“Visitor numbers were up 10% last year to 6,585 and we expect to achieve that sort of increase again this year,” says Easyfairs new event director, Gerry Sherwood, who is expecting more than 7,000 unique visitors to tread NEC Birmingham’s Halls 9 and 10 on 24 and 25 February, where around 350 exhibitors will be promoting their wares.
Taking up his post last September, Sherwood, who has a decade of experience running exhibitions for the recycling sector, is already familiar with the industrial nature of Packaging Innovations along with many of its exhibitors, he says.
“The packaging sector is buoyant and profitable for the printing community and our growth proves that there really is a need for this type of event. This is an opportunity for printers to engage with the packaging market if they’re not already in
it. And if they are they can see the latest techniques and innovations here,” he adds.
The event comprises three linked shows under one roof: Packaging Innovations, which is the area to go to for the latest in packaging design and materials; Empack, focusing on packaging and packing technology and manufacturing; and Label & Print, the hotspot for printers, which showcases the latest techniques, materials and technology relating to print for the packaging sector.
Two further zones within the event include EcoPack for the sustainable, ‘eco-friendly’ arm of the packaging industry and Contract Pack for businesses offering contract manufacturing, filling, packing, fulfilment and logistics services.
On the back of last year’s success Easyfairs is keeping the new features added in 2015, including the Ask the Experts panel, which replaced the Big Packaging Debate, and the pharma and drinks symposia that joined the existing retail symposium. All three will run again and, along with the Ask the Experts feature, form part of a CPD-accredited Learnshops programme that runs across both days.
Visitors can also attend a wide variety of seminars throughout the two-day event led by packaging experts from brands such as Innocent Drinks, John Lewis, Taylors of Harrogate, Britvic, Weetabix, Quorn Foods, The Body Shop and Kraft Heinz.
New for the Birmingham show this year, and launched at Packaging Innovations London 2015, is the Great Innovation Debate, which will be held in the innovation zone.
“Innovation is quite a subjective thing,” says Sherwood. “The debate will explore what that actually means for the different links in the chain. It can be very different for someone at the brand end of the packaging sector to someone at the technical end,” he points out.
Additionally the new Innovation Showcase will feature 10 shortlisted examples of innovation entered in advance by exhibitors. The shortlist includes a broad range of products and equipment from Ragbag’s shopping bags that are reusable as rags and Qualvis’ in-flight food tray designed as a premium gift box, to new machinery such as TSS Technology’s gas volume release calculator and Kite Packaging’s Auto Airshock Machine.
The shortlisted companies will be exhibiting along an ‘Innovation Trail’, which will be marked on the visitor guide and runs throug both halls.
Returning for 2016 will be the Packaging Consultancy Clinic, which offers one-to-one appointments with experts from the Packaging Society, BPIF Carton’s Chatroom and the popular Big Print Debate, which this year asks: ‘Can analogue survive in a digital world?’
Chaired by PrintWeek contributing editor Jo Francis, the panel includes BPIF Labels’ chairman John Bambery, global packaging manager for SAB Miller Doug Hutt, IPIA chair Marian Stefani and Dantex general manager Andrew Abbott.
“We are seeing a huge change in the printing sector with the introduction and acceptance of digital as a print platform,” says Abbott. “However, given the huge demands today’s consumer puts on producers, we still feel there is a place for all types of print platforms, both analogue and digital.
“Brand owners want their packaging to work harder, both as a marketing tool and a competitive added-value product. The suppliers and retailer, in turn want to hold lower stock to ensure their products have maximum impact and can be changed to keep up with market trends at short notice,” he explains.
Abbott says to have the flexibility to offer products from 500 labels to 80,000-plus labels, printers need a production capability comprising traditional flexo, for longer run/higher quantity production, along with digital, for shorter/lower volume work with a fast turnaround at a competitive price.
“In short,” says Abbott, “one technology does not fit all.”
This year will be Dantex’s fourth outing to Packaging Innovations and the company will showcase its PicoColour II, a high-speed UV inkjet digital label press, launched in July last year and officially unveiled at LabelExpo Europe last September. The 210mm-wide press, which prints at speeds of up to 35m/min will be printing live on the 42m2 stand (K30) throughout the event.
