Interpack_map

The largest share of hall space-10 halls-has been reserved by exhibitors supplying processes and machinery for packaging, followed by companies providing packaging materials and manufacturing in more than four halls. The segment for processes and machinery for confectionery and bakery products has grown since Interpack 2008, with exhibitors completely filling halls one to four this year. Additionally, several companies will occupy outdoor space at the fairgrounds. 

Visitors to Interpack 2011 not only can view products and processes from a great number exhibitors around the globe, but also exhibitions built on innovative special themes. With the topic "Quality of Life," InnovationsParc Packaging 2011 is presenting an all-embracing concept directed at the individual. This, the show company says, correlates directly with consumer behavior and is thus highly relevant to the packaging sector, branded goods manufacturers and retailers. This special show has been developed by Messe Düsseldorf in cooperation with the European Retail Institute (EHI ), the Pan-European Brand Design Assn (PDA) and the Zukunftsinstitut (Institute of the Future).

The five subthemes "meaning," "health," "identity," "simplicity" and "aesthetics" of the special show will serve as a store motto. Best-practice examples of sustainable packages will be presented in a realistic environment. The special show will therefore become a "shopping mall" with a variety of stores, with each store standing for one of the individual InnovationsParc Packaging subthemes. The individual shop designs are the result of a cooperation with companies at different stages of the value chain and are directly tied to the shop motto. For example: At the "identity" shop, the "identify me" concept will present solutions from the areas of augmented reality, enhanced packaging, performance packaging and RFID. Nearly 50 companies and associations are participating in the InnovationsParc Packaging. 

New to Interpack is the Metal Packaging Plaza-a meeting place for the international metal packaging sector and its supplier industries will be identified by a metal sculpture suspended from the ceiling, illustrating the motto of "infinity." The core subjects of this special theme are sustainability, safety/security and convenience, as well as innovations in the field of metal packaging. Some 40 companies will take part. At the center of the Metal Packaging Plaza will be an information platform with a forum, bar lounge and meeting point. This special show of Messe Düsseldorf is supported by Verband Metallverpackungen (German Metal Packaging Assn )and Empac.

Another new special exhibit on the subject of Save Food Will be located in the pavilion between Halls 10 and 16. It will present the results of studies conducted in advance of Interpack 2011 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO [www.fao.org] )of the United Nations on the subject of global food loss, as well as examples of best practices in the pavilion's central area. Accompanying this article is a sidebar exploring this exhibit and topic more fully. 

Advance tickets for Interpack can be purchased online at www.Interpack.com for a discount. For example, a three-day eTicket costs €99 when purchased in advance and €120 when purchased at the site during the show. To enable attendees to bypass the waiting area, eTickets ordered online can be printed at home and will be converted to into badges at the turnstiles on site.

An entrance ticket also provides an attendee free use of public transport within the Rhine-Ruhr regional network (VRR) of Düsseldorf, including the railway system.

Addressing a range of challenges

Solutions and materials presented at the show will address a variety of challenges and opportunities faced by the international packaging market, including package security; convenience packaging; sustainable materials and practices; smart and active packages; and maximizing shelf impact.

Authentication schemes

Show organizers note that counterfeiting of medication is rapidly increasing, with one in 20 medications distributed in Germany being tainted.
"The danger of counterfeit medication is growing," states Ulrike Holzgrabe of the German Pharmaceutical Society ( DphG ). Although producers of pharmaceuticals experience losses amounting to billions of Euros each year through product piracy, this is not the main problem, because counterfeit medications threaten the health or even the lives of unsuspecting patients.

According to EU figures, the German customs authorities seized counterfeit medications worth €11.5 million in 2009-30 percent more than in the previous year. In addition, a World Health Organization (WHO [www.who.int]) study claims that even in supposedly safe regions such as Europe and the U.S., up to 10 percent of all medications are counterfeit. "But this is just the tip of the iceberg," Holzgrabe suspects. Mail order business offers criminals the greatest opportunities. This sector is booming, especially in Germany.

