Eight Spanish packaging, among the world’s packaging elite

With eight awards, Spain is once again among the top ten countries with the most trophies at the WorldStar Awards 2024, the global packaging competition organised annually by the World Packaging Organisation (WPO). This competition has awarded a total of 214 entries from 38 countries, visualising innovation in the global packaging industry as a response to the needs of supply and consumer chains in areas such as sustainability, branding, user experience and food safety, among others.

A total of 435 entries from 41 countries participated in this year’s WorldStar Awards, which had previously won awards in national or continental competitions recognised by the WPO. In the case of Spain, these were the Liderpack Awards organised by the Graphispack Association and the Hispack show at Fira de Barcelona.

The country with the most WorldStar awards was Japan (28), followed by Germany (21), Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) -which were presented jointly- (16), the United States (12), Brazil and Austria (both with 11 each), China, India, and the Czech Republic together with Slovakia (10) and South Korea (9). The Spanish packaging, like last year, remains in eighth place in the ranking of distinctions. The top ten of the ranking is closed by Hungary (6), Lebanon and South Africa (5).

For the secretary general of Graphispack Association, Ignasi Cusí, “the good results that Spanish packaging usually achieves in this global competition confirm the high level of innovation of the packaging industry in Spain and the efforts of its companies to respond to the challenges posed by different production sectors closely linked to sustainability and the supply chain”. The director of Hispack, Xavier Pascual, underlined “the springboard that the Liderpack Awards represent for Spanish companies to access this global competition to show and see their commitment to innovation recognised internationally”.

Spanish winners
The winning Spanish solutions are mostly linked to the logistics and e-commerce categories, standing out for their resistance and sustainability and for the predominance of the use of cardboard as a material.

The company Smurfit Kappa was the big winner with three WorldStars for T9 E-Scooter Box, a reusable packaging for personal mobility vehicles focused on the e-commerce channel; TUPack, a case for the online sale of wine bottles; and AgroLife®, a 100% biodegradable, recyclable and food-safe paper that is integrated into cardboard boxes and trays for packaging and transporting fruit, delaying ripening and avoiding wastage.

Other winners were Copack for its customisable cardboard lid for the transport of paellas; DS Smith Tecnicarton for a lightweight, 100% cardboard packaging of large dimensions for vehicle chassis as an alternative to other metallic or wooden packaging; International Paper with Twin Pizza Box, a project to optimise the standard pizza box to transport two pizzas in the same packaging; and Climesa, with its flexible recyclable rPET Vacsac container made from 117 recycled plastic bottles.

In addition to these seven winning entries through the Liderpack Awards, Alzamora Carton Packaging’s “GERnétic Case”, a luxurious and sustainable three-dimensional spherical packaging solution made of cartonboard for the GERnétic beauty brand, was also a winner in the European Carton Excellence Awards organised by the European cartonboard manufacturers’ associations Pro Carton and ECMA.

The award ceremony will take place in Thailand on 15 June 2024 at the ProPak Asia trade fair. At the same ceremony, the winners in the special categories “Best Sustainable Packaging”, “Best Packaging to Avoid Food Waste”, “Best Marketing in Packaging” and the Jury President’s Award will be announced.

Barcelona, 12th January 2024

Further information and images about Spanish packaging awared here