Tupperware Company Files for Bankruptcy

The American brand Tupperware, which has become USA or Britain synonymous with plastic food packaging, filed for bankruptcy.

The food storage container company said it would seek court permission to begin selling the business and that it intended to continue trading.

As the BBC points out, Tupperware, founded 78 years ago, has lagged behind its competitors in recent years despite making various efforts, including “refreshing its products and reaching out to younger audiences”.

Tupperware warned last year that it could collapse if it failed to raise new funds quickly. Meanwhile, the company’s shares have fallen more than 50% this week after reports it was filing for bankruptcy.

After a brief surge in sales during the pandemic as more people cooked at home, the company has seen demand fall further, with rising raw material costs, higher wages and transport costs also hurting profit margins, the BBC reported.

“Over the past several years, the Company’s financial position has been severely impacted by a challenging macroeconomic environment,” Tupperware CEO Laurie Ann Goldman said in a statement to investors.

Tupperware was founded in 1946 by Earl Tupper, who patented a flexible, airtight closure for containers.

Tupperware was a major innovation because it used new plastics to keep food fresher for longer, which was invaluable when refrigerators were still too expensive for many families.

At the same time, success didn’t come overnight. Much of it was down to saleswoman Brownie Wise, who helped make the brand a household name. She developed an approach in which salespeople, mostly women, would sell Tupperware to other women in their homes, a process that became known as a “Tupperware party.” For many women, it was a chance to earn extra money in a way that didn’t require full-time work outside the home.

According to the Tupperware company, it is currently sold in 70 countries around the world.

“The party is long over for Tupperware,” Susannah Streeter, director of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, a British financial services company based in Bristol, told the BBC. England. “Changes in shopping behavior have seen containers fall out of fashion as consumers move away from plastics and seek more environmentally friendly ways to store food,” she said.

Ms Streeter added that “significant issues” with Tupperware’s financial reporting had also had a negative impact on the company, including misrepresenting its 2021 and 2022 results.