Is Tupperware’s fate sealed? Shares plunge as company warns it could collapse

food storage containers, is in danger of going out of business if the company cannot raise new financing, according to a Friday press release from the 77-year-old firm.When the markets reopened on Monday, the effect of that warning was felt in Tupperware’s stock price, which plummeted by nearly 50 per cent.The company earned a reputation in the 1950s and 1960s as an innovator of kitchen solutions, when it introduced its plastic, air-tight food containers and began marketing them through “Tupperware parties” directly in consumers’ homes.

Read more: Some of your tax credit payments might be delayed, CRA warns. Here’s why But in today’s economy, the company has struggled to attract younger customers and distinguish itself amid a much more crowded market.

The rise of e-commerce has also been a blow to companies that employ a direct sales force, like Tupperware and cosmetics company Avon, made up of representatives who earn commissions from the goods they sell.In an effort to modernize its business model, Tupperware struck a deal last year with Target, the U.S.

retail chain, to sell products in their stores, but it seems the measure may have been too little, too late.On Friday, Tupperware released a regulatory filing that reported there is “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” (A going concern is an accounting term that relates to whether a company can survive the next 12 months.)Tupperware warns it will not have enough capital to continue operations if it doesn’t secure a new source of money, the release states.