Packaging's biggest brands go cross-functional for London Packaging Week

Leading brands are sending wider cross-functional teams to London Packaging Week 2026, reflecting the growing collaboration now required to deliver successful packaging projects.

The world's biggest brands are no longer sending one packaging specialist to industry events. Increasingly, they are sending teams.

With less than two months until London Packaging Week opens at Excel London, many of the world's biggest brands are registering broader teams than ever before, reflecting the increasingly collaborative nature of modern packaging development. Amazon, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, Charlotte Tilbury, Jo Malone London, Disney, Diageo, Unilever, Reckitt, Superdrug, Boots No7, John Lewis and Molton Brown are among the organisations already sending multiple representatives to this year's event.

That shift reflects a fundamental change in the role of packaging itself.

Once considered a specialist discipline, packaging has become one of the few areas of modern business where marketing, design, engineering, procurement, sustainability, operations, innovation and regulatory compliance all intersect.

The decisions being made today influence everything from consumer perception and brand growth to environmental performance, supply chain resilience, and commercial efficiency. As a result, successful packaging projects increasingly depend on collaboration across multiple departments rather than on expertise from a single function.

The audience gathering at London Packaging Week mirrors that evolution. Alongside heads of packaging will be brand and marketing leaders, executive creative directors, procurement specialists, packaging engineers, technologists, sustainability professionals, research and development teams, innovation managers and policy experts. Different disciplines. Different priorities. Increasingly, the same conversations.

Sema Tezel Basbug, head of marketing at Easyfairs, said: ‘One of the clearest trends we have seen this year is brands registering wider teams than ever before.

‘Packaging decisions are no longer made in isolation. Marketing, sustainability, engineering, procurement, operations, and innovation all have a stake in the outcome, because every packaging decision carries commercial, environmental, and operational implications.

‘London Packaging Week reflects the way packaging projects now happen inside businesses. It brings together every discipline involved in developing packaging, while also connecting them with designers, material innovators, manufacturers, retailers, and policymakers who help shape the future of the industry.

‘That is where the real value lies. You might arrive looking for a new material and leave having solved a regulatory challenge. You might meet another brand tackling the same issue, discover a supplier you didn't know existed, or start a conversation that completely changes the direction of a project. Those unexpected connections are becoming just as valuable as the innovations on display.’

Taking place on 16 and 17 September at Excel London, London Packaging Week 2026 will welcome more than 220 exhibitors, more than 90 expert speakers and thousands of packaging professionals from across luxury, beauty, premium drinks, FMCG and packaging design. Together with strategic partners including WRAP, PackUK, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Retail Consortium and INCPEN, the event brings every part of the packaging value chain together to explore the ideas, technologies and collaborations shaping the future of packaging.

Register now for your complimentary ticket.