Europe Packaging Automation Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends And Forecast (2026 - 2031)

Europe Packaging Automation Market Trends and Insights

Pressure to Reduce Operating Costs

Packaging plants across Europe face sustained wage inflation and energy bills that remain well above 2022 levels, making automation the clearest path to offsetting operating pressure. ABB documented a 25% productivity gain at Striebel & John after deploying a multi-robot packaging island that also trimmed cardboard SKU counts from 15 to 9.^{[1]ABB, “Electrical Cabinets Packaged Quickly and Flexibly Thanks to ABB Robots,” abb.com} Similar gains underpin Krones’ 10.1% 2024 EBITDA margin, despite persistently high polymer prices, signalling that early adopters are widening their cost gap over late movers.

Shrinking Skilled-Labour Pool

Manufacturing employment in the EU fell 2.1% in 2024, with packaging-line technicians among the hardest roles to fill. Bosch Rexroth’s battery-powered mobile cobot station lets one operator oversee tasks that previously needed a three-person team, freeing scarce labour for higher-value work.^{[2]Bosch Rexroth, “Mobile Cobot Station,” boschrexroth.com} ABB’s OmniVance plug-and-play cells further lower the expertise barrier by shipping pre-configured and self-calibrating, enabling SMEs to deploy robots without in-house programmers.

EU Packaging-Waste and Traceability Mandates

The PPWR obliges producers to use fully recyclable packaging by 2030 and meet material-specific recycled-content thresholds. Compliance accelerates demand for high-precision sorting, vision inspection and digital coding capable of tracking every pack to its post-consumer destination.^{[3]European Parliament, “Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation Texts Adopted,” europarl.europa.eu} In pharmaceuticals, the Falsified Medicines Directive pushes adoption of automated serialization and aggregation suites such as Systech’s semi-automated solution, showcased at Pharmapack 2025.

Mass-Customisation and Shorter SKUs

SKU counts at many European consumer-goods plants have risen by roughly 15% year-on-year since 2023, forcing machinery to execute ultra-fast, tool-less changeovers. Beckhoff’s linear transport modules and B&R’s batch-of-one conveyor technology enable discrete pack handling without halting the line, protecting throughput even as variants proliferate.

High Up-Front Capex

Turn-key robotic lines can demand EUR 5-10 million, a figure that still deters many mid-sized converters even after grants and tax incentives. Vendors are responding with subscription models that shift spend from capital budgets to OPEX, though long payback windows remain a hurdle for family-owned firms.^{[4]Infosys Limited, “Modular Plant Automation for Smart Manufacturing,” infosys.com} 

Cyber-Security Vulnerabilities

The NIS2 directive classifies most packaging plants as “essential entities,” compelling adherence to stringent security protocols and incident-reporting rules. Integrators now embed network segmentation, real-time anomaly detection, and managed patching into new projects, adding cost and design complexity.

Segment Analysis

By Business Type: Manufacturers Extend Scale Advantage

Manufacturers captured 41.5% of Europe packaging automation market share in 2025 by tying automation spend to overall plant-wide efficiency programs. Their scale supports multi-line roll-outs that amortize software and maintenance across higher volumes. Wholesale distributors primarily adopt automation for palletizing and cross-docking, whereas omni-channel retailers integrate goods-to-person systems with automated bagging to accelerate fulfillment cycles. B2C e-commerce operators, buoyed by EUR 887 billion in regional online sales during 2024, will log an 8.7% CAGR to 2031, the fastest within the segment hierarchy. Investments gravitate toward smart sortation, auto-bagging, and dimensioning modules capable of processing thousands of individualized parcels per hour. Personal document shippers and contract packers remain a niche market but show steady uptake in track-and-trace capable printers and tamper-evident sealers.

A growing share of original manufacturers is revisiting make-versus-buy decisions, outsourcing secondary or tertiary packaging to co-packers yet retaining ownership of core filling and closing operations. That shift widens the addressable base for modular solutions that can be redeployed as order books fluctuate, ensuring vendors maintain recurring revenue from retrofits and line extensions.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User Vertical: Food Dominate as Pharma Ramps Up

Food accounted for 32.18% of market share in the Europe packaging automation market, anchored by continuous-motion fillers, rotary cappers, and wrap-around case packers optimized for high-volume SKUs. Coca-Cola’s 2025 upgrades in Genshagen and Lüneburg feature 60,000-container-per-hour glass lines, underscoring the ongoing appetite for high-speed systems. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical sector, driven by serialization and the demand for personalized medicines, is expected to expand at an 8.3% CAGR through 2031. Automated aggregation, inspection, and cold-chain compliant palletizing are top investment areas, with Systech and ABB piloting multi-camera vision suites that certify every bundle before release.

