interpack

⭐️ What was Driving the Industry at interpack 2026? Here's the Full Picture. 🎉 The message from Düsseldorf was unmistakable: what was talked about as "the future" is now running on production lines, deciding efficiency and becoming a real competitive advantage. The packaging industry has moved from vision to execution. 🌿Sustainability - From Promise to Production Reality  Material innovation, mono-material solutions and fibre-based alternatives are no longer just pilot projects. They are being tested and implemented under real production conditions, at scale, and with an increasingly viable economic outlook. As regulation tightens, the conversation is becoming more concrete — and more urgent. 🤖Automation - The New structural Principle  Autonomous processes, robotics and new machine architectures dominated many stands. Syntegon reported concrete follow-up conversations and order closures. IMA Group highlighted strong international visitor response and very positive feedback on their AI and robotics innovations. Automation has become the new normal. As Marco Cesari from IMA mentioned: "The interpack 2026 proved to be a successful edition with strong international visitor response and very positive feedback on our innovations in AI-driven solutions and robotics." 💡The System beats the Machine The biggest shift? From individual machine to integrated system. Networked lines, connected processes, end-to-end value chains. Packaging is no longer an isolated step — it's part of a much bigger whole. As Krones put it: AGV-based autonomous material handling and innovative secondary packaging concepts were all about automation, differentiation and sustainability. 🌏 Strategic Place to Meet Finally Richard Clemens from VDMA emphasized the relevance of interpack as a strategic meeting point: "The high degree of internationality, excellent visitor quality and the successful event programme show: interpack is THE central meeting point of the industry — and it sets the right topics." ➡️ Less orientation. More decisions. That's how the conversations at interpack 2026 felt — and that's exactly what the industry needed. 🙌🎉

🔗 From converting to end of line — Henkel on what's really driving the packaging industry right now. We caught up with Alex, Director for Key Accounts in the Consumer Goods Adhesive business at Henkel, live on the stand at interpack 2026. His take? PPWR, carbon reduction and future skills are the conversations everyone in the room is having and Henkel is positioning itself right at the centre of all three. ♻️ PPWR, Recycability & Carbon  From coatings that improve recyclability at the converting stage, to adhesive decisions at the end of line — Henkel wants to be involved from the very beginning of the packaging design process. Cutting carbon emissions isn't just a message on the booth. It's the core of their customer proposition. 🎓Future Talent  Alex emphasizes in the conversation: "Future skills is super important. There is a lot to know. There is a lot of technology inside packaging and I think this will remain very important for the future, despite everything coming up with artificial intelligence. Really having the engineering know-how on the line — that matters!" 🔗 Watch the full interview on our website! 

📊 Data first. AI second. And don't forget what engineering can already do today. At interpack 2026, Enrico Franz from SweetConnect offered one of the sharpest reads on the state of the industry — and it's a perspective worth hearing. The AI conversation is real, but it's drowning out something equally important: The extraordinary level of innovation already running on factory floors right now. As he mentioned: "Topic number one at interpack right now is data — many companies want to make better use of and analyse their production data. Right after that comes artificial intelligence, but with a focus on concrete applications that create real value. At the same time, the innovative power of German and international mechanical engineering continues to impress me. When everyone is talking about AI, what is already technologically possible today sometimes fades into the background." ➡️ Discover more voices from interpack 26 on our website! 🙌

👩🏭 Women in Packaging at interpack 2026 — bigger, more global and more powerful than ever. Women from around 50 countries, including senior managers as well as young talents. One room. Countless stories of doors opened, paths forged and a new generation stepping forward. The Women in Packaging event at interpack 2026 wasn't just a gathering. It was a statement about where this industry is heading. 💬 "We're starting to see a really significant shift in the industry — women are more included. And hopefully in the future, we won't need events like this, because we'll just all be working together." 💡 The Women in Packaging initiative at interpack wasn't just about celebrating progress — but actively accelerating it. 🙏 Thank you to every speaker, attendee and supporter who made this year's event the most international yet! To all Women in Packaging out there: Keep up the great work! 🙌

🧠 Your packaging design is being judged before anyone reads a single word. In a matter of seconds, sometimes milliseconds, a consumer's brain has already decided whether to trust a product, pick it up, or walk past it. That's the world Fernando Arendar 🧠, founder of Nitid Studio, has spent years studying. And at interpack, his field has a name: Neuropackaging. 🔬What Neuropackaging actually means  It's not just about making packaging look nice. It's about understanding how design shapes perception before a product is even tried — and using that knowledge to make smarter decisions about colour, structure, texture, haptics and typography. ⚠️ The Chaos Trap  Unconventional, disruptive packaging grabs attention — but attention alone doesn't sell. When the brain connects a packaging structure to the wrong context (think: food in a bottle shaped like a cleaning product), it triggers instinctive distrust. Bigger visibility does not guarantee a stronger consumer response. 💡The Real Best Practice The strongest packaging holds enough category codes to be instantly recognised — then adds specific details that make a brand distinctive, memorable and meaningful. Not different for the sake of it. Different with purpose. The key isn't disruption. It's the balance between novelty and coherence. ➡️Read more about Fernando Arendar and the World of Neuropackaging in our latest magazine article. Link in the comments!

