Employees at Tupperware will be laid off after the iconic US food storage container company announced it will be closing operations in South Africa at the end of December 2024.
This comes after the company filed for bankruptcy in September due to declining sales and increasingly dire financial circumstances.
Following the news about bankruptcy, Party Products, a company formed by the lenders, bought certain assets of Tupperware to help the kitchenware company emerge from bankruptcy, with a focus only on the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Korea, India and Malaysia.
But head of commercial at Tupperware, Justin Korte, said with the bankruptcy application and the subsequent news about the part purchase of the business, questions were raised about the continuity of the license agreement and operations of Tupperware South Africa.
“It now appears that Tupperware South Africa will not be included in the license being assumed by the purchaser and will not be receiving equipment to continue manufacturing products.
“Due to the fact that Tupperware SA has not received equipment to continue manufacturing and create December or any future product campaigns, there is only a limited quantity and range of stock available for sales to distributors," said Korte.
Under the circumstances, Korte said the prudent approach was to reduce costs, and consequently, the company has issued Voluntary Severance Packages across the board, with services terminating on December 31, 2024.
Thereafter, any remaining staff that had not accepted the VSP, will be laidoff from January 1, 2025.
Cape Town-based commercial, corporate, and consumer lawyer, Trudie Broekmann, said many factors in consumer preferences and market trends have shifted dramatically since Tupperware launched in 1948.
“I associate the phenomenon of selling via Tupperware parties with Baby Boomers, who were a generation with a lot more disposable income than their parents. The subtle pressures of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ at these Tupperware parties encouraged women to buy expensive plasticware as an assertion of social status.
“This woman-focused business provided an early opportunity for women to make money independently.
“Today, the prevalence of internet-based shopping has allowed consumers to shift from this mentality where women subtly competed to show off their ability to afford this premium-priced product, to an approach where consumers honestly review products, give free tips on YouTube, and where the only witness of your buying choices is your laptop,” Broekmann said.
Independent economist, Ulrich Joubert, said one of the biggest challenges that Tupperware faced was failing to adjust to the new trends in the consumer market.
“Unfortunately, they missed out on the new trends in the consumer market, especially in the US, but also in South Africa, especially after the Covid pandemic, when people were not allowed to get out of their houses and get into these sorts of house environments in other people's houses,” Joubert said.