What impressed you to pursue a profession within the packaging business?
Thomas Bernad – I grew up in a small, family-run industrial enterprise that manufactured spray paints. From a really younger age, I used to be immersed on this world, particularly by commerce reveals, which gave me a really concrete understanding of the business. Packaging isn’t impartial — it straight shapes how a product is used.
Throughout my research and internships, I had entry to a laboratory and to specialists in formulation and packaging. That’s after I realised how intently chemistry, mechanics and consumer expertise are linked. However my biggest inspiration comes from my father. I’ve at all times admired his means to innovate by stepping off the overwhelmed path. Questioning established requirements turned second nature to me, and that mindset is what pushed me to rethink the spray can from the within out.
What has been your largest problem as a younger chief?
Thomas Bernad – The primary problem has been technical. Working with compressed air as a substitute of liquefied gasoline means coping with much less fixed strain and way more complicated atomisation. With paint, dispersion must be completely homogeneous to ship a clear, high-quality end.
We needed to rebuild the complete system: the geometry of the diffuser, the rheology of the paint, and the strain dynamics. Nothing could possibly be copied from conventional aerosols. I studied greater than 800 formulations to grasp how the fabric behaves and the way to management fluidisation on the nozzle.
On prime of that, there are enterprise and human challenges. Navigating between small, agile constructions and enormous industrial gamers demanding excessive volumes is complicated, particularly while you’re nonetheless refining the expertise. And in a sector the place decision-makers are sometimes extra skilled, my younger age can generally be perceived as a hurdle — which implies I’ve to show the idea by efficiency.
Should you might change one false impression about packaging, what wouldn’t it be?
Thomas Bernad – That packaging is passive. Within the aerosol world, it’s precisely the other. Packaging is the core of product efficiency.
The valve, inner strain, propellant, compatibility with the formulation and the spray sample all straight form the consumer expertise, from the standard of the end to the smoothness of software and total security. If you substitute fossil propellants with compressed air, you’ll be able to’t adapt an present mannequin. It’s important to reinvent the complete system.
This 12 months marks 25 years of Paris Packaging Week. What legacy would you want Future Leaders to go away?
Thomas Bernad – I imagine our era is able to addressing right this moment’s challenges (sustainability, creativity and the transformation of commercial fashions) however provided that we work alongside the senior specialists who constructed this business.
AI accelerates improvement cycles, however people stay central to which means, accountability and long-term imaginative and prescient. The legacy I hope we depart is one among collaboration, asking the best questions and constructing a future that is still viable.
What recommendation would you give to younger professionals getting into packaging?
Thomas Bernad – Packaging is an extremely broad subject. It’s important to method it with humility and curiosity. Understanding a sprig system means mastering formulation, laws, mechanics, market dynamics and business constraints. The extra world your understanding, the extra related and credible your options will probably be.
An iconic packaging design, in your view?
Thomas Bernad – For me, the spray can itself is iconic as a result of it has barely developed since World Warfare II: a can, a liquefied gasoline and a formulation.
What conjures up me is the thought of atomising paint with out fossil vitality. My purpose is to create a very sustainable different, not simply much less dangerous, however structurally higher, with a reusable and refillable system that breaks away from the disposable logic of conventional aerosols.
