The UK packaging and processing community will return to the NEC Birmingham on 24 & 25 February 2027, with a renewed focus on helping brands and manufacturers turn promising ideas into practical, scalable solutions.
Registration has opened for Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027, the UK’s largest packaging and processing event, as the industry prepares to return to the NEC Birmingham on 24 & 25 February for two days focused on turning innovation into practical progress.
Building on a record-breaking 2026, which attracted 8,021 unique visitors, more than 500 exhibitors and representatives from over 3,000 brands, the event promises a packed programme of discovery, debate, live demonstrations and business opportunities.
As the industry faces more regulation, more material choices, more technology and growing pressure to improve sustainability and productivity, making the right decisions is becoming harder. The challenge is separating promising ideas from practical solutions that can deliver in the real world and at scale.
That is where Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027 comes in. Under the theme Innovation in Practice, the event will connect the industry’s biggest questions with the people, technologies and expertise capable of answering them.
Uniting brands, suppliers, designers, manufacturers, machinery specialists, co-packers, regulators and other experts, the event will examine how advances in packaging and production translate into practical, commercially viable solutions. The aim is to help businesses validate ideas, navigate complexity and make more confident decisions about what comes next.
Sema Tezel Basbug, Head of Marketing at Packaging Innovations & Empack, said: “The packaging industry is not short of ideas. The challenge is working out which ideas can make a meaningful difference and how to put them into practice. Can a new material run on existing machinery? Can an innovation improve performance as well as sustainability? Can it meet regulatory requirements? Can it be produced at the right cost and at the scale a business needs? Those are the questions behind Innovation in Practice. We want to create an environment where people can interrogate innovation, learn from those already implementing it and leave with greater confidence about what could work within their own business.”
The first confirmed speakers offer an early indication of the 2027 programme’s calibre and breadth, spanning global brands, engineering, technology, healthcare and entrepreneurship. They include Youssef Riad, Senior Engineering Product Manager at Mars; Jane Skelton, Head of Packaging Innovation & Creative at Nichols; Toby Horne, Vice President at Siemens; Vinicius Sales, Global Design Leader at PepsiCo; Emil Stickland, Co-Founder of Kocktail; Michael Privette, Chief Development Officer at the Arthritis Foundation; and Raj Kumar, Global Packaging Lead at HelloFresh.
The exhibition floor will be equally compelling, with leading names including Amcor, Mondi, Aptar, Coppice Alupack and Smith Anderson among those exhibiting. They will be joined by a host of first-time exhibitors, including Pirlo, PackLab, Novatec, Eurofilm Mantzaris and TemperPack Technologies, bringing fresh perspectives and new opportunities for discovery.
New and expanded experiences across the show floor include:
- Advice Clinic – one-to-one access to industry experts for visitors to discuss specific challenges and identify next steps.
- Regulation in Practice – Pack UK, UK Packaging PRO and industry experts examine what evolving policy and compliance requirements mean for packaging design, sourcing and production.
- Discovery Tours – expert-led tours helping first-time visitors and SMEs navigate the event, alongside an enhanced Exhibitor Innovation Gallery.
- Empack Tour 2.0 – bringing visitors closer to machinery, automation and production technology.
- Production Line Stage (formerly the Supply Chain Stage) – examining smarter manufacturing, automation and operational performance, alongside the Smart Packaging Zone.
- Future Trailblazer Awards – returning to celebrate emerging industry talent, with a new Mentor of the Year category.
- Pitch the Co-Packers – delivered in partnership with the BCMPA, connecting start-ups with co-packing expertise.
Basbug added: “Bringing the whole packaging journey together matters. Packaging Innovations explores what is possible, Empack focuses on how it can be delivered, and Contract Pack & Fulfilment helps businesses understand how they can scale. Our ambition for 2027 is simple: come with a question, a problem or an idea and leave closer to an answer.”
Packaging Innovations & Empack 2027 takes place at the NEC Birmingham on 24 & 25 February 2027. Registration is now open.