Blue Box Partners is Evolving its Customer Service in Spain

Desire increases anticipation, and when paired with enthusiasm, it is with this very spirit that the industry trade fairs resume in the month of May 2022.  Two in-person events for companies in the packaging and corrugated cardboard supply chain: Milan May 3rd-6th IPACK-IMA and from May 18th-20th the FEFCO Summit in Amsterdam.  These events represent an interesting meeting opportunity for key players in the eco-technological packaging innovation market, because it is the exchange of ideas that fuels ingenuity.  The Ipack-Ima Event  IPACK-IMA, the trade fair organized by Ipack Ima Srl—a joint venture between UCIMA (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association) and Fiera Milano—will showcase innovative solutions for the entire consumer goods and durable goods industry, covering all processing stages of the production chain. From processing, packaging, end-of-line, labeling, packaging materials and design, through to automation and digitalization.  An excellent opportunity for market professionals on an international scale and a privileged meeting place for food and non-food industry buyers, it stands as a significant event and a symbol of restart for all involved sectors. The FEFCO Summit  FEFCO – the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers – is organizing “Fit for the Future”, the Summit that will take place in Amsterdam at the NH Collection Barbizon Palace.  During the sessions, urgent issues that the sector must promptly address will be tackled, particularly the European Green Deal—a strategic plan involving the adoption of a wide array of initiatives such as laws, decrees, and investments, aimed at countering global warming and ongoing climate change.  For this reason, the Summit has placed the themes of sustainability and climate neutrality at the very top of its agenda: a crucial moment to understand how the European corporate system can transition toward a climate-neutral society to build a better future. The objective is to show how the continuous efforts within the corrugated cardboard industry offer significant and concrete solutions in this regard.

Who are the pilots and what is their mission? The pilots are a team of innovation’s representatives of each alliance’s member (see below for more detailed information). They define themselves as: “We are a bunch of pragmatic and entrepreneurial colleagues on a mission to discover sustainable, corrugated based packaging solutions that will bring value to our most respected global customers.” For them, identifying the precise issue to be solved and co-design tomorrow’s solution is one of the best ways to serve our customers. How do they do it? By offering exclusive working sessions together with clients and cross-functional profiles (marketing, R&D, designer, production manager) and one of the partners of the European innovation eco-system. Based a design thinking method facilitated by Board Of Innovation with Michiel Mol and Robin Vermeulen, the objective is to quickly prototype and to accelerate projects that are already identified or that will be soon in the pipeline. In November 2022, the Innovation Academy was hosted at H.B. Fuller’s location in close partnership with Elizabeth Staab and Martin Riswick. Even with the COVID situation, it was decided to maintain the session, on a hybrid version that was really appreciated by our clients: "Even if this was done remotely, this was interactive, really appreciate their enthusiasm to work on the topic”European Packaging Engineer With an average success rate of 8.34/10, the Innovation Pilots have decided to continue this very valuable and customer-centric event and to set-up four Innovation Academies for 2022. Please save the dates! March 2022 (date to be confirmed) – topic: how to design alternative to single use plastic in the beverage industry? – France - already full 5th to 7th April 2022 – topic: how to tackle e-commerce supply chain impacts? – location to be defined 13th to 15th September 2022 – topic: how to identify paper-based options for your business? – location to be defined 15th to 17th November 2022 – topic: how can we imagine the future of e-commerce? – location to be defined Do you want to know more about the program and the topic? Please have a look at the document! 2022_BBP_HbFuller_Innovation-Academies_Teaser-1Download Do you want to have an entire team dedicated to your issue? Please contact us! daphne.deledicq@vpkgroup.com Origin of the European Pilots team Since January 2021, our Chief Innovation Officer, Daphne Deledicq decided to create a dedicated team in order to answer global customers’ requests and to work together on key strategic packaging topics, sustainability and e-commerce . This team gathers packaging design experts from the alliance with complementary profiles: VPK: Arnaud Bertelli and Nikolaas Verhelst Klingele: Christian Hoessle Hinojosa: Norman Masia Cart-One: Daniele Plazzi and Fiorentino Pirone Most of them were already the ones trained in 2019 for FFP certification #Ecommerce / #Sustainability

4.5 billion Euros in turnover, a 13% growth, and 8.3 billion square meters produced: these are the results relating to the Italian corrugated cardboard packaging industry, which were announced during the annual GIFCO conference held last May 13th and 14th, 2022, in Lecce. What emerged from the GIFCO 2022 annual conference The corrugated cardboard packaging sector continues to grow. Among the main factors are the exponential growth of e-commerce and the increasingly strong choice to adopt more sustainable packaging for the planet. An important sector, which accounts for nearly 20% of the paper supply chain, represented by the Federation of Paper and Graphics, which generates a turnover of 25.3 billion Euros, approximately 1.4% of GDP. This was communicated by GIFCO, the specialization group belonging to Assografici (Italian National Association of Printing, Paper Converting, and Transforming Industries), during the annual reporting meeting of activities carried out in the previous year. In the opening report, President Fausto Ferretti – Managing Director of Cart One Parma – presented the official figures for the sector, which in 2021 recorded a total national production – by weight – of nearly 4.5 million tons, with a growth of 12% compared to 2020. During the event, the topic of the evolution of raw material prices was addressed, which influences the costs of paper and finished packaging, as well as corporate budgets. According to data recorded by the Milan Chamber of Commerce, comparing April 2021 with April 2022, there was an increase ranging from +46% to +69% for linerboard and from +22% to +76% for fluting paper. To this scenario, the continuous and significant difficulties in raw material procurement must be added, affecting not only paper-based materials but also auxiliary resources. The well-known journalist Sebastiano Barisoni, deputy director of Radio 24 and historical voice of Focus Economia, also moderated the round table organized during the morning of May 14th. This panel was composed of distinguished representatives from the business and banking worlds, who discussed the national and international economic scenario within a context, like the current one, heavily influenced by the energy shock and complex sourcing of all raw materials. Stay updated on our NEWS.