Plastics Packaging Materials and Unlaminated Film and Sheet Manufacturing (U.S.) — NAICS 32611

A rollup primer synthesizing the three child industries: 326111, 326112, 326113

1. Overview

This industry group covers the plants that turn plastic resin into flat plastic film, sheet, bags, and pouches — the raw and finished flexible plastics that wrap food, line trash cans, cover farm fields, seal e-commerce shipments, and hold pallets together. It sits early in the plastics value chain: buy resin pellets (mostly polyethylene), melt and stretch them through extruders into rolls of film and sheet, and — in one of the three children — form that film into finished bags and pouches [1][3][4][5].

It is a roughly $50 billion manufacturing group [1] that behaves like three cousins rather than one business. The three children are almost identical in size — about a third of the group each — but they point in different directions, are owned by different kinds of investors, and earn money on slightly different terms. That contrast is the whole point of this primer, and Section 2 leads with it.

Why a general investor should care. Demand is defensive and consumable: film and bags are used once and re-bought, so volumes track grocery, waste, farming, and construction rather than the boom-bust cycle [3][4][5]. But there is no clean U.S.-listed pure-play on any of the three children — public exposure comes bundled inside diversified packaging and materials companies, and the largest owner is now Swiss-domiciled [4]. The deeper, more direct opportunity set sits in private markets, where private equity and family-owned converters hold most of the industry and a fast consolidation wave is under way [3][4][7][8]. Both routes are covered below.

2. What's inside — the three children and how they differ

The group splits into three NAICS industries. They are close to equal in revenue, but that symmetry hides real differences in direction, concentration, ownership, and how you can invest.

The pattern to take away. As you move from 326111 → 326112 → 326113, the business gets less concentrated, less branded, less regulated at the consumer level, and more tied to the industrial cycle. Bags are where consumer brands and the loudest regulation live; packaging film is the biggest, most consolidating, most "growth" slice; non-packaging film is the quietest, most fragmented, most construction-linked slice. All three share the same engine — a resin-to-price spread run through expensive extrusion lines — but they sell to different end markets and answer to different owners.

3. How big it is (rollup figures)

Group-level federal statistics for NAICS 32611 (our ground-truth figures):

High shipments-per-worker (~$458,000) confirm a capital-intensive, machinery-heavy group — value is made by expensive extrusion lines, not by labor headcount [4][5]. The three children reconcile cleanly against the group: their receipts sum to ~$50.48B, their establishments sum to exactly 1,220, and their employment sums to ~110,200 — so the rollup is not double-counting.

One subtlety worth flagging. The three children report 912 firms between them, but the group counts only 864. The gap is not an error: a company that both extrudes film and converts it into bags is counted once in each child but only once at the group level. In plain terms, roughly four dozen firms straddle more than one of these codes — evidence of the vertical integration (film → bag) that runs through the industry.

Concentration is even lower at the group than in any child. The group HHI is 171 and CR4 is 20% — below every child (473, 314, 295 for HHI; 35%, 29%, 27% for CR4) [1][3][4][5]. That is expected arithmetic: pooling three industries dilutes any single leader, because the biggest bag maker is not necessarily the biggest film maker. On paper this is a highly fragmented group (anything under an HHI of 1,500 is "unconcentrated"). That snapshot, however, predates the mergers in Section 8, which are pulling the top tier together faster than the 2022 numbers show.

The broader flexible-packaging market. The Flexible Packaging Association reported $42.6 billion of U.S. flexible-packaging sales in 2024, up from $41.4 billion in 2023 [4]. That broader universe includes plastic, paper, film, aluminum foil and combinations thereof, so it spans more than these three NAICS codes alone.