Marketing research firm ACNielsen estimates that sales of non-prescription drugs increased by a quarter last year. According to the consumer research consultancy company GfK, one in four Germans now obtain medications by mail order. At the same time, it is apparently becoming harder for consumers to distinguish between reputable mail order pharmacies and illegal traders. Test purchases by the Central Laboratory of German Pharmacists confirm counterfeiting rates of 50 percent for medications sold by illegal Internet pharmacies, for example.

Experts therefore confidently expect a track-and-trace system to be implemented throughout Europe in the near future. "The EU's pharmaceuticals package could become law in 2010," notes Ulrich Dörstelmann. At Interpack 2011, manufacturers of machinery and systems will present their track-and-trace solutions.

The EU, however, requires yet another step to be taken by the pharmaceuticals industry to ensure greater patient safety. Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen announced that in 2011 there will be a standard procedure at EU level in the fight against the counterfeiting of medications. In 2008, the Commission proposed that medication packaging should be protected by a security mark and that in the future it should be possible to retrace their path from the counter back to the factory. The WHO also is a strong supporter of counterfeit-proof labeling. Producers of pharmaceuticals are therefore pushing for the introduction of an electronic proof of origin in form of a track and trace system, with which the complete supply chain can be monitored.

Choosy consumers demand convenience

Messe Düsseldorf remarks that the packaging industry cannot ignore the needs of older, working and health-conscious people-noting that populations in Western industrialized nations are growing older while the pace of life is getting faster all over the world.

In Germany alone, the convenience market, according to figures from the USP Market Intelligence (the market intelligence company was purchased by Neilsen on March 18, 2011) comprises 560,000 points of sale and now has a sales potential of about €30 billion-with an upward trend. "Convenience features are rated as important to very important by two thirds of consumers," says USP analyst Katrin Waller.

Packages no longer have just their protective, transport and storage functions, but a functional extra benefit as well. "Straightforward handling of the product package is becoming more and more important for consumers," explains Hilka Bergmann, head of packaging research at the EHI Retail Institute.  Convenience features such as easy opening, resealability and portioning are thus becoming increasingly prominent in package design. Another approach is foods that can go straight into the microwave in their packages and thus simplify cooking.

The need for products with added value is being driven by demographic change. In the Western industrialized nations, the group of the consumers older than 60 continues to increase. And they have greater difficulty reading graphics and texts on packages and opening them by hand.

According to a study by the German Federal Assn of Organizations for the Elderly (BAGSO ), older people have a particularly tough time with products welded in plastic-the tear tabs are often difficult to find and it takes a lot of effort to open the packages. A particularly striking fact is that 34 percent of the elderly buy a different product if they cannot cope with a package, says the German BAGSO study, and this is why the elderly prefer easily recognizable and straightforward opening methods.

People of all ages also are taking less time for meals. Growing in popularity are chilled foods, e.g., smoothies and delicatessen salads that are prepared fresh and, in most cases, kitchen-ready. The consumers of chilled foods are also often health-conscious and attach importance to naturalness, purity, freshness and tradition. Bergmann remarks that modern consumers want products that look hand-made and as if packaged fresh at the counter.

Ethics matter

Show organizers also have noticed that buyers who formerly showed little interest about origin, type of production and packaging now put a high priority on ecologically and morally "clean" goods. U.S. market analyst Pike Research estimates that global sales with sustainable packaging will almost double between 2009 and 2014, from $88 billion to $170 billion. "The environmental awareness of consumers has significantly increased as a consequence of the climate debate," explains Pike Research president Clint Wheelock.

In addition to climate protection, social aspects play an increasingly important role. Modern consumers want to lead a more healthy life, and therefore value natural food products that are safely packaged and have a pure taste. For this client group, it is a matter of growing importance that product manufacturers demonstrate social engagement and offer "fair trade" goods. "We are seeing a trend towards ethical consumerism," declares analyst Jens Lönneker of the Cologne market research company Rheingold. He has observed that fair trade is firmly established among LOHAS (consumers who aspire to a lifestyle of health and sustainability).

