SIG Combibloc wins the Gulfood Award Best Innovation Drink Packaging for its drinksplus technology; flexible sleeve system provides customers with ability to use standard filling machines for liquids containing up to 10% real fruit, vegetable pieces

Kendall Sinclair

NEUHAUSEN AM RHEINFALL, Switzerland , March 16, 2012 (press release) – SIG Combibloc Obeikan won the Gulfood Award for ‘Best Innovation – Drink Packaging’. The company received the award, which is highly coveted in the Middle East, for its innovative drinksplus technology. The drinksplus technology is a perfect example of SIG Combibloc’s commitment to offering customers all over the world system solutions that enable them to create a wide range of unique, innovative beverages with added value. In doing so, the company is responding to a growing market trend.

The Gulfood Awards, presented end of February as part of the ‘Gulfood’ trade fair in Dubai, are among the Middle East food and drink industry’s most highly regarded prizes. The international jury is made up of independent industry experts. A total of 120 entries from 30 countries were submitted and critically evaluated by the expert jury.

With its drinksplus technology, SIG Combibloc has introduced an innovation in aseptic carton filling technology that is truly one of a kind in the beverage sector. The flexible sleeve system by SIG Combibloc enables the company’s customers to aseptically fill drinksplus products containing up to ten per cent real pieces of fruit and vegetable, or a wide range of different cereal grains, into carton packs – and this can be done using the standard filling machines for liquid dairy products and non-carbonated soft drinks. The individual particulates in drinksplus products can be up to six millimetres in length and width. The originality and brilliance of the drinksplus technology lies, among other things, in its simplicity, says the jury: to create drinksplus products, the standard filling machines from SIG Combibloc can be retrofitted with an easy-to-install drinksplus kit.

Martin Schmedes, Director of Marketing & Business Development at SIG Combibloc Obeikan, who accepted the award on behalf of SIG Combibloc said: “It is a great honour for us to receive the popular Gulfood Award. This reaffirms the importance of drinksplus for the food and packaging industry. We were not aiming simply to develop an innovative product; our team was motivated first and foremost by the need to provide our customers with an aseptic filling and packaging system that offers a response to the current market trend, and guarantees a wider and more lucrative product portfolio – with small investment costs, in an attractive and profitable market environment. I would like to thank our project team and our customers who launched the drinksplus products recently”.

Gulfood is the largest and most important industry trade fair in the Middle East, and is a strategic platform that brings together decision makers from the global food, hospitality, processing and packaging industries.

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