2010

It was no great surprise that, with all the economic turmoil that has been affecting markets recently, the number of entries we received this year was lower than in the previous two years. With less new products being launched and lower investment levels I am sure that fewer new developments have been done. However, it was very encouraging to see that whilst the number of entries may have reduced somewhat, the overall quality of the entries had not and once again the initial impact of seeing about 100 cartons on display for the Judges was truly gratifying. New ideas, new shapes, changes of use, better runnability on packaging machines – all these elements were on display and once again the Judges had some difficulty in selecting the winners from the impressive display.

I am once again indebted to the Judges for the hard work they put in to arrive at their decisions. This is no easy task as we ask them to look in detail at all cartons and also they are listening to advice from our carton packaging expert Peter Klein Sprokkelhorst to ensure that the benefits of all entries are fully understood and evaluated by the Judges. I therefore offer my sincere thanks on behalf of both Pro Carton and ECMA who jointly sponsor these awards, to Satkar Gidda the Chairman of the Judging panel, Pascal van Beek and Burgunde Uhlig for all their difficult judgements and also to Peter for his knowledge and advice to the Judges.

I also wish to thank all those companies who entered. This year we had entries from fifteen countries which is higher than in any previous award and, with the difficult markets in which carton manufacturers have been operating, I am grateful to all the companies who entered for taking the time and trouble to do so and for displaying such excellent entries.

Sadly the entry level in the pharmaceutical category was very low this year and with no entries that stood out against the judging criteria, the Judges felt that they could make no award this year.

Entry levels in all other categories met expectations and as you will see in the following pages, the winners demonstrate true innovation, flair and excellence. Many of the decisions made by the Judges were very closely run and it was only after much discussion that final agreement was reached.

Another most encouraging facet of this year’s awards was the number of entries that clearly demonstrated the sustainability characteristics of their entries. Many cartons had been designed specifically to replace other materials or to use less material so that the products can now be packed in a more sustainable way. This is a very welcome development that is gathering pace all the time and more and more packaging users and specifiers are seeing the benefits to their businesses of moving to carton packaging.

Again my thanks to all the companies who entered and my congratulations to all the winners.

Richard Dalgleish
Zurich September 2010