DUBLIN, Ireland (News release) -- Smurfit Kappa has won two Obal Roku awards in the 'Automotive & Transport' category for its customer-focused and innovative design solutions.

One of the winning designs was also honoured with a Silver Jury President Trophy - the Best of the Best in the annual Czech awards.

The Vinyl Box was complimented for being a smart way of using perforations. The design allows the box to be reclosed in the distribution centre after picking one vinyl for a specific order as well as being suitable for both manual and automatic packing process. The customer benefited from reductions in the amount of materials used and in the time needed to take one vinyl out of the box while preparing the order.

The second winning design called 'Left? Right? Who cares!' was a group packaging system for 12 different left and right automotive latches for the customer Kiekert. Thanks to clever and versatile shaped cut-outs, all 12 latches fit in without any damage during inserting or in transport. It's easy to assemble and easy to manipulate. The main benefit for the customer is that the time needed for assembling and filling the packaging was reduced by 87%.

Lucie Brklová, Logistic Manager at Kiekert-CS s. r. o. said: "This solution means huge savings for our company and also a big step forward in the packing process. In cooperation with Smurfit Kappa, we've been able to come up with an innovative solution in the very competitive automotive environment."

This packaging was also recognised as one of the best packaging solutions in this year's competition and awarded a Silver Jury President Trophy.

Georg D. Fischer, CEO of Corrugated Central Europe, Smurfit Kappa said: "As a leading supplier of packaging solutions we´re happy to bring not only innovations but also savings to our customers thanks to our brand new SupplySmart process. It's not only our customers but also the independent jury members who can see the benefits."

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