UK packaging designs have walked away with 17 WorldStars, the World Packaging Organisations’ annual excellence awards.
The judging, by the WPO Board Members, took place in October during the opening of the second African Packaging Exhibition and the winners were announced in late November.
UK Board Member, the Institute of Packaging’s John Webb-Jenkins, said: “As happens every year I was immensely proud of the standard of the UK entries and thrilled that we walked away with 17 awards, more than any other country.
“Each year the UK packaging industry’s excellence is demonstrated at the WorldStars, but the competition is getting tougher. The judges are becoming increasingly critical over what they consider to be packaging of world class and the advancements shown each year by the developing countries are outstanding.”
Andrew Woollard, sales & marketing director for Smurfit UK, commented: “Customers are placing greater demands on packaging, many of which require more complex design solutions.
“Smurfit has responded to this demand by actively promoting the value of design within our business and to our customers. We are now the leading corrugated company in the UK for packaging design and function, a position that is confirmed by our outstanding achievement at the World Star awards.”
This year a record 319 entries from 34 countries were received and 143 WorldStars were awarded. To be eligible all the entries had to have already been successful in their own National awards. All of the successful UK entries had been either Bronze, Silver or Gold Star winners at the IoP Starpack Awards.