thermosetting resins and plastics materials
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Plastics products (including packaging, foam products, film, sheet, rod, tube, fabricated shapes, bottles, etc.)
Paper and paperboard products
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Printing inks
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Molders and Molding Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Machine Tool Cutting Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Industrial Engineers, Including Health and Safety
General and Operations Managers
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Customer Service Representatives
Industrial Production Managers
Computer Control Programmers and Operators
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