VS Pack · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• VS Pack is the trade show for packaging innovation in wines and spirits. It takes place in Cognac, at the heart of the cognac industry, and brings together glassmakers, closure makers, label printers, carton makers, decorators and design agencies, face to face with the houses that bring wines and spirits to market.
• Next edition: the 14th, from Tuesday 7 to Thursday 9 December 2027, at the Espace 3000, Cognac's exhibition centre. Open to visitors from 9am to 6pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 9am to 5pm on Thursday. Trade-only show, free admission.
• Organiser: Atlanpack, the graphics and packaging cluster of the Atlantic Arc based in Cognac, which brings together more than 500 companies according to its 2025 press release. No co-organiser.
• Frequency: every two years, in odd-numbered years. The 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 editions followed one another without interruption, the 2021 one under a health pass.
• Latest edition, the 13th, from 2 to 4 December 2025: the organiser reports more than 120 exhibitors, 3,000 visitors and 10 countries, with no detailed results or audit. It split the exhibition into four themed villages: Innovations, Materials, Technologies and Training.
• Atlanpack announced on 30 September 2026 the opening of stand bookings for 2027.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The organiser targets packaging manufacturers, contract packers and design or communication agencies. The website's directory sorts the offering into sixteen categories, from stoppers, capsules and wire hoods to bottles and flasks, taking in gift boxes and cartons, decoration and metallisation, labels, sleeves, POS displays, prototyping, traceability and bottling equipment.

The 2025 press kit, published before the show, reports a geographical breakdown of exhibitors: 80% from France, of which 55% from Nouvelle-Aquitaine, of which 31% from Grand Cognac (nested table, base not specified), and 20% from abroad, representing 10 countries. The same page cites the 2023 edition for its statistics and does not say which edition exactly this breakdown relates to. The breakdown by product family, which the footnote ties to the 2023 edition, puts gift boxes, cartons and cases in first place with 31%, ahead of stoppers, capsules and wire hoods (20%), bottles and decanters (15%), labels and traceability (11%) and decoration, engraving and metallisation (10%).

This profile places VS Pack in premium packaging for wines and spirits, with a marked regional presence according to the press kit (“of which 55% Nouvelle-Aquitaine” in a nested table, base not specified); the 2025 edition floor plan brought glassmakers, closure makers and label printers together in a single hall.

Notable exhibitors

The official exhibitor list still shows the 2025 edition's, presented as such on the website's home page. The 2027 list has not been published.

The 2025 press kit names, in a non-exhaustive list, glassmakers such as Verallia, Saverglass, Stoelzle Glass Group, Bormioli Luigi and Zignago Vetro; closure manufacturers such as Amorim Top Series, Guala Closures and Vinolok; label printers and carton makers such as Autajon, Alliance Étiquettes and Smurfit Westrock; and also Sleever, Kurz, MPO and Berlin Packaging. The Cognac area is represented notably by Bernadet, which presents itself as a reference in glass decoration in Cognac since 1951, and Cognac Embouteillage.

Quality of the audience

The website describes a broad audience within the industry: mainly producers, wine merchants (négociants) and winegrowers, but also wine shops, bottling centres, cooperatives, trade bodies, large-scale retail, marketing consultants, packaging manufacturers and distributors, researchers, teachers, students and journalists.

No OJS certification or third-party audit of attendance is published. The closing press release for the 2023 edition describes the visitor profile for that edition: 30% general management, 30% R&D and innovation, 20% communication and marketing, 16% sales management and 4% other functions, with, according to the organiser, a “return of foreign visitors” of +9% (comparison base not specified). The figure of 3,000 visitors shown for 2025 matches the per-edition average that the organiser has put forward for several editions. Before the 2025 edition, its press release expected 3,500, a quarter of them from abroad (the press kit announces more than 3,500 visitors): no published results confirm this target.