🍫 Flexibility and energy efficiency are reshaping confectionery and bakery production. The days of long, standardised production runs are fading fast. At interpack 2026, one theme stood out clearly in the confectionery and bakery segment: as product variety grows, machines need to keep up! Switching faster, consuming less energy and losing as little production time as possible in between. 💬 Sebastian Clemens from one of our oldest exhibitors Aasted, emphasized at interpack 26:  "Product variety in the confectionery and bakery industry is growing enormously — production runs are getting shorter and machines need to become significantly more flexible. At interpack, we see that energy efficiency and fast changeover processes are currently central industry topics. With our new tempering system, cleaning times of up to 16 hours can be reduced to around three hours. Particularly in Europe, the pressure to save energy while simultaneously increasing plant availability is high." 🔗 Explore more highlights and insights from interpack 2026 → interpack.com! 

⚖️ Flexibility, labour shortages, AI — Ishida Europe on the forces reshaping food packaging. Steve Jones, Marketing Director of Ishida Europe Ltd, talked to us on the stand at interpack 2026. His read on the market was refreshingly direct: the industry is dealing with more complexity, shorter runs and a shrinking skilled workforce. However, the answer isn't just better machines. It's smarter software. 📊What's Driving the Market right now? 🔄 Flexibility — shorter production runs, more product variety, faster changeovers  👷 Labour shortages — lower skill levels and difficulty sourcing workers 📋 Regulation — increasing requirements at both country and regional level  ⚡ Efficiency — everyone is optimising and the bar keeps rising Ishida's answer to the skills gap? Sentinel 5.0 — an AI-powered production optimisation system that monitors machine performance in real time and suggests corrective actions on the spot. Instead of replacing people, it makes them significantly more effective. Want to discover more about Ishida's next move? 🔗 Watch the full interview on our website!

🎬 Flexible films, sustainability and a look ahead to 2029 — Taghleef Industries at interpack 2026. We caught up with Oscar Hérnandez, Sales Director Europe at Taghleef Industries, during interpack 26 in Düsseldorf. From home compostable films to barrier and coated solutions, Taghleef brought a full portfolio to interpack — all conceived with one clear priority: PPWR compliance and a more sustainable future for flexible packaging. 🌿Sustainability is Number One With the 2030 deadline for PPWR implementation firmly on the horizon, Taghleef is developing every new product with regulation in mind. From thin materials and barrier films to their NATIVIA range of home compostable solutions. The message from Oscar was clear: this isn't just about meeting rules. It's about winning consumer trust. 💬 He further emphasized:  "Sustainability is number one — and also how to approach the business in a way that we are becoming more friendly to the consumer. We need to convince them that plastic is a safe place to be. We need to increase our recycling capabilities. These things will play a very important part in the future." 💡The Outlook?  The products being conceived today are just the beginning. Recyclability, heat barrier films, coated films and a plastics industry that earns its place in the sustainable packaging story. We'll be checking back in with Taghleef at interpack 2029. 🙌  🔗 Watch the full interview → interpack.com

🌿 Recyclable materials, carbon footprint, regulation — BASF on where the packaging industry is heading. At interpack 2026, the direction of the industry was unmistakable: sustainability sits at the centre of every product development, every material decision and every regulatory discussion happening across the industry. 💬 We spoke to Dr. Bernd Meyer-Roscher from BASF, whose team is working on one of the sector's most complex challenges: replacing traditional plastic coatings with recyclable paper-based alternatives — without sacrificing the barrier properties that keep products safe. "The trend at interpack is clearly moving towards sustainable packaging solutions and recyclable materials. At the same time, regulation and carbon footprint are now occupying virtually every company in the industry. We are working to replace conventional plastic coatings with recyclable paper-based alternatives, without losing important barrier properties. The market is moving in the right direction, even if it will still take time for these solutions to become widely established." 💡 Honest, grounded and forward-looking — exactly the kind of perspective interpack 2026 was built for! 🙌

⚙️ Powering what's next — Coesia's vision for the future of packaging automation. We met with Alessandro Parimbelli, CEO of Coesia S.p.A., live on the stand at interpack 2026. His message was clear: the packaging industry is moving beyond individual machines and towards complete, intelligent systems engineered with purpose. 🧠 Intelligent Integration instead of Automation For Coesia, smart manufacturing isn't about adding technology for technology's sake. It's about making production more visible, more predictable and easier to manage. Connecting intelligence, automation, system integration and sustainability into one coherent whole. "Intelligence, automation, system integration and sustainability cannot be treated as separate topics. They need to be brought together. Otherwise you risk missing one or the other. That's why we call this intelligent integration." mentions Alessandro Parimbelli. 🔭 Five Years from Now Parimbelli's outlook for the next five years: complete production systems built around an architectural vision — combining machine data, line-level insights and production requirements into a single orchestrated whole. Intelligent oversight, for both human operators and robots. 💬 A connected line isn't built by putting machines together. It has to be engineered with a clear sense of purpose. That shift is already underway and interpack 2026 proved it!