All4Pack: how Emballage has changed Paris, 14 - 17 November 2016

The campaign promoting French food industry fairs kicked off in grand style in the evocative rationalist building that hosts Milan’s Triennale. Among the events, All4Pack Paris figures prominently, the former “historic” Emballage, which two editions ago was joined by Manutention to form the major event dedicated to packaging and internal logistics.

Together with Europain, Sial, Natexpo, Sima and Equip’Hotel, they form a coherent and synergistic collection of events that, by number of exhibitors and visitors, proportion of international attendees, visibility and growth trend, are imposing themselves as a business platform on the French and surrounding markets (markets which, as explained during the Milanese conference, held on 6 October by Saloni Francesi - primarily include countries of the EMEA region).

Let’s be creative! Scheduled at Paris Nord Villepinte, where it will occupy new pavilions (5a, 6 and 7), All4Pack Paris was presented as “the global marketplace for packaging, processing, printing & handling” by director Véronique Sestrières, who illustrated its main novelties.
Indeed, in line with the pay-off “Let’s be creative”, the French packaging biennial mounts the stage with a new logo (All4Pack, that is); a re-organized offer of 7 large sectors over and against the previous 12, simplifying visits and facilitating identification of exhibitors; and coordination with the Trustech show dedicated to payment, identification and mobility solutions. The common thread of the reform is a conviction that «buyers today are as invested in packaging as in packaging machinery, printing systems and intralogistics systems, and so our market shouldn’t be thought of in terms of categories but as a global production chain that starts with the raw materials and ends with shipping of the orders».

At the same time, the organizers of Comexposium are dedicated, on one hand, to valorizing product and technological innovation by focusing on active and “connected” packaging, “talking” labels, “smart” warehouses, digital and 3D printing, traceability and more, and on the other hand, on re-orienting promotion to the markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (the latter is to be the event’s guest of honor in 2016), which are considered the natural user base for the circuit of French fairs insomuch as «this is a priority geographic area for the majority of our customers». All4Pack, Sestrières also emphasized, «is in the top 10 fairs of Comexposium, which is pursuing its investment strategy of supporting promotional activities for the show in over 40 strategic countries, which we will bolster by opening the Pack Expert Committee to representatives of all segments of the supply chain, to new experts from beacon countries (including Italy) and to the major institutions of packaging, processing and handling».

Cousins and customers The numbers shared during this press conference by the managers of the French expo promotional circuit (Promosalons) and the spokesperson of the Ile-de-France district give an idea of Paris’ importance in economic terms. With an incredible degree of wealth (the richest city in Europe, with a GDP similar to that of the Netherlands) and currently engaged in a program of further infrastructural enhancement and urban development called ‘Grand Paris’, last year it attracted +32% in new sites from foreign concerns, against a general decline in the rest of western Europe (-15%). Exchanges with Italy have been particularly robust. In 2014, Italy was the fourth supplier and third customer of France, which in its turn, ranked as the second largest supplier and customer of Italy.
Analogously, in the fairs of the Parisian region, Italy has figured as the country with the largest exhibitor presence and second in terms of non-French visitors (after the UK).
The strong ties between the two countries, which in the food sector is particularly evident at all levels of culture and civil life, was cited and celebrated numerous times at the Milan event, fortuitously called “Food innovations in Paris: health and pleasure”.

This was further demonstrated by the high number of guests and speakers involved in the event: the French Consul in Milan, the directors of the 6 events, the top management of Comexposium, the state major of Paris Region Entreprises and representatives of the French pavilion at Expo… But also talks by two individuals who “stuck out” at the event: chef Simone Tondo, born in Sardinia and residing in Paris, where he found his vocation and fortune, and Giorgio Calabrese, nutritionist and doctor, teacher, educator and well-known TV personality. The spontaneous and lively Calabrese acted as a bridge between the economic and hedonistic aspects of the event’s theme, warming the atmosphere of an encounter that gradually opened up to increasingly intimate contributions and a dialog with the press. A guided tour of the show “Arts&Foods” and a cocktail at Design Café found visitors and guests ready to stay late and enjoy an evening of culture and conviviality. Bravo! to Saloni Francesi.