Eco Flexibles is celebrating after making three category finals at the prestigious UK Packaging Awards 2023.
The company’s M&S Pulses project has been shortlisted for Innovation of the Year, while its Fusions packaging project with fruit and nut snack brand, Whitworths, has received finalist nominations in both the Best Packaging of a New Product and Flexible Plastic Pack of the Year categories.
Taking place on 12 October 2023, at the prestigious Grosvenor House in London, the UK Packaging Awards celebrate the brightest and best from across the UK’s packaging industry. At the event, Eco Flexibles will find out if its performance and innovation in sustainably oriented flexible packaging has scooped top honours in the three categories.
Resource-efficient innovation at its best: The M&S Pulses Project
Eco Flexibles’ M&S Pulses project is a shining example of substrate innovation in the flexible packaging sector. Partnering with Whitworths and other industry players, Eco Flexibles assisted retail giant Marks & Spencer to transition its beans, pulses, and cereals range from non-recyclable mixed plastic to paper-based packaging.
The result was a fully recyclable sustainable packaging solution that retained exceptional product quality.
Simon Buswell, Director of Eco Flexibles, expressed his enthusiasm for the project’s success, saying, “We are delighted to be recognised at the prestigious UK Packaging Awards 2023. We are on a mission to help businesses of every size embrace circularity in packaging and move away from mixed plastic designs that are stuck being linear in nature. As well as perfectly demonstrating our values, the M&S Pulses project encapsulates our core ethos, which is to make the complex simple. No matter the size or complexity of a given project, or however many moving parts or contributors there are, Eco Flexibles will deliver every single time.”
The resulting wood fibre-based packaging is made from responsibly managed resources, supplied by Mondi Functional Papers & Films, contributing to the preservation of forests and absorption of CO2e from the atmosphere. The collaboration resulted in a significant reduction of 1.8 million individual units of plastic.
Whitworths Fusions: a monopolymer masterclass
The Whitworths Fusions project, another feather in Eco Flexibles’ cap, showcases the power of simplicity in sustainable packaging.
With a dedicated team at the helm, Eco Flexibles developed a fully recyclable, high-barrier performance, polyolefin monopolymer pack for Whitworths’ new Fusions snack range. The vibrant, eye-catching design and its easy-open and re-close functions make it a natural choice to take home gold at the UK Packaging Awards.
Commenting on the success of the Whitworths Fusions project, Simon adds, “Collaborating with Whitworths on this packaging solution has been a fulfilling journey, showcasing what we can accomplish at Eco Flexibles. Our goal has always been to prove that sustainability doesn’t mean compromising on packaging quality and performance, and our Fusions project with Whitworths is a fantastic example.”
The packaging’s structural design, incorporating an inverted stabilo format with an extended fin seal, ensured maximum shelf impact. Additionally, the Fusions pack garnered accolades at Kantar’s Product of the Year Awards 2023.
Eco Flexibles’ achievements at the UK Packaging Awards 2023 underscore the company’s dedication to advancing circularity in flexible packaging design.