Undercount and coverage caveats. These are U.S.-plant figures, and manufacturing is captured well by the federal data — so the counts are reliable, unlike gig- or cash-heavy industries. The caveats are about scope and ownership, not missing operators:

• Porous internal boundaries. Plants are booked to a single primary code, so a plant that extrudes film and also makes bags lands in only one child — real bag or film output hides in adjacent codes, and the flexible-packaging economy is genuinely larger and blurrier than any one line suggests [3][4].
• Domestic production only. The figures exclude imports. Americans consume roughly $3 billion of imported bags and pouches alone each year (mostly low-cost retail carryout bags from Asia), plus substantial imported non-packaging film, so true domestic consumption exceeds domestic production [3][5].
• Ownership hidden above the code. The biggest branded volumes (Glad, Ziploc) sit inside consumer-staples conglomerates, and the market leader is foreign-domiciled (Amcor, Zurich) — so U.S. public-company financials capture only a fraction of the group's true footprint [3][4].

4. The investable universe — where value concentrates across the children

There is no U.S.-listed company whose main business is any one of these three codes, and none that is a pure play on the group. Public exposure comes bundled inside larger firms; the deepest, most direct ownership sits in private hands. Value concentrates differently in each child — which is why the "closest way to invest" row in Section 2 points to different tickers.

Public companies (exposure bundled inside a bigger portfolio):

Recently taken private:

• Sealed Air — formerly NYSE: SEE. CD&R completed its acquisition in April 2026 at an enterprise value of ~$10.3 billion [4]. Its CRYOVAC food films (vacuum/shrink meat and cheese packaging) were a flagship 326112-type product line. No longer a public comparable.

Major private / PE-owned makers (where most of the group actually lives):

Takeaway for allocators: you cannot buy "this group" as a stock. Public exposure is diluted inside big diversified names; concentrated exposure means owning or backing a private converter. Reserve valuation work (earnings multiples, dividend yield, leverage) for company-level analysis in Section 10.

5. How the money works

All three children run the same core engine: profit is a conversion spread — the price of finished film/bag minus the cost of the resin that goes into it — multiplied by volume run through high-fixed-cost extrusion lines [3][4][5].

• Resin is the swing cost. Polyethylene (and to a lesser extent polypropylene, PET, PVC) is the dominant input — typically half to two-thirds of the cost of a commodity roll or bag — and its price tracks oil and natural-gas liquids [3][4][5]. A broader FPA converter survey found that purchased film represented 47% of material spending and resin another 23% in 2022 [3]. Watching the resin curve is watching the margin.
• Pass-through and lag are the key skill. Most volume runs on contracts that index selling prices to resin, but with a lag. When resin spikes, spreads compress until prices reset; when resin falls, converters briefly keep the difference and margins widen [4][5]. Amcor's FY2025 filing reported $110 million of sales uplift from passing through higher raw-material costs, illustrating why revenue growth can reflect resin inflation rather than volume or pricing power [4]. Specialty and one-off orders often have no pass-through formula.
• Capacity utilization is everything. Extrusion, co-extrusion, lamination, and metallizing lines are expensive fixed assets that run around the clock; volume that keeps lines full drops to profit, and under-utilized capacity crushes margins [4][5].
• Product mix separates winners. Commodity output (thin can liners, plain retail bags, construction poly, basic stretch film) is a low-margin, price-competitive grind. Printed, laminated, high-barrier, medical, recycled-content, certified-geomembrane, and display films carry richer, stickier margins. Mix-shift toward specialty is the main organic margin lever across all three children [3][4][5].
• Freight keeps it regional. Film and bags are bulky and light — "shipping air" — so it rarely pays to ship far. Makers run regional plant networks near customers, and resin buying power is a durable edge that rewards scale [3][5].
• Customer concentration. Big-box retail and large CPG buyers hold pricing leverage over suppliers. Reynolds disclosed that its largest customer and affiliates represented 48% of 2025 revenue, illustrating the bargaining power of mass merchants and warehouse clubs [3].

