FDBusiness.com

Food and drink companies will have plenty to see at Packaging Innovations London. The show, at the Business Design Centre on 1 & 2 October, has grown significantly on last year, with 165 exhibitors, four packaging areas, a packed learnShops programme, and plenty of show floor ‘theatre’ in the form of The BIG Packaging Debate, one-to-one advice and the Lions’ Lair.

First and foremost, visitors head to the show to get inspired – to spot new ideas, concepts and suppliers from right across the packaging supply chain, and there’s plenty of inspiration in store for visitors attending the 2013 show.

Show Exhibitors

The Alexir Partnership has teamed up with Ennstal Milch to show-launch the new Cartocan® into the UK market. The Cartocan® is the first and only cylindrical packaging format made from carton board to be filled aseptically with liquid and have an extended shelf-life of up to 12 months unchilled. This environmentally-friendly alternative is aimed at premium products in the drinks industry, covering all sectors other than carbonated.

Simply Cartons, one of the UK’s most innovative carton manufacturers, will be launching TriFold at the show. TriFold takes pick and place cartons to the next level, giving all-round visibility something that hasn’t been possible before as a one-piece pack.

ITC Packaging will be demonstrating its latest development with Laboratorios Ordesa, for the baby food industry; a cap that improves the hygienic and safety features of powdered milk tins. The new cap, which is more air-tight than usual powdered milk caps, also incorporates a dispensing spoon inside the cap for consumer convenience – effectively doing away with the search for the missing spoon inside the powder.

For brands road testing new concepts, Firstan Cartons is showcasing its new mock-up services, which help all marketing and packaging professionals visualise a product in its packaging prior to launch.

Innovia Films will demonstrate its collaboration with Sappi Europe. By combining their respective compostable substrates, Innovia Films’ NatureFlex™ and Sappi’s Algro® Nature, the end result is a compostable high performing material with an alternative combination of technical properties that meets the EU Packaging Directive coming into force in 2014.

Start-up food and drink companies should visit the Design Activity stand. The company, whose client list includes Bassetts soft & chewy vitamins and Kenco coffee, will outline how it has been helping SaVse Smoovies in the early stages of its development by using design to help SaVse Smoothies advance its business.

Berry Place will be showcasing its unique metal collector’s box, which it helped create for Belvedere Vodka. The clever design means the container doubles as an ice-bucket once the 992 mini-bottles of vodka are removed. The boxes are constructed out of tin and feature bespoke vacuum-metalised lids and ring-pulls.

Additionally, ’Gmund for Food’ will be promoted on the GMUND stand, a natural paper that has been tested and certified safe for contact with foodstuffs. Available in a wide variety of designs and colour groups, it is suitable for use as high-quality packaging for products such as organically grown tea, muesli, Belgian pralines, coffee and point-of-sale confectionery.

Fine food manufacturers will also want to check-out the Stribbons stand, where the company will be demonstrating a range of luxury packaging concepts.

Keeping it green, Direct Source Packaging Co, which produces packaging products designed for repeated use by customers to increase brand exposure, will be launching a new variety of environmentally conscious materials at the show.

Tinware Direct has re-launched PRESSITIN and will be displaying the new and improved tamper proof tin at the show. The manual sealing tin can allows users to seal a can with a simple but ingenious push-on closure. The tins can now be designed and labelled to any company’s requirements to enhance shelf standout.

Show Features

Innocent Drinks, Unilever, T-Tox, Defra, ZigguratBrands and Bombay Sapphire – plus many more – will all be sharing their packaging secrets at the show. The packed two-day learnShops programme will see experts from major global brands exploring the very latest thinking, technologies and trends in the global marketplace.

Clover Abbott, Packaging Technologist at Innocent Drinks, will explain how packaging has been instrumental in the business, from demonstrating it values, communicating with consumers and selling its products.

Packaging can be a real opportunity for smaller brands to make a big statement. Johnny Harris, Director at T-Tox, an exciting new ‘Loose Leaf Tea’ company, will consider how far packaging goes in defining your brand, and will draw on his own company’s experiences to illustrate the challenge of finding innovative packaging on a budget.

Sarah Lyons, Global Marketing Executive at Bombay Sapphire and Oxley, and Dominic Burke, Creative Director at Webb deVlam, will be joining forces on ‘Bringing Bombay Sapphire to life through design’.

SunBites, the fastest growing brand from Walkers, has achieved a 500% sales uplift in less than three years. In his talk ‘Designing for better profits in the Better-For-You category’, Adrian Collins, Managing Director at ZigguratBrands, will look at how packaging has helped deliver this dramatic performance.

Stephen Pugh, Head of Food Labelling, Food Policy Unit at Defra, will be giving an insight into Defra’s thinking and government policy on food labelling.

BIG Packaging Debate

Always a popular show feature is the BIG Packaging Debate, where a panel of packaging professionals debate the topic ‘Online sales will kill packaging design’ at 15:30, on Tuesday 1 October.

As Internet shopping becomes set to change the way consumers shop for a long time to come, the debate tackles how packaging design is going to have to adapt to meet the consumers’ and retailers’ needs. It will question if packaging design as we know it is dead, and what role packaging designers will need to take on in the future. With a panel of packaging experts debating and answering questions from the audience, each side of the subject will be represented and discussed as they thrash out the controversial topic.

This year’s panel of speakers includes: Innocent Drinks, who will be representing a brand’s perspective; Marks & Spencer, who will be providing a retail viewpoint; putting forward the designer stance will be Design Activity; and Faraday will be representing the consumer insight angle. Chairing the debate is Kevin Vyse from the Institute ofPackaging Professionals UK.

Packaging Innovations London is co-located with Luxury Packaging and the Brand & DesignVillage, featuring all the latest packaging designs, solutions, trends and developments. The Contract Pack area of the show also provides the perfect place to meet professional outsourcing partners.

To visit for free register at www.easyFairs.com/PI-London.