Sealed Air

Mr. Hauser,
It is not in Sealed Air Corporation’s best interest to introduce an uncoated bubble product in the packaging market. The company was built on pioneering and innovation, therefore replicating a competitor’s existing product runs contrary to the firm’s philosophy. Financially, the opportunity is small relative to global packaging sales, and the contribution margin in the uncoated product line will put pressure on the company-wide gross margin.
Sealed Air Corporation
With its product, AirCap, Sealed Air has positioned itself as the largest provider of polyethylene air bubbles within the flexible wrap market segment. This product has helped establish them as an industry leader nationwide. They have differentiated themselves and built their business around core beliefs in innovation and quality. Sealed Air’s vast regional presence and extensive well trained sales team are at the center of their success. All these qualities would allow Sealed Air to thrive in the current market conditions if they chose to enter the uncoated air bubble market. Sealed Air can carve out market share quickly for an uncoated product because they have the ability to reach a large amount of end users in a relatively short amount of time. The uncoated bubble market is regional; therefore, Sealed Air is well-positioned to respond to this consumer set because they have regional sales and manufacturing divisions serving the major metropolitan markets. The regional presence will allow the company to manufacture and ship an uncoated product to distributors and end-users in an efficient manner
Although Sealed Air could easily enter and succeed in the uncoated bubble market, the current management team has expressed an interest in maintaining the same principles the company was founded on: demonstrating the firm’s ability to be a market leader in innovative products. By entering the uncoated bubble market Sealed Air would potentially compromise the firm’s values