Where the children diverge: 326111 adds genuine brand economics at the consumer end (Reynolds, Clorox, S.C. Johnson earn shelf position and pricing power that commodity converters cannot). Reynolds' Hefty Waste & Storage segment reported a 28% adjusted EBITDA margin in 2025 — an upper-end consumer-products result, not a commodity-converter benchmark [3]. 326112 runs at roughly mid-teens EBITDA margins for typical converters, higher for scaled/specialty players; Amcor's global flexible-packaging segment reported a 12.9% adjusted EBIT margin for the six months ended December 2025, reflecting its broader product mix [4]. 326113 leans most on specialty niches (geomembranes, display film) for its better margins, because its commodity end (ag and construction film) is the most price-exposed [5]. (This is spread-and-throughput manufacturing — regulated-utility rate base, REIT FFO, and mining-AISC frameworks do not apply here.)

6. What drives demand

Because the group feeds several unrelated end markets at once, aggregate demand is steadier than any single sector:

• Food and beverage — the largest, most defensive pull across all three film/bag children: storage bags, produce and bread bags, frozen and snack pouches, vacuum meat/cheese film, lidding. A trade summary of FPA data put food packaging at $22.2 billion of the broader U.S. flexible-packaging market [4]. Grows with population and consumption; USDA reported that inflation-adjusted food-at-home spending increased 1.8% in 2024 after declining 2.6% in 2023, illustrating post-pandemic volume normalization [4].
• Waste management — household and institutional can liners; steady and non-discretionary [3].
• Retail/foodservice carryout bags — historically large, now shrinking in ban states, partly shifting to thicker "reusable" plastic or paper [3].
• E-commerce — a growth pocket for poly mailers and protective film across 326111 and 326112 [3][4].
• Healthcare / medical — sterile-barrier pouches and breathable drape/gown film; higher growth and margin [3][5].
• Agriculture and construction — the distinctive drivers of 326113: greenhouse/mulch film and silage covers (tied to acreage and crop prices); vapor barriers and under-slab film (tied to housing starts and non-residential building) [5].
• Environmental containment (geomembranes) — landfill and mining liners, water reservoirs; partly regulation-mandated, giving 326113 a demand floor independent of the building cycle [5].
• Structural share gains from rigid packaging — flexible formats use less material and ship lighter, a persistent tailwind for 326112 as brands "lightweight" [4].
• Sustainability demand — retailers increasingly specify recycled content, recyclable mono-material designs, and compostables, pulling demand toward higher-spec (and higher-margin) products across the group [3][4].

Resin/oil prices set pricing; consumption sets volumes — and the two can move independently.

7. Regulation

Regulation is the single biggest structural force on this group, and its weight falls unevenly across the three children — heaviest on bags, lightest on non-packaging film.

• Plastic bag bans (hits 326111 hardest). Twelve states ban single-use plastic carryout bags, and roughly one-third of Americans now live under some bag policy [3][16]. Design matters: some bans exempt thicker "reusable" plastic, shifting volume rather than eliminating it. Washington adds a 12-cent film-bag fee from January 2026 [3].
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) — hits 326111 and 326112. At least seven states (Maine, Oregon, Colorado, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington) make producers pay for the end-of-life of their packaging via fees, with lower fees for recyclable/recycled designs ("eco-modulation") [3][4][9]. Crucially, flexible plastic carries the highest fees — Oregon's 2025 base rates run about $0.34/lb for flexible plastic versus $0.24 for rigid and $0.06 for paper [4][9]. California's SB 54 permanent regulations took effect May 1, 2026, requiring by 2032 a 25% reduction in single-use plastic, 100% recyclable or compostable packaging, and an actual recycling rate of 65% for covered single-use plastic packaging and food-service ware, with interim plastic recycling-rate targets of 30% (2028) and 40% (2030) [3][4]. These are new, ongoing costs on packaging.
• PFAS and recycled-content rules. Several states restrict PFAS ("forever chemicals") in food-contact packaging and set minimum post-consumer recycled (PCR) content; the FDA has tightened its food-contact posture, and makers are reformulating [3][4]. In January 2025 the FDA determined that 35 related food-contact notifications are no longer effective (compliance date June 30, 2025) [4].
• 326113 is largely packaging-excluded — so its direct EPR exposure is lower. Instead, regulation is partly a tailwind there: environmental rules effectively mandate geomembrane liners for landfills and containment, and Buy America/BABA domestic-content rules on federally funded water and infrastructure projects favor U.S. producers [5]. Product standards (ASTM, GRI-GM, NSF) gate market access. However, EPA has designated vinyl chloride a high-priority substance under TSCA and determined that DINP (a plasticizer in flexible PVC) presents unreasonable risk under certain worker-exposure conditions — relevant to PVC film producers [5].
• Trade. Imported bags and film periodically face antidumping duties; tariff swings cut both ways [3][5].

