Food container brand Tupperware is in danger of going bust after revealing it was seeking a funding lifeline, 77 years after the famous US company formed.
The historic business, whose containers were once used by the Queen, said there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay afloat amid potentially insufficient cash levels.
Tupperware Brands said it was speaking to financial advisers to help secure financing and was in discussions with potential investors.
The troubled brand has struggled with lower consumer spending which has helped chip away at its sales.
It became a household name and grew rapidly in the 20th century, after being developed by Earl Tupper in Massachusetts in the US.
The brand was well known for its Tupperware Parties, first held in 1948, which encouraged women to host parties and sell the products to friends and neighbours in their home.
Brownie Wise, a saleswoman who helped lead the business’s marketing strategy, popularised the parties, which helped develop the “party plan” marketing scheme copied by brands such as make-up brand Avon.
The Queen reportedly kept breakfast cereals in Tupperware containers in Buckingham Palace.
But the model has been widely emulated by rival brands and supermarket own-version food containers, which often sell for cheaper prices.
According to the Daily Mail, the “rise of women” is also to blame.
“Strange as it may seem, in 1960s Britain the highlight of many women’s social life was the chance to buy a little plastic tub with a lid that closed with a distinctive ‘burp'”, the paper notes.
But now, following the Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, women have started to enter the workforce in significant numbers and, as Superwoman author Shirley Conran proclaimed, life became “too short to stuff a mushroom”.
The funny spin has sparked a raft of reactions on social media.
Here’s what people had to say:
