A wrapping machine has a transfer and accumulation device including an accumulator element on which a part of the sleeve is wound, and a mechanism for performing spreading of the open end of the sleeve after transfer to the covering station. According to the invention, a programmable control device determines the position and/or the inclination angle of the feed axis of the load by synchronizing the positioning control of the transfer device with position data of the load. This results in positioning of the transfer device according to the spatial position of the load to be packaged.