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You have been in office as President of Pro Carton now for 50 days. What is your immediate impression of leading CEPI Cartonboard and Pro Carton into a joint future?
I am convinced that joining forces of CEPI Cartonboard and Pro Carton into a strong association, and a closer collaboration with ECMA, will be the right platform for the future of the European cartonboard and folding carton industry. Many challenges are ahead of us including legislative changes that make strong industry representation more important than ever.
Pro Carton has focused more on communication while CEPI Cartonboard on technical and statistical data: for this reason Pro Carton and CEPI Cartonboard complement each other.
What do you see as the main synergies between Pro Carton and CEPI Cartonboard?
The main objectives are to move closer together for more effectiveness, efficiency and voice of representation through new specific work streams, Marketing & Communications and Public Affairs and a stronger member engagement. This is precisely why we need to be able to be quick and clear in communicating and responding to the needs of our members.
You mentioned increasing member engagement as one of the key benefits of the merger. What needs to happen in the first 12 months for you to see higher levels of member engagement?
We must create the specific work streams, Marketing & Communications and Public Affairs and invite mill and converter experts to work together for the benefit of our industry. Additionally, we need to take membership communications to the next level, especially for smaller members.
Last but not least we’re working on focus groups in order to increase members’ engagement.
What expectations do you have both for and from the member organisations?
We want to be the voice and the supporter for our members in an effective and efficient way. The increasing engagement of members in the association will guide us to advocate for the right issues and to communicate the essentials, and we will increase our presence and also the awareness within the member companies. It is simply important to listen to more member representatives and experts to do just the right thing!
What are the three wishes you have for the industry in 2023?
- Resilience – our industry must continue to demonstrate its resilience to almost all crises in order to supply our customers with sustainable and system-relevant products.
- Clarity in regulations – we need clarity about regulations especially about packaging regulations in the EU and in each individual country in order to be able to invest in ecological packaging solutions and to strengthen and align our innovation power to support the EU green deal.
- Strong member engagement.