Events & community

Conference programme

The conferences and round tables, which are free, run over the three days of the show. The 2027 programme has not been published; the 2025 one gives a sense of the format.

The first day opened on bringing spirits to market internationally, then on the economic context of the cognac industry with the Syndicat des Maisons de Cognac and the BNIC, before a round table on CSR and ESG commitment featuring Hennessy, the Crealis group and Alliance Étiquettes, and a session of pitches by innovative companies.

The second covered intaglio printing in the service of label security, with Philaposte and the Gendarmerie nationale, artificial intelligence for understanding consumers, innovation across the whole packaging chain with Amorim, Saverglass and Nacara Impressions, and consumer information, from print to digital, with Martell and Sleever International. Two conferences dealt with the issues raised by the European PPWR regulation on packaging, one for cardboard by Smurfit Westrock, the other for zamak by Segede.

The third focused on packaging trends, with the Innovin cluster, Berlin Packaging and Cognac Embouteillage, on an overview of international innovations in spirits by the Centre International des Spiritueux (CIDS), and on paper creation with the Musée du papier d'Angoulême.

SpiriPack Trophies and FreePack Spirit competition

The SpiriPack Trophies are open to all exhibitors and reward a recently commercialised packaging innovation. A jury of professionals awards three prizes on criteria that notably include novelty, design, commercial impact and eco-design; the candidate products are displayed in a dedicated area. The 2025 edition, the 7th, honoured Citrus Aurantium (SpiriPack d'Or, the gold prize, for a tamper-evident system based on knotting), Carbon Decor (Silver, for an inkjet trompe-l'œil decoration that preserves recyclability) and Wildcat Packaging (Bronze, for an ultralight paulownia wood gift box), with two special mentions (“coups de cœur”) for OC Regroupement and EKO, Laboratoire de Plis. In 2025, the awards ceremony took place in the evening on Wednesday.

The FreePack Spirit competition, run with the Institut National du Design Packaging (INDP), is aimed at students in packaging design and engineering, who create the complete packaging for a spirits brand or a consumption concept. It reports more than 1,300 entrants since 2003. The 2025 theme was “Explorer le monde à travers le packaging” (“Explore the world through packaging”). The next edition is announced for 2027.

On the exhibitors' side, the BluesPack evening, hosted by Atlanpack, combines professional networking and blues music. In 2025, it was announced for 2 December at the Abattoirs de Cognac.

Community & networks

The website lists as official partners the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC) and Vinitech-Sifel, and as institutional partners the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the Charente Department and Grand Cognac.

On the press side, the partners listed are Emballage Digest, Emballages Magazine, Etiq&Pack, Formes de Luxe, Liquides & Conditionnement, Terres de Cognac, UGNIC and V&S News.

VS Pack is part of Atlanpack's programme, which also organises VS Tech, a trade show on technological innovation in wines and spirits presented as biennial, whose second edition was announced for 10 and 11 June 2026 in Cognac, and the Vinipack meetings with Vinitech-Sifel in Bordeaux. The cluster organises a visit to Luxe Pack Monaco every year and has organised collective areas at ALLFORPACK Emballage Paris. It is a partner of the first Spirits Valley Show, organised by the Spirits Valley on 5 and 6 November 2026 in the same Espace 3000.

On site: what you need to know

The show takes place at the Espace 3000, boulevard Oscar Planat, a municipal facility of the City of Cognac located on the Croix Montamette esplanade, near the town centre. The facility can hold nearly 3,000 people; its main multipurpose hall is 2,470 m². On site: free wifi, a brasserie upstairs, a snack bar on the ground floor, and the exhibitor catalogue handed out on arrival.

By car, Cognac is 30 minutes from Angoulême and 1 hour 30 minutes from Poitiers, Bordeaux and La Rochelle. Parking is free and guarded on presentation of a visitor, exhibitor or press badge, with 46 spaces reserved for people with disabilities. By train, you change at Angoulême TGV station; the organiser gives, for guidance, 2 hours 45 minutes from Paris, 1 hour 45 minutes from Poitiers and 1 hour 15 minutes from Bordeaux.

