Tupperware collapses on Wall Street: the company that revolutionized kitchens is at risk

MILAN. Troubles are back for Tupperware, the historic US company which, starting in the 1950s, revolutionized the kitchen of millions of families by inventing the colorful refrigerator containers with airtight caps. The company is now under pressure from liquidity problems and yesterday on Wall Street the stock lost half its value and fell to 1.2 dollars. The difficulties are undermining the solidity of the company which has made it known that it has started talks with potential investors to raise fresh capital. “We are doing everything possible,” promised the managing director Miguel Fernandez.

What is going on? In the last quarter of 2022, sales plunged 20% year-over-year to $313.7 million. At the end of the year, Tupperware had losses of $35.7 million. The risk is of a revision of profits and reflections on debt. What is worrying is that the company did not submit its annual report on time.

However, for Tupperware it is not the first time of a serious crisis. Already in March 2020, the company had experienced severe difficulties. The reason was to be found in sharply declining sales and in a business model that was no longer in step with the times and on which the competition from e-commerce was pressing. Then the rebirth: the lockdown, the closure of the restaurants and the successful turnaround had resurrected the company and given wings to the stock which in a short time had gone from $3 in March 2020 to $32 in November of the same year.

Now came the new test to overcome. The brand, born in Orlando in 1946 based on an idea by Earl Tupper, is internationally known above all for the particular door-to-door sales model: the Tupperware afternoon parties, organized within domestic fireplaces with the aim of selling to friends and neighbors home. The model worked for decades and was a symbol of the great initiative of US business. Now he will have to show ingenuity and grit again to get out of the new crisis.