Its durability, its resistance and its adaptability to the products with which it is associated make wood a first-rate material in the field of packaging. The multitude of possible uses for this raw material (construction timber, fuel wood, industrial timber, etc.) makes it a major resource for those involved in the packaging industry.

Wood : a material with a future on a changing market

In the packaging sector wood stands out in terms of its ratio of turnover to number of companies. With 860 specialised companies in 2021, the players on the wooden packaging market constitute the second-largest French employer in the materials industry. Yet, with a turnover of €1.5 billion in 2019, wood ranks only in 8th place out of 10 in French materials manufacturing. Within the sector, its turnover represents just 8,2% while the number of its companies represents 15.7% of the actors in the materials industry in France.

In 2019, France is the European leader in the production of wooden packaging with 20% of European billings. Total billings reached 10.046 billion euros in 2019. This is the only type of packaging for which France has a positive trade balance (+0.3 billion euros).

A particular driving force of the wood industry is its profit margin, which remains the highest in the sector at 39.4%, far ahead of the industry’s heavyweights (plastic at 27.4% and cardboard/paper at 28.7%). This high profit margin offers the prospect of lots of potential investments, in particular in R&D in the wood sector, in the face of a rapidly changing ecological context.

 

The ecological trademark : one of the wood's great strenghts

One of the main challenges for the wood industry revolves around its capacity to overhaul its value chain. As it is, right now, a large proportion of the raw wood in France is exported and its added value is generated abroad, before the wood is potentially imported back into the country. 83% of "made in France" wooden packaging is sold within 300 km of the production site. Over the long term, wood offers powerful arguments for securing a choice place among manufacturers and brands that use packaging: its ease of transport enables the costs of its logistics to be reduced; a large number of end users feel an affinity for it due to both the natural aesthetics of wood and its status as a symbol for ecology in the collective consciousness. Wood is also one of the most highly recommended materials for the packaging of foodstuffs, since it complies with all the health standards associated with such products. Lastly, its resistance and longevity, combined with its recyclability (100% biodegradable or recyclable) make it one of the best candidates in the choice of packaging raw materials.

November 2018 marked a major turning point in the history of the wood packaging industry in France with the signing of a second strategic contract for the industry (after the contract of 2014) aimed at promoting the use of wood while adapting to the environmental conditions. The French Government’s strategic committee for the wood industry (“CSF Bois”) and 4 key ministries were signatories to this contract. Its objectives: to enable the wood industry manufacturers to favour the use of materials biosourced by the players on the packaging market; to support them in their digital transition with the changes to their professions and skills; to enable the leveraging and mobilisation of resources over the short, medium and long-term; and to accelerate the growth of high-potential SMEs so that the wood industry is able, over time, to increase its potential appeal to manufacturers that use packaging.

25% of user industries participating in ALL4PACK EMBALLAGE PARIS intend to use wood packaging in the next 2 years.

Source: survey on the evolution of packaging materials conducted by ALL4PACK EMBALLAGE PARIS between April 11 and May 10, 2020 with 211 packaging decision makers

 

Morceaux de bois

Getting the best value from your wood solutions

With consumer requirements on the increase, the likes of the food industry, luxury and consumer goods sectors need to adapt and find the right answers. Give the visitors to ALL4PACK EMBALLAGE PARIS the opportunity to discover your wooden packagings and containers!

The exhibition can provide you with a range of tools to increase your visibility:

  • An index per material in the paper catalogue and a search filter per material in the online catalogue
  • Visit pathways per material A list of products to which you can add your new offers and/or innovations
  • A matchmaking app for making appointments with your customers or prospects
  • A mediakit to automatically generate banners to announce your presence

In 2024 the show invites visitors to reflect across the board about the use of wood in the packaging industry, by way of talks and events. Don’t miss this opportunity to grow your business!

Sources: France Bois Forêt conseil-national-industrie.gouv.fr fbie.org ec.europa.eu cecobois.com agriculture.gouv Emballage magazine No. 1012 Pôle emballage bois Cabinet GALLILEO Jesuisentrepreneur.fr Supply chain magazine

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