This year’s Gulf Pack event (September 19-22, Airport Expo, Dubai) is set to be the largest and most dynamic so far with over 61 companies taking part from 16 countries.

Organised by Fairs & Exhibitions Ltd (F&E), Gulf Pack ‘04 is set to achieve similar standards of excellence gained by the company’s flagship events such as the Dubai Airshow and the recent Qatar Sports International, an F&E statement said.
“Testament to this is the substantial interest reflected by the international sector with the latest example coming from global beverage carton leaders, SIG,” the statement said.  “Add to this the recent recognition given by the World Packaging Organisation and Asian Packaging Federation and it’s understandable why Gulf Pack’s project manager Sharla Hancock says ‘this puts the show on a truly international platform; the event is unique in the Middle East and visitors will be able to meet with some of the best operators in the industry.’ “
Commenting on SIG’s participation at Gulf Pack, marketing director Nicolai P Meyendorff explained that his company had enjoyed considerable success since the formation of a joint venture between SIG Combibloc and Obeikan Investment Group in 2001.
 “Prior to that SIG Combibloc was selling directly to the region from Germany, but it was very small-scale. In the meantime it established a substantial client base in the region of major food, dairy and drinks companies including KDD, KDC, ABC (Kuwait), ONDP (Oman), Yemen Dairy Gulf Union, Nadec (Saudi Arabia), Centrale Laitiere, Copaq (Morocco) and Ghandour (Lebanon).
“We can expect to see a variety of innovations from SIG at Gulf Pack including plans for our new Combifit and Combishape cartons. We expect to launch these within the next two years or so in the region,” Meyendorff said.
SIG, set up in Germany in 1878, has in the past 126 years established a massive international business with an annual turnover of Euro 1.058 billion in 2003, substantial year-on-year growth at 12.5 per cent and a total workforce of 3,900. All of these vital statistics bode well for their regional customers as SIG has an established and growing network of service engineers.
 “In terms of technical service we have about 40 service engineers located mostly in the markets where we have local offices such as Casablanca, Tunis, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Tripoli, Cairo, Beirut, Tehran, Lahore and Nairobi,” said Meyendorff
“Training is another central feature of SIG’s enterprise in the region with programmes conducted at training centres in Thailand and Germany. We also conduct on-site training of customers locally through our own service engineers. By 2005 we will have an R&D and training centre established in Riyadh where training will be  undertaken in five languages.”
SIG will be able to demonstrate part of its training process at Gulf Pack’s seminar programme. Apart from reviewing existing product lines and applications, Meyendorf confirmed that SIG would present some of its latest innovations  launched recently in international markets and provide an insight into others that the company was planning.