The main attraction of the evening was the AsiaStar Awards Presentation, the only regional packaging award in the world based on merit alone. Representatives from the 14 member countries of the Asian Packaging Federation (APF) had gathered on 27th November to judge the entries.

According to the APF President, “Winning an international competition brings prestige to every

An AsiaStar Consumer Package category winner: 'Rouge Unlimited' by Shu Uemura Cosmetics Inc

“An AsiaStar cannot be purchased for the price of an advertisement, or ‘donated’ by a supplier in recognition of the business you have, or might do with them,” he added. “Unlike many other so-called awards, AsiaStar is a recognition of true Packaging Excellence.”

More than 22 companies from five countries were recognized for their innovation and high-quality packaging products, with a total of 28 awards

Companies who took home more than one award were Siam Toppan Packaging Co Ltd from Thailand, Japan’s KOSE Corporation and C’Bon Co Ltd, SCA Packaging Singapore Pte Ltd and Dynapac Co Ltd from Singapore.

In the AsiaStar student category, 29 trophies were presented, with the Thai students sweeping up the lion’s share with 18 awards.

The AsiaStar awards were presented by the Guest of Honor, Hans Werner Reinhard, Executive Director - Messe Dusseldorf, as well as Gernot Ringling, Managing Director - Messe Dusseldorf Asia, Carl Olsmats, Secretary General – World Packaging Organisation, Geoff Giddens, Regional Packaging Manager – PepsiCo Int’l, Shafiullah Chowdhury, President – BCCAMEA, Lai De Alwis, President – Sri Lanka Packaging Institute, and Surasith Bunyabhisand, Deputy Director General – Department of Industry Promotion, Thailand.

Hans Werner Reinhard, Executive Director, Messe Dussldorf, presents an AsiaStar award

Singapore Star

As the host for the evening, the Packaging Council of Singapore (PCS), launched the evening with the SingStar Awards, the local award which recognizes innovative and creative designs with quality finished products and packaging.

Judging of the 74 entries had been held on 25th October, of which 25 commercial awards and 18 student awards were presented during the Gala Dinner.

In line with the environmental theme of the conference, a new SingStar award category – the Environmentally Sustainable Packaging Category – was unveiled and three awards presented to Hin Hin Management & Holdings Pte Ltd, LHT Holdings Ltd, and SCA Packaging Singapore Pte Ltd - companies who took the environment into consideration in their product packaging design.

The evening also saw a cake-cutting ceremony to commemorate APF’s 40th anniversary.

The AsiaStar and SingStar Awards Presentation Gala Dinner concluded a two-day conference organized by APF and PCS, and managed by PackwebAsia.com, where more than 150 top-level delegates from the Asian packaging industry and Europe gathered to discuss the conference theme topic ‘Packaging: Sustaining the Asian Environment’.

AsiaStar Award Criteria and Judging

Open only to winners of National packaging awards, AsiaStar rewards the ‘best of the best’ in Asia.

The AsiaStar 2007 Judging process is designed to guarantee maximum amount of fairness to all entries. Each APF member country has one vote, Six judging criterias are

Presidents of the member associations of APF celebrate 40 years of collaboration

The relevance of each judging criterion differs for consumer and transport packaging, e.g., graphic appeal is more important for consumer packaging.

Therefore credit points are multiplied by factors that account for that difference. The maximum score in both categories is 100 credits (4 credit points x 25 total multipliers).

After evaluation, judges will set a benchmark score based on average quality of all entries.  Packages having scored above this benchmark are awarded an AsiaStar.

For a complete list of AsiaStar and SingStar commercial and student award winners, click here.