News

PI Group has become the first design company to join the Packaging Federation, but partner Steve Kelsey said he received a "lukewarm" response to the idea of creating a design group.

Keith Barnes
Packaging board member
IoP: The Packaging Society

YES

We should be promoting our industry more, particularly with the added pressures of the credit crunch, sustainability, recycling and our carbon footprint.

We are all talking to each other, but the Packaging Society needs to move up a few rungs on the ladder.

There will be much more activity in the future and there is a mass of technical expertise available to solve many of the industry’s problems. Within the IOM3 we have links into the design sector through the new Materials and Design Exchange (MADE) initiatives.

Communication is key, both within our industry and with the public. As ever, membership of most associations is in decline and I implore Packaging Society members to get involved and spread the word.

We must not lose more packaging value. Let us aim for more emphasis on the great in Great Britain.

Mike Branson
Managing partner
Pearlfisher

YES

Any industry sector will benefit from a strong united voice that can represent common shared interests and industry practice. So the short answer is yes.

But I think it’s a question of how you achieve that unity. Ideally, we would have one voice. But the design industry is inherently a fragmented, competitive and insecure one – with lots of small businesses covering lots of different disciplines. We think more about what makes us different from each other than what binds us together.

I think it takes key causes that tap into real shared interest to overcome the syndrome of ‘every man for himself’. The Design Business Association, for example, has been very successful in championing the cause of design effectiveness and identified a powerful area of shared interest.

If the Packaging Federation is to embrace the design sector more powerfully, I think as design consultants we need to understand more clearly the causes it champions and where we have a real shared interest.

Ian Dent
Consultant
Edge

YES

There’s always strength in numbers, especially when it comes to the interface with regulators and opinion formers, such as politicians, civil servants and the media, where common messages to counteract potential negative and damaging legislation are essential.

Too often the packaging supply chain (a more accurate description than packaging industry) has been defeated by a divided voice. However, in order to create unity it is necessary to ensure clear definition of the common interests since there is also a need to recognise that different parts of the supply chain may not always have similar interests and priorities. After all, packaging as a main board issue will differ between raw material suppliers, converters and brand owners, including retailers.

The main common issues will always focus upon manufacture, use and waste management. We do have adequate organisations to manage these issues, and hence the supply chain needs to give these organisations maximum support for maximum impact.

David Tyson
Chief executive
Packaging and Films Association

YES

Packaging is being attacked by those who will have us believe that all packaging is bad, which completely ignores the fact that packaging enables food waste to be as low as 3% in sophisticated supply chains, compared with more than 50% in under-developed countries.

The packaging industry has made terrific strides in uniting to communicate common messages, particularly highlighting the increased carbon dioxide emissions created in replacing wasted food, compared with the small amount of energy required to produce the sophisticated packaging to protect it.

Of course, there is always more that can be done, but organisations such as the Packaging Federation and Incpen bring industry sectors together to debate the contribution packaging makes.

However, it is a very competitive business and the industry will find itself competing for market share pack against pack, but each material will find its niche. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.