Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026 should prove to be a watershed moment for the packaging industry.
This year’s event in mid-February drew 8,021 unique visitors, the largest-ever audience for the two-day event in its 20-year history. They came to engage with the most representative cross-section of more than 500 exhibitors from up and down the packaging value chain. Those exhibitors were spread across one of the biggest floorplans in the 21-show history of Packaging Innovations & Empack, which spread to engulf even more of the space available to it in Halls 2 & 3/3a in 2026.
As well as welcoming more attendees who walked more aisles to see more exhibitors, the 2026 edition played host to an extensive educational programme that featured more than 120 leading figures and names from government, packaging, and brands and retailers, who discussed, dissected, and digested the last topics and trends affecting the industry today and in the future.
Across four stages, sessions were regularly standing room only as Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026 sated the industry’s appetite for knowledge and need for insights.
As noted by Josh Brooks, Divisional Director – Packaging Portfolio at Easyfairs: “Packed conference sessions, standing-room-only talks, and a vibrant show floor highlighted how the industry is driving sustainability, advancing technology, and rethinking design, and proving that packaging does not follow the market, it sets the pace. Across materials, machinery, and circular solutions, the event showcased how innovation translates directly into performance, elevated customer experience, and commercial growth.”
Yet still this wasn’t the main takeaway from the 2026 event.
Reading between the aisles
Rather, the evolution of Packaging Innovations & Empack from a solutions showcase to a full-scale industry event was evident to see in 2026.
Specifically, the depth and diversity of exhibitors signalled a definite shift from previous editions and gave this year’s event a markedly different look and feel. From big-name global players such as Amcor, Esko, Mondi, and Sun Chemical, to specialists in the fields of labelling and sleeving (Sovereign Labelling Machines), contract packing (Prism eLogistics), and pallets (Scott Pallets), the entire supply chain was there to see.
More immediately in your face was the look and size of many of the stands at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026. These were designed to grab the attention and inspired the thousands in attendance.
The 3x3m shell scheme approach that Easyfairs events were synonymous with has long been confined to the bin. Yes, there are still shell scheme stands on the show floor but in many cases, exhibitors are taking bigger spaces, if not three and four sided-stands that are open and give maximum visibility. Some ha stand reaching 10-12ft into the air.
Exhibitors are also using their stands to embrace new ways of capturing attention and drawing in leads. Sheard Packaging’s Mobile Innovation Centre (MiC) is a noteworthy example as was the increased amount of working machinery displayed by exhibitors within the Empack portion of the show (pallets and palletising was one of the most interesting examples for anyone walking the aisles this year). There were even light-hearted engagement activities, such as the Prince of Packaging Pub and CBS Packaging Group’s corrugated pool table.
In 2027, expect to see many more overhead banners, as an indication of the way stands at the show are changing and exhibitors are making more of their presence and presentation at Packaging Innovations & Empack.
The evolution of an exhibition
Launched in 2006, Packaging Innovations quickly established a reputation for itself as a go-to event for UK brands and printers seeking partners and suppliers to facilitate ideas and, yes, innovations. Over the following years, the event’s exhibitor base rapidly tripled and brought in participants from Central Europe, North America, and Asia, at the same time as many more attendees visited from Benelux, France, Germany, Spain, and even MENA.
Like all print and packaging industry events, the Covid-19 pandemic wrought havoc on the Easyfairs schedule. Perhaps ironically, the Packaging Innovations events in February 2020 and May 2022 bookended the pandemic experience for many. In 2020, few had any idea of what was coming; by 2022 the industry was glad to see the back of lockdowns and isolation and to be able to get back out amongst colleagues, peers, and friends. This has continued and the thirst for human connection was palpable at this year’s event.
Since the Covid-19 years, Packaging Innovations and Empack hasn’t looked back. Today, it is the largest annual packaging industry exhibition serving the UK and Ireland, while also holding a commanding position in Europe. It can now be legitimately considered as a peer to FachPack in Nuremberg, Germany.
With FachPack a leading European trade fair for packaging, technology and processing that has been a central meeting point for the continent’s packaging industry for over 40 years, rising to be in the same conversations as FachPack is a mark of success that should be welcomed by the packaging industry and recognised as evidence of the evolution of Packaging Innovations & Empack.
With the UK seen by many as a hotbed for innovation and a breeding ground for the future of packaging, this provides an opportunity for Easyfairs and the team behind Packaging Innovations & Empack to take the event to even greater heights and make it the annual packaging exhibition for the European packaging industry.
This will start in 2027 when the show moves to Halls 6-9 on 24 & 25 February 2027 at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, providing even more room to expand and for exhibitors to open up their stands.
Right time, right place
The location of the NEC itself helps raise the profile of Packaging Innovations & Empack and bring visitors to the show. Regular flights out of Birmingham International Airport to and from c150 European destinations serve as a gateway to the halls of the NEC, which is connected directly to the airport. Even closer is the train station, from which all corners of the British mainland can be easily reached.
There’s also no lack of hotel beds and Airbnb’s in and around Birmingham, the UK’s second city. Nor is Birmingham lacking in food options. Forget its reputation as the curry capital of the UK, Birmingham has a thriving food scene that ranges from Michelin-starred restaurants to specialist, family-run eateries.
February also serves as a perfect time for the industry to convene. It is a good opportunity for suppliers to repopulate their pipelines, with leads generated often converting into machinery and consumables investments within the same calendar year; and many visitors are actively buying rather than window shopping. Packaging projects for the next two or three years are formalised and put into practice because of connections made at the show. Being so early in the year, Packaging Innovations & Empack is also used as a launchpad for new solutions, providing a first chance to see, for example, recyclable flexible packaging solutions and new forms and functions made using tin, paper, cartonboard and corrugated sheets.
This all makes Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027 a must-attend event for not only the UK packaging industry but more of the European market. The event’s ongoing evolution provides a genuine opportunity for printers, converters, brands, retailers, and co-packers to plot their route into the future of packaging.
Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027 returns to the NEC in Birmingham, UK on 24 & 25 February next year.
Register your interest in participating at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027.