At an awards luncheon and exhibition of entries held at Stationers’ Hall last week, the packaging specialist won the Overall Innovator of the Year award as well as the Novel Manufacturing Technology category, for its Park 2 Nature range of compostable laminate structures designed to replace traditional plastic packaging.

Stationers’ Company Innovation Excellence Awards chairman Jonathan Drori said there were 43 entries overall this year – up from 32 in 2017 – of which 17 were shortlisted across the five categories.

“With a very strong field of entries, from small and large organisations and from every one of the Stationers’ Company’s sectors, the judging panel had a difficult yet enjoyable job,” said Drori.

“We were really pleased with both the number and quality of the entries and there were a lot of very good things among the highly commended entries, which is exciting for us.

“Having categories means that we’re not completely judging apples against oranges, but within those categories there was some quite good debate about which ones should win. It became pretty clear to us which of the entries would become highly commended but in some of the categories the winner was hotly contested.”

Drori added the judges were “very pleased” to see how seriously the industry is taking its effect on society and the environment.

“After considerable debate, the judges’ unanimous choice of Overall Innovator of the Year was Parkside Flexibles (UK & Asia). Its winning entry will doubtless have a positive impact on the environment,” he said.

“The judges were particularly impressed by both the eye-catching attractiveness of the product and the tenacity of the team, noting the long period of research culminating in Park 2 Nature.”

Parkside managing director Nick Smith said: “We are immensely proud of these achievements. These awards highlight the industry's acknowledgement of Parkside’s compostable products which keep environmental wellbeing front of mind.”

Sun Chemical won the Novel Product Design award for SunMotion, a low-cost digital display system that simulates motion, while DoubleMe won the Innovative Application of Digital Technologies award for LoopSpace, an application for the HoloLens mixed-reality headset.

Bloomsbury Publishing, meanwhile, won the Creative Means of Communicating with Target Audiences award for its Bloomsbury Publishing Platform, which enables rapid and cost-effective online publishing.

Finally, Zeshan Qureshi won the New Communication Programmes that Enhance Social, Educational and Community Development award for The Unofficial Guide to Medicine textbook series, a new model for crowd-sourced expert publications.