The BCMPA team will use 2024's flagship packaging exhibition to reiterate its members' unrivalled credentials in the contract manufacturing, packing fulfilment, and logistics space.

The BCMPA will use the UK's flagship packaging exhibition, Packaging Innovations & Empack, to underline its members’ credentials as some of the best third-party outsourcing options in contract manufacturing, packing, fulfilment, and logistics.

The renowned trade association, which will bring 24 of its 200-plus members to Birmingham's NEC on 21& 22 February, continues to represent the principal destination for brand owners, retailers, manufacturers, and e-commerce companies looking for outsourcing partners.

Having hosted the Contract Pack & Fulfilment zone for well over a decade as part of a long-standing relationship with organisers Easyfairs, the BCMPA is promising to connect the 7,000 expected visitors comprising brand owners, retailers, and manufacturers from the food & drink, personal care & beauty, healthcare, chemical, household, white label & private label sectors with outsourcing partners that can propel business growth.

"The show is very valuable for our members and the BCMPA because there is no other Contract Pack & Fulfilment show within the UK," said Emma Verkaik, Chief Executive Officer of the BCMPA. "Our members provide the essential third-party outsourcing options that enable brand owners and retailers to focus on developing and selling their products. This show will allow us to highlight the expertise and experience of our members and the essential services they offer.

"The big message we'll be looking to get across is that over the last few years, better collaboration between the brand owner, retailer, and third party continues to offer a better outcome. And the more you put into that dialogue, the better the outcome."

The Contract Pack & Fulfilment Zone affords manufacturers, brands and retailers across a wide range of sectors a valuable resource for finding outsourcing partners that relieve existing production or packing pressures and provide fulfilment services or facilitate the launch of new products.

"It's the perfect opportunity to promote the growing role of BCMPA members in delivering goods across both traditional retail and e-commerce sectors," Verkaik continued. "If you're starting a brand and you invest in machinery and plan to take a product to market, there are an awful lot of operational day-to-day challenges that somebody attempting to do that would face. We talk about leaving it to the experts rather than undertaking all that overhead yourself. And that's the true value of using a third party, particularly with all the challenges and global headwinds that are out there in the market at the moment."

Verkaik will participate in a panel discussion on reflecting on the value of collaboration as an external supply chain partner alongside representatives from Nulogy, Marsden Packaging, and Danone, before joining the Women in Manufacturing Initiative on the Supply Chain & Manufacturing Stage later on 22 February.

February's two-day showpiece will allow the thousands attending to understand how third parties have become essential to the supply chain and to meet the BCMPA team, who will demonstrate their free online search facility.

"It's why our members choose to exhibit," said Verkaik. "Lots of members exhibit year after year because whilst there are many other ways to attract new customers, the face-to-face model still appeals.

"There is an incredible amount of value in meeting face to face. Sometimes meeting in the flesh gives a good perspective on whether a third party is a good fit and whether you will be able to do business together. I think that is a valuable part of meeting people at shows, and Packaging Innovations provides a fantastic platform for that."