During its second board meeting of 2015, the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) completed the first stage of the judging process of the WorldStar Packaging Awards 2016. The judging was undertaken with the participation of 17 WPO members, plus one member of the international trade press. The countries represented in the judging process were Brazil, Austria, Australia, the United States, South Africa, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, India, Sri Lanka, (not judging) Kenya, Croatia, Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia, China, South Korea and Hungary.
The judging panel judged 276 packages, from 35 countries, which entered the competition prior to September 18, 2015.
“As some of our members conduct their own packaging competition later in the year, and as a result of the board meeting taking place earlier than normally, we decided to extend the closing date to October 30," Thomas Schneider, WPO president, said. "Entries received prior to this date will be judged by the same members, but in an online voting process.”
The entries were judged in the following categories:
- Beverage – 57 entries
- Electronic – 9 entries
- Food – 69 entries
- Health & Beauty – 38 entries
- Household – 12 entries
- Luxury – 14 entries
- Pharmaceutical & Medical – 14 entries
- Other – 21 entries
- Point of Sale – 14 entries
- Transit – 28 entries
All the winners will be announced at the beginning of December and the award ceremony is planned for May 2016 in Budapest, Hungary.
“It wouldn’t be fair to announce the winners of the first stage, not having judge all the entries," Schneider said. "In fact the competition is still in process, so each winner will receive an official notification, from WPO, in December.”