Walmart first introduced its sustainability initiative to vendors in 2006 with its Packaging Scorecard. Over the last ten years, this initiative changed how companies packaged their products. 

Cosmoprof North America is the leading B2B beauty event in the Americas. We host over 1,100 exhibitors from nearly 40 countries at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Now celebrating its 20th year, the Global Pouch Forum will be held June 14-16 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, FL. Known for its strong educational agenda, excellent networking opportunities and extensive flexible packaging exhibition space, the forum attracts a large attendance each year.

Flexible packaging is everywhere and pouch users know of their benefits. They’re easy to hold, carry, store, pour from, snack from and scoop from. While there are already so many innovations in the segment, there may be just as much opportunity.

IO-Link is a revolutionary, cost-effective sensor and actuator standard that can today enhance the flexibility, capabilities and productivity of packaging machines both new and already in use with little extra burden on operators or maintenance personnel. In fact, it makes their jobs easier.

Price sensitivity and how it is affected by package design, size and shelf layout can be precisely measured using eye-tracking technology. The key data lies in measuring ”fixations” – how long one’s eyes focus on a given area of a package, sign, shelf, etc.

Why would you dress a ground-breaking formula in last year’s trends? Tailor-making a bottle, compact or tube can take many turns, from a subtle addition of a vogue-ish cap or sheath, to an avant-garde decoration treatment or a new, high-tech dispensing system that will become a benchmark in the industry.

“Beauty is everywhere a very welcome guest,” wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at the start of the 19th century. And already 3,000 years before this, a great deal of time and care was devoted to external appearance. 

At PMMI’s Executive Leadership Conference in Miami mid-March, I got to hear from David Strauss, Nestlé USA’s head of packaging. He discussed some of the current trends impacting consumer packaging and the machines that create them. 

Consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) continue to face major changes across the industry. Ecommerce and digital marketing continue to rise steadily in importance, though physical stores show no signs of going away.