Blue Marlin Design's functional and informative pack for Cow & Gate Infant Milk took both the supreme gold and the Polimoon Award for Design In Rigid Plastic. The judges said of the gold-winning consumer section entry: "The branding is strong and reassures the customer, informative graphics communicate complex instructions in a simple way and, best of all, the pack delivers functionality".
Based on Cekacan technology from Sweden's A&R Carton, and conforming to the product's high barrier requirements, the pack is designed "to make milk preparation easier for consumers perhaps holding a screaming baby in one hand". Its special PP closure has a clip on the underside for storing the scoop and a leveller built into the lid for more accurate dosing, while the lid itself is "clickable" to keep the powder dry. Over 2,500 mothers in four different countries participated in pack testing to ensure an optimum result.
Field Packaging has traditionally figured highly in Starpack events, and this year proved no exception Its Bradford site won a consumer family gold and the Seven Award for best on-pack branding for an eye-catching range of Cadbury Easter Egg packs designed in the style of a Russian doll. The site won a second consumer family gold for a luxurious six-colour, UV-varnished gift carton featuring silver inks, produced for Jose Cuervo's Gran Centenario tequila products, also picking up the Pro Carton Award for the Best in creative cartonboard packaging – food for its "organic, earthy-looking" textured cartonboard Glenmorangie Artisan Cask.
Field East Kilbride won consumer gold for an elegant, gold foil blocked and embossed tapered carton for Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch whisky.
SCA Packaging's impressive haul of 20 awards included two golds, four silvers and numerous bronzes. Highlights included a display and collation gold for its Speciality Products Division for a free-standing, printed NE flute and PP Kit Kat promotional display pack specifically for Woolworth's, and a transit gold for a bulk pallet pack for DHL designed to protect temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical cargo like vaccines.
Also (joint) winners for a pharmaceutical pack, this time in the consumer category, were innovation design consultancy Future Technology UK and packaging solutions company MPH Fulfilment, winning Gold for their Medicines Manager pack designed for elderly and long-term care patients.
Comprising a reusable outer clam pack and disposable multi-compartment inner tray, the pack contains 50% less material than the previous design and offers tamper-evidence and a patented easy-open tab. Designed for Lloyds Chemist, it also won the RPC sponsored award for designer/design house of the year.
Consumer golds also went to Greencore Cakes & Desserts for its reusable oval silver tin with top window for Tesco's premium range Christmas cake, Rockware Glass, with two, for its Hellmann's two-part Warm Salad Dressings container and a curvy, hand-decorated Celtic-style bottle for Whyte & Mackay (which shared the award). Excelsior Technologies was rewarded for an eight-colour stand-up pouch for Sainsbury's Taste the Difference fresh vegetables and fruit mixes, and Glud & Marstrand for a new digital media packaging system manufacturable on existing fulfilment lines. Rexam Glass Barnsley (now Redfearn Glass) was another winner of two golds for its five-colour printed tapered Bacardi Breezer Twist bottle and striking redesigned white etched ice blue container for Bombay Sapphire gin.
Also awarded Starpack consumer/consumer family golds were DS Smith Cartons' colour-coded cartonboard Absolut Vodka packs, Taylowe Packaging (Boxstar's) unusual square-shaped tube for James Buchanan's 18-year-old Scotch whisky special reserve, Sleever International's easy-opening, micro-perforated sleeve for Hellmann's Warm Salad Dressings and Boxes Prestige's silver metpol laminated boxboard pack for Clive Christian perfume (which, retailing at up to £30,000 per bottle, is reputedly be the world's most expensive fragrance).
Jardin Corrugated Cases scooped a display and collation gold for a fully recyclable waterproof, PET lined dual-purpose flower transit/display pack, for Lingardin Flowers, while Smurfit Peterborough gained transit gold for an ingenious export packing module for 10 inkjet printers which has reduced product picking and packing times by 25%.
Pago had the distinction of winning the only machinery gold for its late stage customisation machinery. Developed with GSK, it is a new technology for pharma companies to produce language-specific packs in low volumes for markets with unpredictable demand.
Alongside the many gold, silver and bronze awards, the evening saw 10 sponsored awards presented, among them FPP Packaging Solutions' well thought out aluminium foil barbecue in the bag system for Marks & Spencer, which has an easy-peel polyester window that allows users to check on how well the food is cooking.
With environmental issues ever more to the fore, Burall's cleverly Easter egg carton for Kinnerton Groovy Chick Easter eggs, combining an attractive design with ample "kid appeal" with low material use, won the sponsored award from WRAP, the government-backed body which strives to improve the UK's recycling performance. The Pro Carton Award for best in creative cartonboard packaging – Non-Food went to Benson Box's portable seedling tray for Plug U Grow with its integral handle and convenient size.
Recognising outstanding performance from a business, rather than a pack, the Total Exhibition 2007 award for best business was won by Bristol-headquartered packaging machinery manufacturer Bradman Lake, which, following recent acquisitions, is now the UK's largest packing systems manufacturer.
