The European Packaging Supplier Forum 2026, hosted by tms in Amsterdam, highlighted how collaboration across the packaging supply chain is becoming essential to delivering consistent customer experiences at scale. Bringing together packaging suppliers and McDonald’s partners from across Europe, the two-day event focused on strategic alignment, operational excellence, sustainability and future innovation.

Held under the theme “Powering the Customer Experience, Together,” the forum created a space for suppliers, brand stakeholders and supply chain partners to discuss how packaging performance affects the everyday consumer experience. For a business with a large and complex foodservice network, packaging is not only a functional necessity. It is a visible part of service quality, brand consistency and operational reliability.

The event reflects a broader trend in foodservice packaging: major brands are increasingly looking beyond individual pack formats and focusing on the full ecosystem that brings packaging from design to sourcing, production, logistics, restaurant operations and customer use. In this context, supplier forums can help align expectations, reduce friction and accelerate shared priorities.

Packaging innovation in foodservice depends on strong supplier relationships, clear performance requirements and collaboration across the entire value chain.

tms acted as organiser and facilitator of the forum, bringing together leaders from different parts of the supply chain. Through presentations, workshops and networking sessions, participants explored opportunities to improve packaging systems, strengthen partnerships and identify new ideas that can support future customer needs.

Sustainability was a key part of the discussion. Foodservice packaging continues to face pressure from regulation, consumer expectations and corporate commitments to reduce waste, improve recyclability and increase the use of responsible materials. For large restaurant networks, any packaging change must balance environmental goals with food safety, product protection, cost, operational simplicity and availability across multiple markets.

• Supplier alignment helps ensure consistent packaging quality across regions.
• Operational excellence supports speed, reliability and restaurant execution.
• Sustainability priorities require scalable solutions that work in real service environments.
• Innovation workshops can turn shared challenges into practical development opportunities.

The forum also underlined the importance of packaging as part of the customer journey. In quick-service restaurants, packaging must protect food, maintain temperature, support portability, enable clear branding and function efficiently for staff during high-volume service. A small weakness in structure, material choice or usability can create operational issues across thousands of transactions.

Supplier collaboration is especially important in Europe, where packaging requirements vary across markets and regulatory expectations continue to evolve. Brands and packaging partners must navigate different recycling systems, national rules, material availability and consumer behaviours. Events that bring stakeholders together can help create more coordinated responses to these challenges.

The Supplier Recognition Awards dinner added another important dimension to the event by celebrating partners whose contributions support performance and progress across the system. Recognition can play a practical role in supplier engagement, highlighting the behaviours and solutions that contribute most to reliability, innovation and long-term improvement.

For packaging suppliers, forums of this type provide insight into the priorities of major foodservice customers. Rather than developing solutions in isolation, suppliers can better understand the operational realities behind packaging briefs: speed of service, storage constraints, transport efficiency, food quality, sustainability targets and customer perception.

The European Packaging Supplier Forum 2026 shows that packaging progress is increasingly built through partnership rather than standalone innovation. Materials, design, procurement, logistics and restaurant operations all need to work together for a packaging solution to succeed at scale. By convening suppliers and stakeholders in one place, tms and McDonald’s partners demonstrated how shared dialogue can support stronger packaging systems and a better customer experience.