Net direction across the group: film and bags that are hard to recycle face rising fees and design mandates, while recycled, recyclable mono-material, and regulation-mandated (geomembrane) formats are favored.

8. Consolidation

On paper the group is highly fragmented (864 firms, HHI 171, CR4 20%) [1], but the top tier is consolidating fast, largely driven by private equity, and the biggest deals span more than one child:

• Amcor + Berry Global — an all-stock merger completed April 30, 2025, creating a global packaging leader targeting ~$23B in sales, ~400 facilities, and ~70,000 employees, with ~$650M of targeted synergies; the clear scale leader in flexibles (326112) with bag exposure (326111) too [4][6].
• CD&R's acquisition of Sealed Air — completed April 2026 at ~$10.3B enterprise value; took the CRYOVAC food-film business private [4].
• Apollo-backed Novolex + Pactiv Evergreen — a $6.7 billion transaction completed April 1, 2025 that fused two large bag and food-packaging players and took Pactiv private; Apollo-affiliated funds retain majority ownership, with CPP Investments and management holding minority stakes [3][7].
• ProAmpac's roll-up — the TC Transcontinental packaging acquisition completed March 6, 2026 (combined company: 80+ manufacturing sites, 11,000 employees) plus a string of bolt-ons, building a top-tier independent converter under Pritzker backing [4][8].
• Private capital owns much of the rest — Inteplast, Sigma Plastics, Charter Next Gen, Poly-America, Viaflex, Printpack — funded in part with heavy leverage (Novolex arranged a ~$3B term loan and ~$1.6B bridge for its deal) [3][5].

The competitive logic is identical across all three children: scale buys resin cheaper, spreads fixed capital and sustainability/R&D spend, gives converters leverage against large concentrated customers (national CPG brands and retailers), and now helps absorb EPR/recycling-compliance cost. Differentiation comes from brand (bags), barrier/specialty technology (packaging film), and certifications/engineered niches (non-packaging film). Commodity lines compete on cost and resin buying power and stay exposed to imports and overcapacity. Expect further roll-ups of regional independents.

9. Risks

• Resin-price volatility / margin squeeze (all three children). A fast polyethylene spike that outruns price pass-through compresses conversion margins; analysts flag a risk of PE oversupply and margin pressure through 2028–2030 as new capacity outpaces demand [3][4][5].
• Regulation and substitution (heaviest on 326111/326112). Bans, EPR fees (highest for flexibles), PCR mandates, and PFAS rules are a lasting headwind for single-use plastic, and paper/compostable/reusable substitutes take share. Hard-to-recycle multilayer laminates risk becoming stranded [3][4].
• Recycled-content supply risk. Mandated recycled content can be problematic where food-contact-quality recycled resin is scarce; PCR mandates may produce shortages and higher prices because recycling rates may be insufficient to meet demand [3][4].
• Recycling gap. "Recycle-ready" should not be confused with actually recycled. Even mono-material pouches are generally not accepted in ordinary curbside programs, while store drop-off and depot collection remain limited alternatives [3].
• Demand cyclicality (heaviest on 326113). Non-packaging film's tie to construction, agriculture, and industrial production means recessions and housing downturns hit its volumes hardest; the food/staples exposure of the other two children cushions them [5].
• Commoditization and imports. The low end of every child is near-commodity, and billions of dollars of imported bags and film pressure domestic pricing [3][5].
• Leverage. PE-owned makers carry substantial debt; a downturn or rate shock raises refinancing and default risk [3].
• Customer concentration. Big-box retail and large CPG buyers hold pricing leverage over suppliers across the group [3][4].
• ESG / reputational. Plastic pollution keeps the sector in the political and consumer crosshairs — mostly a bag/packaging issue [3].
• Environmental liability (326113-specific). Geomembrane failure in containment applications carries meaningful warranty and liability exposure [5].
• Chemical/regulatory exposure (326113-specific). PVC producers face additional risk from vinyl chloride and plasticizer (DINP) reviews under TSCA; pellet-loss rules add operating and compliance burden [5].

