It might only be October, but when it comes to packaging, 2027 is closer than it looks. New product launches are being planned. Budgets and forecasts are taking shape. Sustainability targets are being reviewed. Artwork changes are sitting on project lists. And across the supply chain, businesses are already looking ahead to what next year might bring.
For packaging teams, procurement managers and brand owners, the final few months of 2026 offer an important opportunity to get ahead. Packaging projects can involve artwork development, material selection, testing, print approvals, production and international shipping – so waiting until January to start thinking about next year’s requirements can quickly put pressure on timelines.
So, what should be on your packaging to-do list before 2026 comes to an end?
1. Map Out Your 2027 Launches
If you have new products, ranges, formats or relaunches planned for 2027, now is the time to start mapping out their packaging requirements.
Consider not only the planned launch date but everything that needs to happen before it.
Will you require a completely new pack? Are you changing size or format? Will new materials need to be tested? Is there new artwork to approve? Does the packaging need to run on an existing filling line?
Working backwards from the required packing date can reveal just how much development time is actually available.
Starting those conversations early gives everyone involved more opportunity to test, learn and refine rather than making rushed decisions as launch day approaches.
2. Review Your Current Materials
A new year doesn’t necessarily require a new pack – but it is a good opportunity to ask whether your existing packaging specification is still the right one.
For many businesses, this will increasingly involve reviewing the transition towards recyclable mono-material structures and considering how packaging aligns with wider sustainability and regulatory objectives.
But material conversion shouldn’t be treated as a simple substitution exercise.
Barrier performance, sealing characteristics, filling-line compatibility, product protection, pack appearance and consumer functionality all need to be considered.
Where a material change is planned for 2027, allowing time for technical assessment and controlled trials can significantly reduce the risk involved in making that transition.
3. Get Ahead of Artwork Changes
Artwork has a habit of becoming the final piece of the puzzle – and then holding everything else up.
Before year-end, review whether any existing packaging will require changes during 2027.
That could include new branding, updated claims, ingredients or nutritional information, regulatory information, recycling guidance, barcodes, pack weights or simply a design refresh.
If several SKUs are involved, even relatively small changes can become a significant project.
Identifying them now allows artwork, reprographics and print requirements to be planned properly and can help avoid last-minute changes immediately before production.
It is also a useful opportunity to review consistency across the wider range. Does your packaging still look and feel like one brand when all the products are placed together?
4. Turn Sales Forecasts Into Packaging Forecasts
Sales forecasts aren’t only useful for finance teams.
They can be one of the most valuable tools for packaging supply planning.
Sharing realistic forecasts with packaging partners gives manufacturers greater visibility of likely requirements and allows production, materials and shipping to be planned more effectively.
This becomes particularly important when packaging is manufactured internationally.
At Law Print, our global sourcing capabilities give customers access to manufacturing across different regions, but longer-distance supply needs to be planned appropriately. Good forecasting can help businesses take advantage of international sourcing while maintaining the stock levels and continuity they need.
And forecasting doesn’t mean predicting every order perfectly.
It means creating enough visibility for everyone in the supply chain to plan intelligently.
5. Define Your Sustainability Priorities for 2027
“Sustainable packaging” is a broad objective.
For 2027 planning, it is much more useful to turn that ambition into specific priorities.
Do you want to increase the percentage of your portfolio using recyclable structures? Reduce unnecessary material? Explore recycled content where appropriate? Improve pack-to-product ratios? Review formats? Prepare for evolving packaging regulations?
The right priorities will vary between businesses, products and markets.
What’s important is that sustainability becomes part of the packaging brief from the beginning rather than something added towards the end of a project.
Packaging still has to protect the product, perform through the supply chain and work for the consumer. The challenge is finding solutions that balance performance, commercial requirements and environmental objectives.
6. Stress-Test Your Supply Plan
The last few years have repeatedly demonstrated the importance of supply chain resilience.
That makes year-end a good time to ask some difficult questions.
What would happen if demand suddenly increased? Do you have sufficient packaging stock? Are lead times built into your planning? Are you overly dependent on one manufacturing location? Could some requirements be sourced closer to market? Where does international sourcing provide the greatest commercial advantage?
Increasingly, the answer doesn’t have to be Asia or Europe.
A more flexible sourcing strategy can use different manufacturing regions according to the requirements of individual projects – balancing cost, lead time, MOQ, technical capability and flexibility.
The important thing is understanding the options before they are urgently needed.
7. Look Beyond Your Existing Packaging
Finally, don’t make the mistake of assuming that what you currently buy is automatically what you should continue buying.
Year-end planning is a good opportunity to step back and look at the whole packaging portfolio.
Could specifications be optimised? Could similar requirements be consolidated? Is there a different pack format worth considering? Could a new feature improve consumer convenience? Are there opportunities to bring flexible and rigid packaging requirements together?
Sometimes innovation means introducing something completely new.
Sometimes it simply means finding a better way of doing what you already do.
With Law Print’s established Flexible Packaging expertise and access to the wider SCGP Flexible + Rigid packaging portfolio, we can help customers explore those possibilities across a much broader range of formats and applications.
Don’t Wait for January
January feels like the natural starting point for a new year. For packaging, it can already be too late.
Using the final months of 2026 to review requirements, forecasts, materials, artwork and upcoming launches means businesses can enter 2027 with clearer priorities and fewer surprises.
So before the Christmas decorations go up and everyone starts thinking about the end-of-year break, take another look at your packaging to-do list.
Plan the launches. Review the materials. Update the artwork. Check the forecasts. Set the sustainability priorities. Strengthen the supply plan.
And most importantly, start the conversations now.
At Law Print, we work with customers from initial concept and technical development through testing, artwork, production and global supply. Whether you’re planning a new launch, reviewing an existing packaging portfolio or simply trying to understand what your options could be for 2027, now is a very good time to talk.
Contact us on +44 (0) 161 440 7302 or sales@lawprintpack.co.uk. Alternatively, follow this link to complete our contact form.
