Packaging
FachPack 2013: answers for packaging professionals
Tuesday 01. October 2013 - 34,598 top-calibre trade visitors 1,440 exhibitors answered (almost) all questions Successful PackBox Forum delighted 3,635 listeners
34,598* packaging professionals (2012: 36,986*) enjoyed their FachPack in Nürnberg in a relaxed atmosphere from
24-26 September. This was assured by 1,440* (1,466*) exhibitors with unusual products and services for packaging, technology, processing and logistics on the same area as last year (approx. 54,000 m² net). Rolf Keller, Member of the Management Board of NürnbergMesse: “We were surprised by the large share of decision-makers which rose from 85 % at the last event to an impressive 90 %. Almost every fifth visitor is a member of the management board – a convincing quality criterion for FachPack.”
FachPack, one of the top European trade fairs for packaging, attracts more and more packaging specialists from the neighbouring countries.
21 % international visitors – mainly from Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy and Poland – used the three days of the exhibition for sourcing information.
Heiko Wenka, Sales Director Illig Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, Heilbronn (DE): “All the signs in Nürnberg indicated investment, especially in packaging machinery for the food and non-food segments. Many firm offers were requested. We have never had so many Polish customers on the stand, but we did miss some of the automotive component suppliers.”
“This is shown by the results of a survey by an independent institute,” confirms Heike Slotta, Director Exhibitions at NürnbergMesse. “The automotive component suppliers are currently stepping on the brake. We also notice that contract packaging is moving eastwards.
* The figures for exhibitors and visitors are checked and certified by the Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics (FKM), Berlin.
The printing/paper/cardboard and chemical segments excelled with an even stronger presence. The share of specialists from sales/distribution increased significantly, which explains the many investment inquiries.”
The ranking of the visiting sectors is as follows: printing/paper/cardboard, food/beverages, service providers, plastics, chemicals, mechanical engineering, pharmaceuticals/cosmetics, electrical equipment and components, packaging logistics and contract packers, metalworking, automotive component suppliers and consumer goods.
The average FachPack visitor is male (a good 77 %), spends 1.2 days at the exhibition and is mainly interested in packaging materials and supplies (more than half) and packaging machinery (well over a third). About a quarter of the visitors are interested in each of the segments of packaging printing and processing, peripheral packaging machinery and equipment, packaging logistics and packaging ancillaries, 16 % in labelling and marking equipment, and 9 % in services (multiple answers). Almost
two-thirds prepared for their visit and usually searched for specific exhibitors or products on the Internet. As last year, almost all visitors (95 %) are satisfied with the products and services at FachPack.
The exhibitors: great praise for visitors’ expertise
FachPack 2013 received top marks from its exhibitors, who rated the overall success of their exhibiting activities positively and reached their most important target groups (96 % in both cases). 93 % made new business connections and over 90 % expect lively follow-up business.
Stefan Johansson, Managing Director LOSOTECH, Borås (SE): “We were a first-time exhibitor and used up all our business cards – need I say more? Our logistics innovation, stackable cardboard pallets with feet made of recyclable plastic complete with the appropriate production machine, attracted innumerable visitors to our stand. They are particularly ideal for export to countries that do not allow wooden pallets to be imported. We had lots of business opportunities at this year’s FachPack. First we have to let this success sink in, but one thing is sure: we’ll be there again in 2015!”
Stuart Clarke, Marketing Manager Matthews Europe GmbH & Co. KG, Jülich (DE): “FachPack is currently the only exhibition where all the divisions of our company are represented: packaging, marking und in-store solutions. So it is our most important packaging exhibition in Europe. As far as visitor quality is concerned, this year was quality instead of quantity. There may have been fewer inquiries, but they were inquiries with a future. The mood in the halls was good and friendly as usual, and we leave for home thoroughly satisfied.”
1,440 companies exhibited at FachPack 2013, 285 of them for the first time. The efficient German packaging industry was strongly represented as always, this time by 1,040 firms. 400 exhibitors (28 %) travelled to Nürnberg mainly from the neighbouring countries – the Netherlands (57), Italy (54), Switzerland (43), the Czech Republic (42) and Austria (35). FachPack specializes in products and services along the packaging process chain in the segments of packaging (678 exhibitors), technology (531), processing (219) and logistics (386). But as FachPack has “only” 1,440 exhibitors, this means a good quarter of the mainly small and medium enterprises showed products and services in several segments of the packaging process chain.
PackBox Forum: second round played to a full house
The entertaining information mix of all segments of the packaging process chain was also a great success in its second year: an interested audience of 3,635, a good 1,000 more than last year, enjoyed their visit to the stylish forum. The players involved in the second round of the triad of
inspiration – innovation – information were: bayern design, Bund Deutscher Verpackungsingenieure (bdvi – Association of German Packaging Engineers), Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut (dvi – German Packaging Institute), Flexodruck Fachverband (DFTA – Flexographic Printing Association), the magazines PackReport und Verpackungs-Rundschau (Packaging Review), Fraunhofer-Institut für Materialfluss und Logistik (Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics) and Verein zur Förderung innovativer Verfahren in der Logistik (VVL – Association for the Promotion of Innovative Logistic Processes).
“This was my first visit to FachPack and I am delighted with the variety offered,” says Thorsten Rudeck, Managing Director Roman Klis Design, Herrenberg (DE). “As a packaging designer I was particularly fascinated by the equipment on display and it was ideal to experience different methods of operation live in one place. I can only praise the PackBox Forum too. Over 100 attentive listeners attended my presentation on sustainable packaging, where we discussed gender packaging, a packaging design trend, in detail.”
Also well attended at the PackBox Forum was the first Careers Day, which students, prospective packaging engineers, designers and logistic experts as well as “packaging newcomers” gladly used, for example, to ask personnel consultants with experience of the packaging sector about career and salary prospects and the opportunities for training and qualification in the packaging sector.
Packaging is a cult: what else happened
The sector started its 20th FachPack in excellent spirits. In the entertaining opening show, futurologist Sven Gábor Jánszky invited guests to a journey in time into the lifestyles of 2020. The mixture of science fiction and strategy went down well. The subsequent comedy presentation on “Prospects for a successful packaging future” triggered mainly one impulse: laughter – accompanied by the realization that many things should not be taken so seriously.
Still attractive and desirable at 50 – how? By keeping mentally fit, taking a broader view (beyond Germany) and always with an eye on appearance – “Packaging as a Product Mannequin”. The German Packaging Award celebrated its anniversary at FachPack and was spoilt for choice with 232 innovative solutions from twelve countries.
Wedding dress of white silk and lace? That was yesterday. Today’s hip bride wears corrugated cardboard on her loveliest day, and after a few years of married life decorates her front garden with enormous cardboard garden gnomes while her husband is nailing the corrugated cardboard antlers to the living room wall – all seen at FachPack.
313 journalists from 14 countries transported this and other good packaging news over cross-media channels from Nürnberg all round the world, even to faraway China.
New: Packaging Summit in Nürnberg starting in 2014
The packaging sector feels at home in Nürnberg – and not just in the FachPack years in future! Starting in September 2014, the Packaging Summit organized by Deutscher Fachverlag (dfv) also invites packaging specialists to Nürnberg. Heike Slotta is pleased about this: “The noted sector congress with foyer exhibition will strengthen the close connection between the European packaging industry and Nürnberg.”