On May 25, 2016, the Premier Palace Hotel in Kyiv (Ukraine) hosted the International Conference "Innovative Solutions for Flexible Packaging 2016".
This year's conference has become a milestone for the packaging industry. The event gathered more than 200 participants and brought together raw material suppliers, packaging, food and beverages manufacturers.
The industry manufacturers were presented by the following companies: Ukrplastic, Itak, Aventin, Blitz-Pack, Sirius Extrusion, Khask-Flex, Aris, Monopack, Technologia, Chemosvit-Luckchim, Sinergy Group, Euroflex, PentoPak, Trelax-Pack, Rubezhnoye Cardboard and Package Mill, Plast-Box Ukraine, Spetztekhosnastka etc.
Among food producers were such companies as Nestle, Danone, Lactalis, PepsiCo, Roshen, Milk alliance, Galychyna, Cheese Club, MHP, Agromars, Zhytomyr Meat-Packing Plant, Chumak, Obolon, Terra Food, Mareven Food, Malbi Foods, Vitmark, International Seafood Group.
The conference has significantly expanded the geography of foreign participants. The event was attended by the representatives from Belarus, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The conference was organized by Marko Pack Agency with the support of Ukrplastic as the general partner and Dow and Nestle as the official partners. The top managers of the leading companies of the market – Ukrplastic, Dow, BASF, HP Indigo, Ulma Packaging, Dansensor, Bang&Bonsomer (Frilvam, UBE NYLON, Eval Kuraray, Industrie Polieco-MPB), Uteco Converting Spa, Kodak, PolyOne and Henkel – gave a perspective and informed about their innovations.
This year's conference further discussed the issues of innovation development and identified the main perspective directions. "Such events are very important for the development of the domestic packaging industry as they are a very productive information platform", – said Irina Mirochnik, Chairwoman of the Board, JSC Ukrplastic, President of Flexible Packaging Association of Ukraine. – "Innovations and environmental friendliness are the key growth areas of the packaging industry globally. Indeed, not only gaining market share is important for our producers, but also updating their sustainable business development strategy, initiate consideration of new goals and objectives that are also important for the customers and partners. Moreover, the last year conference had become a communication platform for establishing the Ukrainian Flexible Packaging Association. All the players in the market were united under one association which is now actively lobbying for the establishment of European legal basis for the development of the industry in Ukraine. In addition, we promote in Ukraine such extremely important international social initiatives as the UN Save Food Initiative.
Grant Fisher, regional sales director of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics for Central and Eastern Europe, highlighted: "Following the success of the conference last year, our company has launched a number of new projects with key brand owners. Therefore, we willingly and enthusiastically accepted the invitation to participate in the event again this year, as it is aimed at strengthening relationships and enhancing dialogue between all the value chain participants.”
Anna Soboleva, Head of Procurement of Raw Materials and Packaging Nestle in Ukraine noted that "today the activities of the global market leaders go beyond business, expanding to social responsibility areas, in which our company has been working for many years. Therefore, Nestle actively promotes creating shared values. In fact, to be successful for a long time, you need to create value for society. Introduction of innovative technologies in the whole food production and packaging chain makes it possible."
The desire of the market leaders to present their innovations tends to become a special feature of the conference. Thus, Ukrplastic Company announced a series of new solutions for the packaging of dairy products, confectionery and meat products, as well as sauces. These innovations are designed to extend the shelf life, improve brand protection against counterfeiting, and to reduce the impact on the environment.
The conference participants noted that this event was a good platform for discussion and finding solutions to the new market challenges.