For the packaging and consumer packaged goods industries, the sustainability trend is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, it requires the development of new products and campaigns, incurring high costs. On the other hand, the increasing demand for sustainable products promises economic growth. This is why the financially strongest big companies such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and Unilever pursue comprehensive sustainability strategies. They support environmental, nature and aid organizations or provide development aid themselves. They also invest in more efficient production lines and packaging. "We will cut our materials consumption by a third by 2020," promises Unilever CEO Paul Polman.

Unilever plans to double its worldwide sales from the current €40 billion by 2020, and simultaneously to halve its carbon dioxide emissions by improving efficiency in packaging and production. Unilever also is striving for greater social responsibility. By 2020, it aims to add half a million small farmers and traders in developing countries into its supply chain.

"We intend to be a sustainable company in every sense of the word," says Polman.

To help CPGs reduce their ecological footprints, packaging manufacturers are designing new packaging and rethinking the associated production processes. This is no easy task. Raw material consumption needs to be reduced by using thinner and smaller amounts of resource-intensive materials, but this must not compromise the integrity and stability of the packaging.

"The top priority is protection of the packaging contents," says Stefan Glimm, managing director of the German Aluminum Industry Assn (GDA ). There is a good reason for this. According to the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN), the value of the resources input into and held in food products is much higher than the value of the packaging that protects these products. Product losses resulting from inadequate packaging therefore account for more carbon dioxide emissions than are saved by eliminating surplus packaging.

Smart communications

Because more and more consumers are attaching importance to healthy and green products with added value, experts anticipate strong growth in the smart packaging market
The U.S. market researcher MarketsandMarkets expects global turnover with smart packages to grow by 8.2 percent annually to around $24,000 million from 2010 to 2015.

Analysts see not only color labels on the advance, but also radio frequency identification technology (RFID). Via sensors, microchips integrated in the packages constantly gather data on the product's condition (such as moisture and temperature) and issue an alarm when the values move outside the programmed upper and lower limits. Or there are chips that help patients take medication in the correct dosage and punctually, emitting an audible signal indicating when it's time to take the medication. However, the microprocessors are capable of more: Fed with such data as the filling location or date of manufacture, their products can be continuously traced-an important feature in the battle against counterfeiting.

At Interpack 2011, these types of communicative packaging will be high on the agenda. For example, attendees can get a first-hand impression of innovations from researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV [www.ivv.fraunhofer.de/index_e.htm] ) in Freising, Germany. Oxygen-absorbing sachets have been in use for years in Japan to help vegetables and fish stay fresh for longer. However, Europeans and Americans have not been so willing to accept these packaging elements.

"We integrate oxygen absorbers like iron in the package's polymer matrix," says IVV materials developer Sven Sängerlaub. Oxygen-sensitive beverages like beer and fruit juices stay drinkable for longer in PET bottles processed in this way, he adds. The IVV also offers industry an antimicrobial film that releases sorbic acid onto the surface of the food, the prime point of attack for contamination, and thus preserves it.

Packaging as a sales tool

"Shops are a hotly contested arena, where the prize is the customer's attention," Hilka Bergmann, head of packaging research at the EHI Retail Institute explains. The pressure to be noticed at all costs is highest at the discounters. According to the institute's data, the average supermarket in Germany carried some 6,000 articles in the mid 1990s. Today, that figure has risen to more than 15,000.

This vast array is confusing to consumers who know very little about individual products. Marketing researchers have found that 70 percent of these shoppers only decide directly at the point-of-sale (PoS) what ends up in their shopping basket. This is where packaging is crucial, because it acts as a decision aid on the shelf. According to the Munich-based market research firm Facit Research GmbH & Co. KG, the influence of the packaging on purchasing decisions is twice as high as that of TV advertising, billboards or print media.

Critics claim that such packages are too sophisticated and expensive and ultimately drive up the product price. The food processing and packaging machinery association within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) counters this with the argument that, by reducing the material input and constantly improving production methods, manufacturing processes are becoming more and more efficient. Cost savings, it says, can be achieved simply by implementing the latest state of the art technology. In packaging production lines, for example, it is possible to use distributed servo technology, which is more dynamic and efficient than large central drives. The VDMA states that even though the upfront investment for these machines is high, this expenditure can be easily recouped during the life cycle of modern machines by the decreased energy consumption.

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