Tupperware files for bankruptcy; what’s next for iconic company?

One of the most famous multilevel marketing companies has filed for bankruptcy. Tupperware and some of its subsidiaries have started chapter 11 proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday.

The company will still operate and will try to sell the brand while it is in bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The company’s chief executive Laurie Ann Goldman blamed the “challenging macroeconomic environment” as its shares lost about 75% of their value over the past year.

Tupperware’s filing also cited rising labor, freight and materials costs for negatively affecting its business, Reuters reported.

The filing also stated that it did not evolve how its products sold, including not adopting an online shopping model, The New York Times reported.

“In stark contrast to the early days of the company, nearly everyone now knows what Tupperware is, but fewer people know where to find it,” the company’s chief restructuring officer, Brian Fox, wrote in the filing.

The Times reported that Tupperware didn’t have a storefront on Amazon or didn’t sell products in stores such as Target until 2022.

Tupperware was started in 1946 by chemist Earl Tupper who wanted to mimic the air-tight seal that paint cans provided to be able to save food after the Great Depression. He developed the Wonderlier Bowl which is still on the market more than seven decades later. The company found success using a party model to spread the word about its products, using homemakers to sell the items to other mothers and housewives under the mantra “One Tupperware, One Brand, One Community, One Party!”

Tupperware is headquartered in Orlando and has only one remaining manufacturing plant in the U.S. It will be closed by January with 148 employees losing their jobs, the Times reported.

Overall Tupperware has 5,500 employees in 41 countries and another 460,000 consultants globally who work as freelancers.

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