Paris Packaging Week in early February in Paris: figures and program

On February 5 and 6, Paris Packaging Week will welcome a total of 930 exhibitors. The PCD, dedicated to beauty product packaging, will bring together 600 exhibitors. ADF and the part of the show devoted to aerosols and dispensing systems will welcome 150 exhibitors. As for the segment dedicated to wines and spirits, PLD, and the segment dedicated to luxury products, Packaging Première, they will each welcome around 100 exhibitors. The Pentawards Festival will bring together around ten design agencies. In terms of visitors, the organizers are expecting more visitors than the 2025 edition (12,500). “We have no plans at this stage to change the duration of the show,” explains Josh Brooks, Divisional Director/Packaging at the Easyfairs group.

The PCD show has undoubtedly grown considerably in recent years. What do you think are the main reasons for this?

Josh Brooks: Indeed, PCD has evolved enormously in recent years and remains the main driver of the development of Paris Packaging Week, of which it is a part. For us, the common thread is to always develop the notion of community around the show, and to position it not only as a gathering place, but also as a driver of progress and innovation for this community.
The proximity of the show to the community is therefore essential. Physically, the location of the show in Paris, the global capital of the beauty industry, places it at the heart of the community it serves. For the decision-makers of major brands as well as for agencies based in Paris, it is easy to send entire teams—buyers, engineers, designers, marketers, etc. The location in Paris is also very attractive for international visitors and exhibitors.
Proximity to the community is also achieved through the show’s offering, which we try to renew and enrich every year to remain ever more relevant and inclusive. To give one example, our Future Leaders program, launched in 2024, celebrates and gives a voice to young talent in the sector. Our Awards highlight the brands’ greatest technical achievements. At the show, new areas respond to the changing needs of the community; in 2025, we added the Discovery Zone, a showcase for innovative start-ups, as well as the Full-Service Zone, which responds to a growing demand for turnkey solutions from our visitors. The Pentawards Festival, also launched in 2025, has become an important highlight of the show for the international design community.

What will be the highlights of this new 2026 edition in terms of events and conferences?

Josh Brooks: For this edition, we are celebrating 25 years of PCD with many new features and great events, all designed to inspire and connect our community even more.
First of all, we are opening the events with a gala evening, where the winners of the Innovation Awards will be announced, in a magnificent venue on Place Vendôme. This evening will take place on the eve of the show, on Wednesday, February 4. The winners will also be exhibited the following day in a gallery at the center of the show.
The conferences promise to be more impactful and rich than ever, with five conference rooms, each with a specific theme: the circular economy, innovation, design, aerosols, and start-ups. In terms of speakers, leading figures from our industry will be present, including Kelly Massol, founder of Les Secrets de Loly; Kilian Hennessy, artistic director of Kilian Paris; Jacques Playe, global head of packaging and product development at L’Oréal; and Vitalie Taittinger, president of Champagne Taittinger.
The show will also feature its Discovery Zone, with around 20 start-ups representing the future of packaging technology, as well as a new Refill & Reuse zone, dedicated to refill and reuse solutions.
A highlight of the Pentawards Festival will be its gallery of around 100 packaging designs representing the best designs in the world in 2025.
And, as usual, we will be offering networking and co-working spaces.

The packaging sector in general, but especially with regard to plastics, is strongly impacted by new legislation being introduced at the European level, in particular the PPWR. Will this topic be addressed in any way at the upcoming edition?

Josh Brooks: Yes, absolutely. Everything related to the PPWR will be at the heart of the discussions. We will talk about compliance, recyclability, the transition to PCR, and above all, the concrete impact on manufacturers. The Circular Economy Stage will be the main venue for these discussions, with an overview provided by European and local associations such as Europen, FEVE, CNE, and the Italian Packaging Institute, as well as speakers who will explain how the PPWR is changing packaging development practices.
Another highlight related to the PPWR is the transformation of models around refilling and reuse. L’Oréal, for example, will share its vision of the strategic role of refilling and the initiatives it is already rolling out, such as #JoinTheRefillMovement. Then we will have the eagerly awaited feedback from the Coalition Consigne Cosmétique, after two years of full-scale testing with 15 brands.

Does your group intend to organize other trade shows like yours in other countries, as was the case a few years ago in New York and China?

Josh Brooks: Yes, Paris Packaging Week is part of an international network of trade shows and events dedicated to packaging. Its sister shows, London Packaging Week and Packaging Première in Milan, also target the beauty and luxury sectors. In the Easyfairs division that I run with my colleague Jennifer Burley, we also organize the Packaging Innovations trade show in Birmingham, England, which is more focused on the food and FMCG market, as well as the Pentawards, the world’s largest packaging design competition. Finally, our group, Easyfairs, organizes the entire Empack network of trade shows, which are held in several European countries as well as in Algeria. The latter took place for the first time in December. So the network is growing—and we are always exploring new opportunities.