Making it work: Why packaging competitiveness now depends on execution

Europe's paper and packaging industry is under compounding pressure. Regulatory requirements are tightening, energy pricing continues to weigh on margins, structural overcapacity persists in traditional paper and board grades while demand for high-performance, paper-based materials grows.

Meanwhile, customer expectations are shifting in ways that are now showing up directly in sourcing decisions. Bain & Company's Paper & Packaging Report 2026 highlights the underlying dynamic: sustainability is now a decisive purchasing factor, with customers prioritising partners who can deliver scalable, validated solutions rather than pilot concepts.

For several years, the industry debated what needed to change. Today, leadership is defined by who can engineer those changes to work at scale – and in packaging, that means reliable execution backed by market demand.

Making change work on the ground

The macro pressures land differently depending on where you sit in the value chain. In packaging production, which stands on continuous optimisation, converters are already squeezed by energy costs and operating on thin margins. Managing implementation of a new material without disrupting the production processes is key. It has to integrate into existing production systems without disrupting the processes, running reliably across the speed, temperature and machine settings already in place.

According to Bain & Company, while overcapacity persists in commoditised segments, demand for paper-based barrier solutions and sustainable packaging formats is strengthening in higher-value applications. Sustainability is only one of the characteristics to be considered. A material needs to tick four key boxes : cost, line stability, machine compatibility and supply reliability. Solutions are expected to demonstrate value without adding complexity, and adoption follows investment decisions made under tighter constraints than ever before.

Flexible packaging is a good example. The development of recyclable, paper-based barrier solutions shows how materials can meet upcoming EU packaging regulations while supporting process stability, machine compatibility and product protection across demanding applications such as food and confectionery packaging. Sappi’s paper-based barrier solutions are already running in production environments, combining recyclability with functional performance.

Partnership and proven performance

Companies assess materials based on multiple criteria – sustainability, cost and efficiency. Their full value becomes apparent under production conditions across printing, converting and filling, where speed, temperature, machine settings and efficiency thresholds determine material choice.

At Sappi, we work closely with customers to understand their application requirements and production processes in full, then align material structure and surface properties accordingly. This system approach is what separates material suppliers from solution co-engineering. It reduces implementation risk and cuts time-to-market, because the groundwork is done before anything reaches the line.

It also means bringing the right partners in early. Collaborations with machine manufacturers, including Sacmi, ACMA, Teepack and Koenig & Bauer, alongside converters including Huhtamaki, Kapag and Jungdruck, bring material, machine and application expertise together from the outset. Teams can test, refine and validate in their own environment, ensuring consistent behaviour across the full production chain.

At interpack 2026, Sappi will demonstrate how these solutions perform under real production conditions, offering customers the opportunity to experience validated, scalable alternatives firsthand.

Setting the bar high

The industry is moving toward a circular bioeconomy, where paper-based materials are proving they can replace fossil-based packaging without compromising on performance or scalability. New materials get adopted when they meet cost expectations, run on existing lines and fit into established recycling systems. That is the bar, and it is the right one.

For Sappi, this means working with customers early, through practical testing and a clear understanding of how materials, processes and economic conditions interact in their specific production environments – to deliver solutions that perform reliably and create value without adding complexity.

Our priority at Sappi is making sure the right materials, the right processes and the right partnerships come together in ways that actually work on the ground.