From Tuesday 7 to Thursday 9 December 2027, the show opens to visitors from 9am to 6pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 9am to 5pm on Thursday; exhibitors have access to the site from 8am to 7pm. Admission is free on presentation of a business card, an invitation or the electronic badge obtained after online registration. Visitor registration for 2027 was not yet open at the time of writing.

How much it costs to exhibit

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Book early: Atlanpack announced on 30 September 2026 the opening of 2027 bookings and highlights priority access to the chosen location for the first registrants.
• Prepare an entry for the SpiriPack Trophies with a recently commercialised innovation, documenting the eco-design, which is part of the jury's criteria.
• Offer a talk: the team discusses taking part in a conference or round table during the exchange that follows the registration request.
• Write the exhibitor profile in French and English: the website is bilingual and each profile exists in both languages.
• Anticipate regulatory questions: in 2025, the European PPWR regulation on packaging was the subject of two conferences. It is best to prepare your answers on the recyclability of the pieces on display.

For the decision-making visitor

• Use the directory by product category to plan a route: gift boxes, closures and glass account for a large share of the offering.
• Register online as soon as 2027 registration opens, or come with a business card.
• View the exhibitions of the SpiriPack Trophies (candidate innovations) and of the FreePack Spirit competition (shortlisted student projects).
• Plan the journey by train via Angoulême or by car, with free parking on site.

Policy & CSR initiatives

Packaging sustainability runs through the content of the show. Eco-design is among the criteria of the SpiriPack Trophies jury, and the 2025 awards honoured a decoration that preserves the bottle's recyclability and an ultralight paulownia wood gift box. The 2025 programme included a round table on the CSR and ESG commitment of industry players and two conferences on the European PPWR regulation.

This content must nevertheless be distinguished from an organisational commitment. The show's website has no CSR or sustainability section and publishes neither a carbon footprint nor ISO 20121 certification. Atlanpack does not publish a CSR policy specific to its events. It does, however, run a programme, Transition Matériaux d'Emballage (Packaging Materials Transition), part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Zero Plastic Pollution Plan, which supports companies in changing the materials of their packaging (information, networking, diagnosis); this scheme is aimed at companies that want to change their packaging and is not linked to VS Pack by the website.

The venue provides no documented guarantee: the Espace 3000 sheet published by the City of Cognac describes its facilities, without any environmental approach specific to the site.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

VS Pack remains loyal to the Espace 3000. Announced with 112 exhibitors in 2021 by the edition's press release, it counted 122 in 2023 according to the organiser's closing press release, which also mentions more than 4,000 participants, and reports more than 120 for 2025, with no closing results found for that edition. The figure of 3,000 visitors shown by the website, identical from one edition to the next (2021, 2023 and 2025) and equal to the per-edition average put forward by the organiser, reads as an order of magnitude rather than a headcount.

The show evolves mainly through its format. The 2025 edition organised the space into four themed villages, including a Training area where the Centre International des Spiritueux and the Campus des Spiritueux were present. The show's website now presents itself as the one for packaging innovation in wines and spirits, whereas the 2021 presentation added “and technological”, a term Atlanpack still uses on its own page. In parallel, Atlanpack presents VS Tech, dedicated to technological innovation, and the 2025 edition kept a Technologies village.

The content follows the industry's agenda. The 2025 programme made room for the economic context of cognac, European packaging regulation and artificial intelligence applied to marketing. For a premium packaging supplier, the appeal lies in the location: the show takes place at the heart of the spirits valley, in the town that gives its name to the cognac industry. The 2025 press kit reports 31% of exhibitors from Grand Cognac (base and edition not specified), a figure that relates to exhibitors and not to buyers.

The dates of the 2029 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data that does not mention its source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (vspack.com).