Cosmetics and personal care brands are adopting flexible cartoners and print-on-demand sleeve applicators to strike a balance between premium aesthetics and the increasing number of SKUs. Household chemical and detergent makers focus on leak-proof dosing and space-saving secondary packs to navigate tightening transportation emission rules. Confectionery and bakery outfits deploy gentle-handling delta robots and ultrasonic bag sealers to preserve fragile products at speed, while 3PL providers scale up automated mailers and label applicators for omnichannel clients.

By Packaging Stage: End-of-Line Gains Momentum

Primary operations retained a 38.9% share in 2025, thanks to entrenched demand for fillers, seamers, and vacuum sealers that protect product integrity at source. However, end-of-line solutions are outpacing all other stages at a 7.1% CAGR as plants chase labour elimination in palletizing, stretch-wrapping, and intralogistics. The Europe packaging automation market size for robotic palletizers alone is rising swiftly, supported by systems like AWL’s vision-guided unit capable of 800 parcels per hour. Secondary packaging maintains relevance through wrap-around and tray packers that consolidate retail-ready bundles, while tertiary and warehouse automation integrate AGVs with WMS platforms to optimize dock-to-dock cycle times.

Manufacturers increasingly specify holistic layouts where primary, secondary, and end-of-line assets share harmonized controls, enabling single-pane-of-glass monitoring and predictive maintenance. That architectural shift rewards suppliers capable of plug-and-produce interoperability via open protocols such as OPC UA PackML.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Product Type: Filling Steady, Palletizing Surging

Filling machines account for 27.8% of Europe packaging automation market size, underpinned by sustained beverage and viscous-food throughput requirements. Servo-driven volumetric fillers and aseptic bloc systems remain core CAPEX items owing to their direct link with revenue capacity. Label-and-code equipment enjoys consistent pull from regulatory batch marking and sustainability logos, whereas form-fill-seal platforms cater to flexible pouches, gaining ground in snacks and nutraceuticals.

Palletizing and depalletizing units post the sharpest expansion at 7.9% CAGR. Vision-equipped cobots now handle mixed-height packs without custom grippers, reducing changeover time and floor space. Case packers are evolving toward delta-robot top-load architectures that manage multiple SKU patterns on a single frame. Bagging, capping, and stretch-wrapping hold incremental gains, while inline inspection and X-ray systems see heightened demand as producers tie food-safety KPIs to brand equity.

Geography Analysis

Germany led the European packaging automation market with a 37.0% revenue share in 2025, driven by its established machinery ecosystem and its status as an exporter. Flagship projects such as Krombacher’s EUR 100 million brewery modernization, which integrates advanced pattern formation and material-flow software, illustrate continued domestic reinvestment even amid a subdued macro backdrop. Germany also benefits from clustering effects around Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, where engineering talent, component suppliers, and university research and development form dense networks that accelerate product cycles.

France is the fastest-growing national market, projected to grow at an 8.2% CAGR through 2031. Rapid adoption reflects the country’s aggressive stance on waste reduction, including plastic taxes and extended producer responsibility schemes that spur investment in traceable, recyclable packaging systems. Food manufacturers are expanding the use of cobots for palletizing, while pharmaceutical clusters in Lyon and Île-de-France are deploying next-generation inspection tunnels to meet export market compliance.

The United Kingdom remains a key adopter despite navigating post-Brexit customs complexity. Demand centers on serialized pharma packs, spirit bottling and specialty-chem drums. Italy leverages long-standing expertise in boutique machinery for luxury foods, wines and cosmetics, prompting above-average penetration of servo-driven cartoners and flow-wrappers. Spain emphasizes energy-efficient retrofits, increasingly coupling variable-speed drives with gas-phase sterilization to reconcile productivity with carbon caps.