Dantex joins 40 other exhibitors in the Label & Print section of the exhibition, including major names such as Durst, Esko, Xeikon, Epson, Fuji and show sponsor HP.
Visitors will be able to see a huge array of technology, products and designs that span the spectrum of the packaging print industry including traditional gravure, offset and flexo, digital printing and personalisation, coating and laminating, latest prepress developments, coding and converting equipment, 3D printing and prototyping. And the real buzzword this year seems to be creativity.
Fujifilm is returning for the second time and will be running its eight-colour Acuity LED 1600 II large format hybrid printer, printing packaging and labels and promoting the device’s ability to produce high-quality, bespoke prototypes.
Fujifilm UK director Keith Dalton says: “It allows the user to be really creative so we’ll be showing a lot of creative designs.
“It’s so easy to produce this stuff now – people can actually produce a finished box and go off and wow their customers,” Dalton adds. “What’s exciting for me is where all these new technologies allow people to go. It was only a few years ago we were all printing in black and white with maybe just a little bit of colour, on paper. Now we can print fantastic effects on pretty much anything.”
Fujifilm will also be showing samples of thermoforming applications printed on its Acuity Select with Uvijet KV inks, although the device will not be running on the stand (H36). Digital corrugated packaging samples from the Inca Onset range will also be featured.
Dalton says after the firm’s first outing as an exhibitor at the event last year, he was impressed by its ability to bring creative thinkers as well as users and suppliers together.
“I’m hoping we’ll be talking to everyone from the creatives looking for ideas on improving their packaging, through to the producers. A lot of people don’t realise what is possible so it’s about getting to the people who can specify what can be produced.
“We are all very focused on magazine producers and publishers, but that’s really the difficult end of the market. The exciting end is print that we have never thought of before, be it on packaging, ceramics, glass, metals or wood,” he says.
Also focusing on the creative side will be Domino UK, also exhibiting for the second time after signing up at the last minute in 2015 and making a sale by the end of the show.
“I don’t think that would have happened if we weren’t at the show,” says product manager John Pritchard. “It’s pound for pound one of the best exhibitions I’ve ever been to.”
Domino (J21) will be showcasing the capabilities of its N610i digital colour label press, which can print in up to seven colours including opaque white. Pritchard says continued development of the 2013-launched device has allowed the company to become much more creative.
“Since increasing the colour gamut and adding the opaque white, we can do things very differently and that’s what we will be promoting,” he says.
“By putting down a very thick film of white ink, it gives a very strong opacity with a raised effect, so we are using the white to create a textured effect. We can use standard, low-cost material and create a variable finish potential, with a premium look and feel,” Pritchard explains.
The company is promoting the technique particularly for wine labels but also for broader applications such as personal healthcare packaging. “We’re not a design house but with this we have the ability to be really creative and produce something different, and suddenly we have people saying ‘wow I like that’,” Pritchard adds.
As the show has evolved alongside the industry, it has become, according to some, a unique event that is a must for those involved in or considering diversifying into packaging.
Epson UK‘s head of business systems, David Spratt, says its ability to attract packaging professionals from across industry sectors who are serious about sourcing new suppliers and products makes it an ideal event for the company, which this year will be showing Epson Colorworks range of digital labeling printers on its stand (G30).
Abbott meanwhile calls it “an excellent showcase” for Dantex’s products, providing a platform to demonstrate how its product portfolio relates to the packaging and label sector as a whole.
Easyfairs’ Sherwood says Packaging Innovations is the place to be to learn what is possible and where the opportunities are.
He adds: “The show isn’t just about the exhibitors and what they are showing, the wider event is about really getting involved and discussing the important issues that are affecting the industry.”
SHOW ESSENTIALS
Date 24 & 25 February 2016
Venue Halls 9 & 10, NEC Birmingham
Registration Free, visit bit.ly/PI-16-reg
Opening times 25 February, 10.00-17.00; 26 February 10.00-16.00
Incorporating Contract Pack, Ecopack
Co-located with Empack Birmingham 2016, Label & Print Birmingham 2016
For the full run-down of seminars and Learnshops, click here.
