Win new print and packaging accounts with buyers you called yourself

Every company that sells a physical product needs packaging, labels and print, and almost all of them already have suppliers. New business for a printer or packaging producer is about being the better option at the moment a buyer looks again: a new product, a rebrand, a supplier that misses a deadline, or new rules that force a change of material. In 2026 that last reason reaches across the whole EU.

The market: fewer printers, more pressure on packaging

The Belgian printing sector is consolidating. According to Febelgra, based on social security data, the graphic sector without newspaper printers counted 567 employers in 2024, against 614 in 2023 and 938 in 2014. Of these, 410 were printers, 134 prepress firms and 23 finishing firms, together employing 7,454 people. Federation figures count employers; Eurostat business statistics also count businesses without staff and find 4,113 enterprises in printing and related services in Belgium and 2,771 in the Netherlands in 2023. In the wider printing division, only 166 Belgian and 280 Dutch enterprises had 10 or more persons employed.

Packaging producers are fewer and larger. The same Eurostat series counts 100 Belgian and 171 Dutch enterprises making corrugated paper and paperboard packaging, and 108 Belgian and 153 Dutch enterprises making plastic packing goods in 2023. The volumes are large: Eurostat reports 166.7 kg of packaging waste per inhabitant in Belgium and 168.5 kg in the Netherlands in 2023, against 177.8 kg in the EU.

Rules are changing what buyers ask for. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation entered into force on 11 February 2025 and generally applies from 12 August 2026. It sets recyclability performance grades from 2030, and packaging must be recyclable at scale from 2035. This is general information, not legal advice. For a packaging supplier, that is a reason to call that is about the buyer's problem, not your machine park.

Decisions follow the product. A small brand owner picks a printer on quality, speed and price. Food producers and manufacturers involve purchasing, quality, marketing and sometimes the retailer, test materials on their own lines and switch suppliers only after a trial. Larger accounts run supplier reviews and framework agreements.

Who you call and what you ask

The people who decide on print and packaging:

• Purchasing manager or buyer: owns the supplier list, prices and contracts.
• Packaging engineer or packaging manager: chooses materials and tests them on the line.
• Product or brand manager: drives new products, rebrands and design changes.
• Marketing or communication manager: buys brochures, displays and promotional print.
• Owner: at smaller producers and brands, the one who decides.

Trigger events that make the call relevant: the EU packaging rules and a review of materials, a new product or product line, a rebrand, rising volumes or a new export market, a supplier with long lead times or quality problems, a retailer's demand, and a supplier review or framework agreement that ends.

Discovery questions that work in this sector:

1. Which packaging or print do you buy most, and in what volumes?
2. How are you preparing for the new EU packaging rules, and which materials are under review?
3. What went wrong with a supplier in the last year: lead time, quality, price?
4. Which new products or changes are planned for the coming year?
5. Who tests and approves a new material or supplier?

New rules are a chance to teach the buyer something they did not know: read the challenger sale in cold calling, and turn these questions into a cold calling script.

What slows a calling team down in this sector

• The incumbent supplier. Switching packaging means new tests, new artwork and risk on the line. Buyers do not switch for a small price difference.
• Price per unit. Quotes are compared per thousand pieces. A good conversation is about lead times, waste, recyclability and the cost of a missed delivery.
• Several decision makers. Purchasing, quality, marketing and production all have a say, and samples go back and forth.
• Long trials. From a first sample to a first order can take months. The follow-up has to be planned, or it is forgotten.
• Peak periods. Seasonal products and year-end campaigns keep buyers busy when you most want to talk.

What it can bring you: efficiency, money and more

For a printer or packaging producer, the measurable steps are the meeting and the sample. What you can track is how many calls lead to a conversation, how many conversations to a meeting or sample request, and how many of those to a first order.

Example with assumed numbers: one caller, one month, and an assumed value of 30,000 euros a year for one new print or packaging account. These are not benchmarks; replace them with your own figures.

Efficiency is something you can measure too. Time how long it takes today to note an outcome and plan the next step. If one key and an automatically planned follow-up save two minutes per attempt, 700 attempts save about 23 hours a month. Check that against your own week rather than taking it on trust.

The bigger gain is often in the follow-up. A buyer who asked for samples and heard nothing for three weeks is a buyer who stays with the old supplier. Read how to follow up sales leads, or try it yourself in the interactive demo.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Febelgra: First Impression June 2025, Sectorcijfers 2024 part 1 (RSZ data)
2. Eurostat: Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev.2 activity (sbs_ovw_act), NACE 18.1, 17.21 and 22.22, 2023
3. Eurostat: Enterprises by size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (sbs_sc_ovw), NACE 18, 2023
4. European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform: The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, when will it come into effect
5. Eurostat: Packaging waste by waste management operations (env_waspac), 2023