Plastipak Packaging Europe's winning entries in the Worldstar Awards 2016

GSK’s Sensodyne mouthwash dosing cap and bottle

The World Packaging Organisation has announced winners of the WorldStar Awards 2016, with UK companies leading the way by taking 15 awards, followed by the USA and China taking 14 each.

The design of a new bottle and dosing cap for Sensodyne mouthwash won an award in the health and beauty category for brand owner GSK and its design partners DCA and Interbrand.

UK-based DCA said its structural packaging design for Sensodyne mouthwash helps improves impact on store shelves through its distinctive “racetrack” bottle shape that conveys the brand values of expertise, understated confidence and trust.

Equally distinctive is a new co-moulded cap which allows easier and more accurate dosing through an ‘easy to see’ measure feature. DCA said it used an inclusive approach to its design so the cap is easier to use for everyone, whilst incorporating child resistance in its design.

The new bottle replaces a shrink-sleeve on the previous pack with labels, which reduces the amount of material used, and helps to emphasise the concave racetrack shape of the bottle whilst emphasising the product colour.

Plastipak Packaging Europe, headquartered in the UK, won five WorldStar Awards in different categories. The awards were for: E-LiquiPack for e-liquid used to refill electronic cigarettes; SprayPET Reveal, the world's first transparent bag-on-valve aerosol system; Nordictan self-tanning lotion, commercialised product packaged in a SprayPET aerosol; ThermaLite PET jars that are designed to replace glass jars; ThermaLite Helios, used for a burger relish/sauce by Helios.

Kinza Sutton, marketing manager of Plastipak Packaging Europe, said: “We are absolutely delighted and honoured to have achieved such accolades during the second half of the year. Gaining international recognition at this level is indicative of Plastipak’s determination to constantly innovate and create solutions for our customers.”

Another UK company, Holfeld Plastics, won a WorldStar Award for Hydrozorb H-PET, a substitute for expanded polystyrene which is a blended combination of recycled PET with organic and inorganic fillers.

Greiner Packaging won a WorldStar Award for the inert barrier technology (IBT) it has developed to extend the shelf life of rigid packaging using a silicon dioxide barrier layer. It gained a second award for another barrier pack: a K3 cardboard-plastic cup with a resealable IML lid, used by Hungarian company, Sága Foods for Frankfurter sausages.

“We are very happy that our efforts in further developments in the packaging industry are being appreciated. The awards show that we are on the right path and they motivate us to advance our developments even further,” said Tobias Strasser, manager of Greiner Packaging in Diepoldsau, Switzerland, where the Austria-headquartered group has established a centre of competence to further develop the barrier sector.