Packaging “is the single biggest driver of sales increases in the world.” – Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola. Packaging includes the manufacture of paper and paper-board, containers of paper and paper-board (including cardboard boxes) and the manufacture of metal containers such as cans and tins. Packaging is the medium through which products are branded in order to be distinguished from other products. The quality of the packaging and the message it conveys are often more important than the quality of the product itself. Not only does the packaging industries represent a highly diversified and integrated set of value chains, but it is precisely the integration of aspects of these value chains with other industries which is core to the growth of those industries. While the industries themselves have internal labour and skills development dynamics, it is precisely the attempt to integrate them more effectively with other industries that is a linchpin of industrial development strategies across the world. Packaging in South Africa have not yet been the focus of the national industrial development strategy; but many aspects of the labour market and skills planning will need to be coordinated with those of other industries if the intrinsic industrial development potential is to be realized.