THE Propak Africa exhibition, which took place from 8-11 March at Johannesburg’s Expo Centre in Nasrec, offered four days of face to face access to the latest cutting-edge
machinery, products, consumables, systems and services.
Over 200 exhibitors attracted over 9 750 visitors, keen to update themselves of the latest trends and developments across the packaging, printing, plastics, food processing and labelling industries. The show attracted over 360 international visitors, many of whom were from African countries. Said Mark Anderson, portfolio director at Specialised Exhibitions, organisers of the show:
“Propak Africa, together with co-locates The GAPP Print Expo, Pro-Plas Expo, FoodPro Expo and ProLabel Expo, delivered an excellent four days of exhibitors showcasing latest products, technology and innovation. Thousands of visitors attended the show and met with exhibitors across the two exhibition halls. The general feeling of exhibitors was that although the quantity of visitors wasn’t quite as high as it was before Covid, it was more than compensated by the quality of visitor.”
Exhibitors also expressed their satisfaction with the business to business event. Sherwin David, Marketing Manager at Future Packaging says that it was “refreshing to engage with customers again, face-to-face,” and that “Propak Africa is a value-add to our business, and a big part of our marketing strategy. It positions us strategically to engage with different industries.” Nishara Naidoo, Head of Operations at Inpakt SA was a first-time sponsor of Propak Africa, and says that it was “worth what we paid a million times over in the visitors and queries we have received.
“The show is smaller but the quality of the visitors – and leads – has more than made up for that. It is our target market perfectly. It’s been a phenomenal show.”
“After two years hiatus it is great to be back and good to be able to engage not only with customers face-toface, but also with the industry at large” says Marc Black, Managing Director at Morgancoat.
“This is the beauty of a platform such as Propak Africa that brings together industry and customers.” Richard Rügheimer, General Manager at Syntegon Technology SA felt that “while the show is smaller, we are very impressed by the level of innovation on
the floor,” and says that they “sold a brandnew Bosch Packaging machine from the stand and Propak Africa has been the perfect platform to get our new brand out there.”
Eptech has been at Propak Africa since 1979 and Director John Binedell says they are “very happy to be back. It has been a good show with quality visitors, and interest from Cameroon and Zimbabwe that looks promising.”
Daily free-to-attend seminars with subject experts delivering industry-related presentations added further value to the visitor experience. These were live-streamed to enable those who could not attend the show in-person to also benefit from the seminar content.
“Propak Cape will be taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 24 to 26 October 2023, and a lot of the exhibitors that have been at Propak Africa will be exhibiting in Cape Town,” says Anderson.
“Then Propak Africa 2025 will be running from 11 to 14 March 2025 at
the Johannesburg Expo Centre. We are looking forward to another two excellent shows.”
More details are available at:
www.propakcape.co.za and
www.propakafrica.co.za
