[Lifestyle] Tupperware: Why the successful food container company is on the brink of collapse

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Tupperware, the US maker of food storage containers, has warned it could fail unless it urgently raises new sources of funding.

The 77-year-old company announced in a statement that there are "substantial doubts" about its ability to continue as a business.

Tupperware has tried to reposition itself to appeal to a younger audience, but has been unable to stem its declining sales.

On Monday, the company's share price saw a nearly 50% drop before recovering slightly on Tuesday.
The "Tupperware parties"
The company became known in the 1950s and 1960s for so-called "Tupperware parties" held at private homes to sell the famous plastic food storage containers. Tupperware still uses a direct trade workforce - where companies People earn a percentage of all the containers they sell-in addition to selling products on their website.

It recently began selling its products at US retail chain Target as well, seeking to attract younger shoppers and other similar retailers around the world.

In addition, it has expanded its product range into kitchen utensils, designing items such as a microwaveable grill.

Miguel Fernández, Tupperware's third CEO in five years, said he envisioned the grill as a product "for someone who lives in a New York apartment and can't go out and cook on the grill."

"Products and distribution" problems
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail sales at consultancy GlobalData, said Tupperware "failed to keep up with the times in terms of its products and distribution."

Saunders noted that the method of direct sales through Tupperware parties "doesn't connect" with younger customers and that even older customers who "remember Tupperware in its heyday" have evolved.

Thus, customers choose to buy cheaper or fashionable containers both in stores and online.

Younger customers have also been drawn to more environmentally friendly, reusable products such as beeswax paper for their needs to keep food fresh.

And while Tupperware reported a slight increase in sales during the pandemic, when people were cooking at home, it was a short-lived rise.

The fall of a great
Tupperware said in a statement in March that by 2022, its direct seller workforce is down 18% from a year earlier.

The company was also affected by the lockdowns in China due to the covid-19 pandemic, which severely disrupted access to all kinds of products.

The firm added that its shares were in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it had not yet filed its annual report.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-65245690