Packaging group Sealed Air (Charlotte, North Carolina / USA; www.sealedair.com) has opened a new customer engagement centre in Passirana di Rho, Milan / Italy. The centre, which opened on 4 April 2019, will provide information about new packaging solutions and enable customers to exchange ideas about global market and consumer trends – with a focus on innovation, resource efficiency and omni-channel strategies, the company said. The Passirana site also has a production facility.

At the new facility, named "Packforum EMEA", customers can create and test food and product packaging solutions in a virtual supermarket, a smart kitchen for demonstrations and a manufacturing plant, which is co-located at the centre, said Sealed Air. Experts in circular economy, food science, food law compliance, e-commerce fulfillment and packaging automation will be available on-site. Until 2018, Packforum EMEA was located in Paris / France, where there was no production.

The new site in Italy, which also houses one of the company’s global innovation and development centres, is expected to attract packaging and e-commerce companies throughout the EMEA region. Sealed Air has two other customer engagement centres at its global headquarters in Charlotte and in Shanghai / China.