10. How to invest and the outlook

Public-market routes. The cleanest large-cap way into the group is Amcor (AMCR) — the scaled global flexible-packaging leader after absorbing Berry — though it is diversified and Swiss-domiciled, so it is not a pure U.S. bet; its Flexibles segment represented approximately 72% of FY2025 sales [4][6]. For the bag child, Reynolds (REYN) is the most bag-centric branded play with defensive consumer cash flows; Clorox (CLX) offers only thin Glad exposure [3]. Sealed Air was taken private by CD&R in April 2026 and is no longer available to public investors [4]. Sonoco (SON) is stepping out of flexibles. For non-packaging film, Tredegar (TG) is the closest listed proxy but a micro-cap where film is a minority segment; Eastman (EMN) provides the clearest listed exposure to automotive and architectural performance films (~19% of its $2.88B Advanced Materials segment); Mativ (MATV) has advanced-film exposure inside a mixed segment; and 3M/DuPont give only slivers inside much larger businesses [5]. There is no dedicated exchange-traded fund for this group; broad packaging, materials, or consumer-staples funds give diluted, indirect exposure. Because every name is diversified, investors are really buying a packaging or materials business with film/bag exposure attached — size and value the position accordingly.

Private-market routes. This is where the group mostly lives. Direct ownership runs through private equity (Apollo's Novolex, Pritzker's ProAmpac, CD&R's Sealed Air) and family-held firms (Poly-America, S.C. Johnson, Inteplast, Sigma, Printpack); private valuations hinge on specialty mix, contracted resin pass-through, customer diversification, and line utilization [3][4][5]. Fixed-income investors can access the same issuers through their leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, which trade actively and offer yield tied to the sector's cash flows and leverage [3].

