LVF IDENTIFIES THIS SUMMER’S TRUE WORLD CUP WINNERS

The World Cup trophy may well be back at the FIFA museum in Zurich; the Spanish party finally finished; and English tears all dried up; but one month after the final, Leeds-based LVF Packaging has identified the real winners of this year’s World Cup - and it was beef burgers.

With every international football tournament, the Leeds-based packaging manufacturer sees a big uptick in demand for the meat trays its manufacturers for UK supermarket chains - with BBQable products always soaring in popularity. And despite the time difference between Britain and the USA and potential adverse effect dead of the night kick-off times may have on pre-match BBQs, the 2026 World Cup was no different.

Beef burgers and sausages were the big winners for LVF Packaging, with its recently finalised July sales figures showing a 20 per cent uptick, with burgers just ahead. While meatball trays also fared particularly well.

Dan Coates, business development director of LVF Packaging, said: “Every two years we brace ourselves for a big increase in demand for meat trays and this year’s World Cup was a real bonanza on the basis it coincided with the sunniest summer I can ever remember.”

“Burger sales were buoyant, sausage sales sizzled and, for us, our meatball trays went from minnows to third place magnificence; putting them pretty much on a par with England in the tournament proper!”

“And it was a great relief for us all after the winter World Cup in Qatar in 2022, when there was absolutely no BBQ bounce due to it happening when the nights had well and truly drawn in and the temperatures had plummeted.”

One interesting element of BBQ sales reported by various retailers around the country is that hot dog sales rose during the tournament, benefiting, apparently, from the desire of British fans to give their home viewing events an American-style matchday atmosphere.

LVF Packaging, which celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2025, says meat trays make up a good proportion of annual sales, with the summer providing vastly differing demand from one week to the next.

“The retail packaging business is definitely seasonal, but unlike Christmas and Easter, when the requirements are very much set in stone throughout, the Summer markets can be influenced directly by the great British weather!”

“Wet weather or a chilly forecast provides a base level for the volume of orders we receive; but as soon as the clouds roll, the sun shines and the shorts come out then we get calls and e-mails asking for more trays and packs for pretty much anything that can be chucked on the BBQ.”

“And when that combines with a World Cup or European Championship summer then sales really do soar.”

And the shift in volumes isn’t minimal either. One of LVF’s biggest customers was won when they were let down by a supplier before a forecast sunny Bank Holiday surge. With less than 48hrs notice, LVF manufactured and delivered on time over 500k burger trays.

“Things aren’t often that extreme, but the fact we can do it when asked, stands us in exceptionally good stead with current customers and possible new ones when order volumes suddenly increase,” explained Dan. “It is worth noting that we are now the sole burger tray supplier for the customer who needed those half a million trays in a huge hurry.”

LVF Packaging’s flexibility when it comes to big, short notice jobs and suddenly increased volume demands comes from a programme of investment that has seen it spend heavily on new production lines in recent years – all of which can be used with any of its current tooling. The shopfloor currently boasts five Kiefel KMD Speedformers, a Siropack padding line and an Illig RV53.

“We have manufacturing facilities on a par with some of the massive packaging businesses,” continued Dan. “But unlike them we’re a small, family-owned business and so if we’re asked for a quick turnaround, high volume job we can say yes or no straightaway; rather than the request getting lost in red tape or buried at the bottom of a management meeting agenda.”

Planning ahead, LVF Packaging is already looking forward to Euro 2028 here in the UK.

“Big football tournaments here at home are always huge for us,” concluded Dan. “Euro 2021 delivered record sales and I’m absolutely certain that when football comes home in 2028, we’ll be busier than ever before.”