Should Europe's food majors make more use of co-manufacturing?

The benefits of co-manufacturing can range from cutting costs to quickening innovation - but larger food companies in Europe seemingly use the practice less than peers in North America.

Establishing the size of the market for co-manufacturing in Europe isn't easy. What we do know is the size of the market in North America. According to the Contract Packaging Association's annual State of the Industry report, the North America contract packaging and contract manufacturing sector was worth $53.6bn at year-end 2017 and is forecast to break the $75bn mark by 2020.

The figures tally with the findings of AlixPartners, which recently compared the growth rates of US food contract manufacturers to the general growth of US consumer product companies. 

"What we found is that contract manufacturers in the food sector have grown at five to six times the pace of the consumer product sector that they serve and it's our belief that it [growth] will strengthen further and accelerate over the next couple of years," explains Andrew Csicsila, managing director at AlixPartners.

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