Emballage & Manutention 2014 - November 17th - 20th, Paris

In order to more clearly communicate how this Parisian event brings together the entire packaging supply chain, from 2016 on it will be known as “all4pack”, but this year it retains the title of Emballage, held in tandem with Manutention, dedicated to handling, warehousing and logistics.

Together, the two events bring to Paris the international offer of materials, products, machinery and technologies for packaging, processing, printing and handling, with an expected attendance of 1500 exhibitors and 100 thousand visitors, predominantly from the EMEA region, as well as a new strategic partner (the fairs of the PackPlus India circuit) that represents a bridge to Asian markets.

And so Comexposium faces the challenges of a changing economy and announces an edition in the spirit of newfound optimism. This optimism is evidenced in the latest Emballage survey, conducted online in October 2013 and resulting in 732 responses by packaging producers and users, as well as machinery and equipment manufacturers. After two dismal years, in fact, the sector is once again breathing an air of renewal, with an intensification of investments and positive export trends. The drivers of innovation, the analysts explain, going into detail about technological developments, are first of all costs reduction, changes to regulations and demands for environmental and economic compatibility. In line with these developments is the widespread commitment in the field of intralogistics to optimizing the design and application of packaging solutions.

Future trends. The offer of concerns at the fair, but also the informative conferences that will run parallel to it, as usual, will offer inspiration and ideas for understanding how the packaging of the future will evolve. The challenges and demands to which the sector is obliged to respond have been identified by the Pack Experts Committee of Emballage 2014*, which convened last January under the leadership of Annette Freidinger-Legay.

The experts emphasized once more how legislation proves a driving force to innovation - whether concerning materials in contact with food products or labeling regulations, or more generally the future of the EU “packaging directive” -, with a direct influence on investment decisions.
Such decisions must take into account complex and often contradictory demands, of economy and portioning, economy and image, economy and service/shelf life/hygiene/safety... In spite of the challenges, the experts of the Committee consider, this fosters the birth of new visions, orienting R&D toward useful and simple innovation focused on close analysis of needs and applications, or else clarifying how savings are achieved by thinking beyond the narrow parameters of supply chain (and involving logistics in this reasoning).

Other indispensable terms, subject to much attention and exchanges of ideas, will be recycling and valorization of packaging after end use; the demands facilitated by new forms of retail, including e-commerce and drive-through; logistics optimization inside and outside the facility. And a few demands that straddle diverse areas, among which predominates the fateful and always timely question of “how to create added value”.

*The Pack Experts Committee 2014 is comprised of representatives of packaging producers and users, as well as retailers. The most known brands represented include: CocaCola, Danon, Guerlain, L’Oréal, Carrefour, Nestlè, Pfizer Santé Familiale…