Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services, shared the top trends he saw at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2025, from balancing machine serviceability and performance to innovations in screws. Watch this video to learn what piqued his interest.
Casey Flanagan: Hi. I'm Casey Flanagan, associate editor with ProFood World. I'm here with Jamie Valenti-Jordan. He's the CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services. And Jamie, so you're here at PACK EXPO, it's Tuesday, so what have you seen so far on the show floor? Any big trends that you've seen?
Jamie Valenti-Jordan: I've seen a lot, actually, in looking at sustainable solutions for packaging materials, something far beyond what we've seen in the traditional setting. Something that's much more approachable from a performance perspective as well as, both protection of the product as well as its biodegradability or its ability to be managed within our existing supply chain. So I've been really impressed with a lot of the groups that have put new things out there this year.
At the same time, on the mechanical side of things, I've seen a lot of folks balancing that decision point between the mechanical-driven and the supply-driven, and a lot of incorporation and smart choice around how they're going to choose to operate their machines to execute on, you know, what they're here to deliver on. So, I think there's not so much a pendulum swing as much as that re-incorporation of both strategies to make something that's both serviceable as well as performance driven.
Casey Flanagan: Interesting. All right, that's great. And were there any particular standout pieces of technology that you ran into while you were out there?
Jamie Valenti-Jordan: Oh, let's see here. You know, I'm always amazed at what they keep developing around the use of screws. I think, honestly, they've been around for so long, and there's still new things that they're doing every year. They keep coming up. And I think this year, they really put that on on display this year. There were a couple of companies, Morrison [Container Handling Solutions] kind of jumped right off the field with their ability to not only do their traditional kind of separation and material handling and things like that, but also integrating that into actual filing operations and downstream operations as well.
So it's it's been really interesting to see how they've been able to take what is effectively one of our earliest mechanical systems, a screw, and do so much with it.
Casey Flanagan: That's great, a ton of room for innovation in that space, that's really interesting. Great, I appreciate you sharing your insights. Thank you for your time.
Jamie Valenti-Jordan: Absolutely, thanks, Casey.
