Twenty-six rigid box and folding carton converters from around the world shared in 147 awards bestowed recently by the National Paperbox Assn. in its 2001 Packaging Showcase Competition. The awards were presented during the group's 84th annual meeting held May 1-4 at the Amelia Island Plantation in Florida.

Two Best of Show winners include:

Rigid Box—The London Fancy Box Co., Ltd. (Dover, UK) for its "Hugo Boss Eau de Toilette and Body Lotion Gift Box" (Women's Cosmetics) for customer Procter & Gamble. Designed by Colin Duncan, the twin-lidded box uses a conventional fabric zipper combined with traditional paperboard box technology. The two zipper halves meet up with high precision. The extremely strong box presents a totally new look at the retail level.

Folding Carton—All Packaging Co. (Aurora, CO) for its "Premium Incense Sampler" (Household) for Japanese customer Shoyeido, Inc. The carton has an aqueous-coated accordion insert that permits the product to slide out easily. A special bottom closure prevents incense from coming out and avoids pinching, while the top closure provides access to all the different incense products. For its graphics/decoration, the Shoyeido box has two-color foil stamping and embossing with one-color printed on the inside of the top flap. An insert is flood-coated in black on both sides. Individual silkscreening differentiates the various incense types.

Twenty-two end-use classes of packaging were judged overall in this year's competition; 46 Gold Awards and 101 Excellence Awards were given.