The Gold Pack Awards promote leading design innovation in the packaging industry, and offer development teams the opportunity to showcase their best packaging solutions. The awards are also about benchmarking the industry against global technological developments, as well as recognising outstanding design.
This year's judging panel included Bill Marshall, Annabé Pretorius, Ralph von Weh, Vanessa von Holdt, Andy Rice, Clive Glover, Gill Loubser, Gunner Sigge, Shabeer Jhetam, Susi Moore and Wendy Knowler.
Below are this year's Trophy and Gold medal winners. A full list of medal winners can be found here.
Entry: rPET Plastic Pallet
Entrant/Converter: Palletplast
Brand owner: Palletplast
Using up to 97% rPET, these pallets are sustainable, safe and fully recyclable – ideal for South Africa’s fruit exporters.
The patented design includes three PET straps, enabling the pallet to rack up to 1,200kg of fruit, a vital factor in a sector that exports more than four-million pallets annually from the Western Cape alone.
Designed to replace wooden pallets, these lightweight, cost-effective rPET pallets can be reused or granulated after use for recycling abroad.
Produced in a consistent and standard size, they’re ideal for container loading.
Winner: Tom McLaughlin
Tom McLaughlin was posthumously named as this year’s Packaging Achiever.
As Woolworths’ packaging manager, McLaughlin brought a particular brand of packaging professionalism and thought leadership to SA's packaging industry.
Particularly well known for his progressive views on environmental matters affecting packaging, he was often a lone voice as he hammered home his environmental messages at meetings, conferences and industry events throughout South Africa, at the same time shining brightly in his management role at Woolworths.
His avid lobbying bore fruit when Woolworths initiated its Good Business Journey, a corporate strategy with sustainability at its core, and McLaughlin was appointed the retailer’s specialist and spokesman. His work at Woolworths Foods was memorable as he pioneered numerous initiatives in respect of design with recyclability at its core.
Before joining Woolworths, McLaughlin had worked at DRG Sacks and then at DRG Flexibles. The latter plant at Ndabeni, Cape Town, was a hotbed of early flexible packaging research and development that spawned a generation of specialists.
Entry: Danone Yoghurt Tub
Entrant: Polyoak Packaging
Converter: Dairypack Tubs (Polyoak)
Brand owner: Danone
Entry: Spar 2-litre Pure-Pak Milk Carton
Entrant: Nampak Liquid Cartons
Converters: Nampak Liquid Cartons, Polymer Art
Brand owner: Spar Group
Entry: Vaseline Intensive Care
Entrants/Converters: Unilever SA, ALPLA SA, First Impression Labels
Brand owner: Unilever SA
Entry: Duram Paint Tin
Entrants/Converters: SA Steelpack Solutions, Packaging World, Repro Flex
Brand owner: Zest Polyurethane
Entry: rPET Plastic Pallet
Entrant/Converter: Palletplast
Brand owner: Palletplast
Entry: rPET pallet
Entrant/Converter: Palletplast
Brand owner: Palletplast
Entry: Eezi Pool Floatster
Entrant: Wormhill Investments
Converter: CarnaudMetalbox, Zimbabwe
Brand owner: Wormhill Investments
The Star of Africa category is designed to recognise and encourage excellence in packaging in African countries where no similar award programmes exist.
Entry: KungFu Energy Drink Cans
Entrant/Converter: Gayatri Beverage Cans
Brand owner: Bigtree Beverages, Zambia
The winner of the Star for Africa is commended for producing packaging in South African destined for use in another African country.
Judging for these categories is more focused on the technical issues and challenges particular to the substrate used for the packaging.
Entry: Duram Paint Tin
Entrants/Converters: SA Steelpack Solutions, Packaging World, Repro Flex
Brand owner: Zest Polyurethane
Entry: Spar 2-litre Pure-Pak Milk Carton
Entrant: Nampak Liquid Cartons
Converters: Nampak Liquid Cartons, Polymer Art
Brand owner: Spar Group
Entry: Vaseline Intensive Care Range
Entrants/Converters: Unilever SA, Alpla SA, First Impression Labels
Brand owner: Unilever SA
