FachPack 2018 sets new records

FachPack 2018 brought about 45,000 trade visitors (2016: 41,014) to Nuremberg from 25 to 27 September to learn about innovations and trends in the packaging industry. This represents an increase of more than eight percent compared to the previous event in the series. Visitor numbers were up, with particularly strong growth in numbers from outside Germany. The event occupied 12 exhibition halls for the first time, with 1,644 exhibitors (2016: 1,542) providing an opportunity for in-depth discussion of packaging solutions for consumer and industrial goods. Digitalisation, e-commerce, packaging design, and sustainability in particular provided the key subjects for discussion. The exhibition management has announced that environmentally friendly packaging will be the key theme for FachPack in 2019.

“I am impressed by the dynamism and creativity that we saw in the exhibition halls during the past three days,” comments FachPack Exhibition Director Cornelia Fehlner. “It is clear that the packaging industry is in transition. In addition to challenges of a technical nature, the industry is especially interested in ways to find clever packaging solutions for complex requirements that will also serve the interests of both the environment and the consumer, while also keeping the entire product cycle in focus. In other words, the packaging of the future. This is what we will be concentrating on at FachPack 2019.”

Exhibitors: 38 percent international

At the heart of this year’s FachPack, once again, was the strongly performing German packaging industry, with 1,023 exhibitors. “Even so, there is a noticeable trend toward a greater European flavour,” Fehlner observes happily. International exhibitors accounted for 38 percent of the total.

There was a strong presence from the neighbouring European countries, especially Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Turkey. Ninety-eight percent of visitors were happy with the products and services on offer at FachPack, according to survey results from an independent institute.

Industry professionals: 90 percent decision-makers

Trade visitors came mainly from the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical technology, cosmetics, chemical and automotive industries. Some ninety percent of the trade visitors said they were involved in making the purchasing and procurement decisions in their respective businesses. About half of the trade visitors held senior positions, and as many as one in five were from management.

Products and services at fair reflect packaging process chain

FachPack once again had a comprehensive range of products and services on offer, covering the packaging process chain from packaging materials and machines to printing and finishing, and logistics systems and services. The largest of these fields were packaging materials (e.g. paper, cardboard, plastic and glass) and accessories (e.g. labels and seals), with a total of 780 exhibitors. The technical aspects of packaging – in other words, the machines for creating and processing the packaging, the labelling and marking technology, and also the devices for checking, testing and recycling, were displayed by 560 exhibiting companies. There were 297 companies with products and services associated with logistics, i.e. solutions for storage, loading, order picking and transportation of packaged goods. And 224 exhibitors showed the opportunities available for package printing and finishing.