From 8 to 11 May 2018, Hispack will create a unique ecosystem in which innovation, industry and demand come together around the entire value chain of packaging with the objective of promoting it as the economic engine and key element in the transformation towards Industry 4.0. At its forthcoming edition, the show plans to increase its size, international scope and pulling power by providing concrete answers to the challenges and needs expressed by the various industrial and consumer sectors that buy packaging.

Organised by Fira de Barcelona in collaboration with the Graphispack Association, Hispack is the biggest packaging trade show in Spain, offering a comprehensive overview of the lifecycle of packaging for every sphere of activity: materials, design and manufacture of packaging, containers and labelling, production processes, handling, storage and transport, point of purchase, retail, reuse, recovery and recycling.

In line with the economic recovery and the increased demand for packaging, Hispack is preparing an edition defined by growth and forecasts an increase of 10% in the number of companies attending compared to 2015. The supply sectors that Hispack will be particularly promoting this year are materials, logistics and automation.

Hispack is once again being held at the same time as FoodTech Barcelona, the new name for the food technologies trade fair that will be showcasing every aspect of food manufacturing. Thus trade visitors from the food industry can use this double trade fair to discover solutions ranging from ingredients to production processes via packaging and delivery to the point of purchase.

Packaging, the answer to four challenges

The president of Hispack's organising committee, Javier Riera-Marsá, highlights the qualitative leap made by this edition through its presentation of an offering and content commensurate with the strategic and economic importance that packaging is acquiring. ‘Our show will demonstrate that packaging is essential for responding to the four challenges currently being faced by any industrial or consumer sector: sustainability throughout the entire lifecycle of packaging; interdependence with logistics; automation and digitalisation of processes; and new experiences in the use of packaging,' explains Riera-Marsá.

At the same time, Hispack will be providing solutions for bespoke packaging and processes for manufacturers and distributors of food, beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fragrances, drugstores and capital goods, amongst others.

According to Xavier Pascual, the director of Hispack: "The entire packaging ecosystem will be at Hispack". He is convinced that the show 'will continue to attract new professional profiles interested in discovering the potential of packaging for innovation and communication'.

In this respect, Hispack 2018 plans to increase attendance by trade professionals from firms' R&D departments, which are becoming more and more important in the development of packaging and products; and also new profiles in the logistics sector. Another goal is to maintain the attendance of production, purchasing and engineering specialists, as well as visitors whose job roles are related to marketing and communication. In terms of sectors, the show expects to maintain the growth percentages of the previous event for visitors from the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries while increasing the attendance of representatives from the beverage and chemical sectors. 

More international

For this edition, Hispack remains committed to internationalisation. It is anticipated that 25% of exhibitors and 10% of visitors will be foreigners, with most of the former being from European countries and the latter from the EU, Latin American and Mediterranean area markets.

In collaboration with AMEC, Hispack and FoodTech Barcelona will jointly promote an international hosted buyer programme with the goal of attracting commercial and professional delegations from emerging markets who will hold scheduled business meetings with the exhibitors from both shows about specific investment projects. 

Innovation, at the heart of everything

To complement its commercial offering, Hispack 2018 is preparing a programme of activities that will help to promote and analyse innovations in packaging and its production processes, as well as anticipating the main trends in the four challenges that this edition is focusing on: sustainability, logistics, automation and user experience. In order to decide on the topics of the presentations, success stories and guest experts, Hispack has set up four working groups composed of trade professionals that represent both supply and demand to achieve a cross-cutting perspective and adapt content to the genuine needs of those sectors that use packaging.

At the same time, as part of the Pack Experience agenda, Hispack will create sessions that go beyond the scheduled days of the show in which the different agents involved in the world of packaging can interact. As a new feature, the show will be launching Pack Lab, a project that takes specific packaging challenges identified by manufacturers from different sectors, major retailers and consumer brands and presents them to companies and experts that can provide a solution.

Finally, Hispack is once again holding the Liderpack Awards, an annual recognition event for the country's best packaging and PoP displays whose winners go on to represent Spain in the global WorldStar Awards organised by the World Packaging Organisation (WPO). The Liderpack Awards prize-giving ceremony will take place during Hispack 2018 and the winning products will be exhibited.

Hispack is the benchmark show for the Spanish packaging industry and one of the sector's most important events on the international trade fair calendar. At the last edition of Hispack in 2015, it attracted 605 direct exhibitors and represented a total of 1,226 companies, occupying a net area of 31,000 sq. m of Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via Exhibition Centre. More than 38,000 trade professionals visit Hispack and the food technologies show that takes place simultaneously.