The packaging winner came from category 3b (folding cartons four or more colours) and was the Heineken 15s World Cup carton entered by Amcor Cartons, Wellington. The carton was printed for DB Breweries Ltd and was designed by Appollo Marketing.
Packaging Category head judge Laurie Lark said that not only was the pack superbly printed, the structure of the packaging was extremely good and suited it to the demands of a bottling plant.
"From a printing standpoint, it is a very difficult board to print on. It is chemically-treated to prevent the board from suffering moisture damage, and those chemicals make it hard to get the black printed first, for example.
"The board is subject to different types of creasing in order to create the finished pack. Therefore it only has a very light coating because otherwise the coating would tend to crack. The printer is virtually printing on uncoated board.
"If you look at the base it looks like a piece of blotting paper. Unlike some entries printed on imported coated papers, this is really a superb pack."
Mr Lark said that in addition to the print quality, the pack also had to be well-designed to perform under the conditions of what is called a "packaging system".
"Packs such as this go through the packaging line at the brewery at very high speed. These packs have to be dragged down from a hopper and have to fold and make up very quickly. If they fail it is a major problem for the production line."
Mr Lark added that Amcor, like other NZ packaging companies, faces tough overseas competition and e paid tribute to their work — "They are a great company and have done a great job over the years."
The Heineken 15s World Cup carton was printed on Sherpa stock supplied by the Carter Holt Harvey Whakatane Mill, on a Mitsubishi Offset press, using inks supplied by the Flint Group.