Near-term drivers and outlook (forward-looking judgment). Heading into 2026 the resin backdrop has been a buyer's market — polyethylene and other commodity resins trended flat-to-lower through late 2025 — which is a margin tailwind for converters as pass-through lag works in their favor, though 2026 opened with suppliers pushing to rebuild margin and with oil-price risk that could spike feedstocks [4][5][11]. Expect low-single-digit volume growth for the group overall, but with the three children diverging: packaging film (326112) is the best-positioned growth slice as flexibles keep taking share from rigid; bags (326111) grow in food, e-commerce, and medical pouches while single-use retail bags keep eroding under bans and EPR; and non-packaging film (326113) stays a slower, cyclical grind lifted by regulation-mandated geomembrane and specialty display niches [3][4][5]. Consolidation should continue, favoring scaled players who can spread compliance and capital costs. The clearest long-run winners across all three children are the makers that shift mix toward printed, laminated, recycled-content, recyclable mono-material, and certified-specialty products — where regulation is pushing demand and margins are best — while the plain, thin, single-use end of the market slowly shrinks.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census — NAICS 32611 concentration and receipts (receipts $50.49B; 864 firms; CR4 20.3%, CR8 31.3%, CR20 47.8%, CR50 65.1%; HHI 171.1). Our ground-truth ingested figures. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
2. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 — NAICS 32611 (1,220 establishments; 110,199 employees; annual payroll $7.56B). Our ground-truth ingested figures. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
3. Child primer — NAICS 326111, Plastics Bag and Pouch Manufacturing (and the federal and industry sources cited therein: Economic Census 2022, CBP 2023, Reynolds 10-K 2025, Amcor 10-K 2025, Packaging Dive, Proskauer, CalRecycle, Earth911, Kentley Insights/IBISWorld, FPA/Converting Quarterly).
4. Child primer — NAICS 326112, Plastics Packaging Film and Sheet (including Laminated) Manufacturing (and sources therein: Economic Census 2022, CBP 2023, Amcor 10-K/10-Q/PR, Sealed Air/CD&R, Packaging Dive, FPA, Grand View Research, Proskauer, CalRecycle, PlasticsToday resin reports, USDA).
5. Child primer — NAICS 326113, Unlaminated Plastics Film and Sheet (except Packaging) Manufacturing (and sources therein: Economic Census 2022, CBP 2023, Tredegar results, Eastman 10-K 2025, Mativ, MarketsandMarkets, EPA/TSCA, Geosynthetics Magazine, IndexBox imports, Viaflex, Poly-America).
6. Amcor plc, "Amcor completes combination with Berry Global" (closed April 30, 2025; ~$23B sales, ~400 facilities, ~70,000 employees, $650M synergies), Amcor / PR Newswire / Packaging Dive, 2025. https://www.amcor.com/media/news/amcor-completes-combination-with-berry-global
7. Packaging Dive, "Novolex completes $6.7B acquisition of Pactiv Evergreen" (April 1, 2025; Apollo majority, CPP Investments and management minority), 2025. https://www.packagingdive.com/news/novolex-closes-acquisition-pactiv-evergreen/744049/
8. ProAmpac, "ProAmpac completes acquisition of TC Transcontinental Packaging" (March 6, 2026; 80+ sites, 11,000 employees), 2026. https://www.proampac.com/en-us/media-center/941/proampac-completes-acquisition-of-tc-transcontinental-packaging/
9. Proskauer Rose LLP, "Seven States and Counting: The 2025 Guide to EPR Packaging Compliance" (ME, OR, CO, CA, MD, MN, WA; Oregon flexible-plastic rate ~$0.34/lb; SB 54), 2025. https://www.proskauer.com/alert/the-2025-guide-to-epr-packaging-compliance
10. Grand View Research, "Flexible Plastic Packaging Market Size & Industry Report" (~4–5% growth; rigid-to-flexible share shift), 2025. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-plastic-packaging-market
11. Plastics Technology / PlasticsToday, resin-pricing coverage (PE/PP/PVC/PET cost, pass-through, 2025–2026 outlook). https://www.ptonline.com/topics/resin-pricing
12. Reynolds Consumer Products, 2025 Form 10-K (largest customer 48% of revenue; Hefty Waste & Storage 28% adjusted EBITDA margin), U.S. SEC, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1786431/000162828026005284/reyn-20251231.htm
13. Amcor plc, Form 10-K FY2025 (revenue ~$15.0B; Flexibles ~$10.9B / ~72% of sales; 210 facilities in 36 countries), U.S. SEC, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1748790/000174879025000023/amcr-20250630.htm
14. Sealed Air Corporation, "Sealed Air Announces Completion of Acquisition by CD&R" (April 2026; ~$10.3B enterprise value), 2026. https://sealedair.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sealed-air-announces-completion-acquisition-cdr
15. U.S. Small Business Administration, "Table of Small Business Size Standards" — NAICS 326111 = 750, 326112 = 1,000, 326113 = 750 employees, 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
16. Earth911 / Morgan Chaney, "The State of Plastic Bans in the United States" (12 states with plastic bag bans; ~one-third of Americans under a bag policy), 2025. https://earth911.com/business-policy/the-state-of-plastic-bans-in-the-united-states/
17. CalRecycle, "SB 54 permanent regulations take effect May 1, 2026" (25% reduction, 100% recyclable/compostable, 65% recycling rate by 2032; interim targets 30%/2028, 40%/2030), 2026. https://calrecycle.ca.gov/2026/05/01/press-release-26-05/
18. Flexible Packaging Association, "FPA Publishes 2025 State of the U.S. Flexible Packaging Industry Report" ($42.6B 2024 sales), 2025. https://www.flexpack.org/news/fpa-publishes-2025-state-of-the-us-flexible-packaging-industry-report