THOUSANDS of visitors enjoyed a ‘blockbuster’ final day of London Packaging Week 2026, which included the annual Innovation Awards ceremony.
Prada, Jack Daniel’s x McLaren, Heinz, Hotel Chocolat, Fortnum & Mason, Refy, and HairGym were among the brands honoured at the ceremony, while Marks & Spencer was named Packaging Team of the Year.
Hunter Luxury won the Luxury Drinks award for the second consecutive year for its work on the Jack Daniel’s x McLaren HALO MK1 project. Paul Hamilton, head of sales & marketing, said, “Winning this award again is incredibly special, particularly because Halo MK1 represents exactly the kind of challenge we want to take on at Hunter Luxury. The standard has only risen since last year, so our consecutive wins demonstrate what becomes possible when a brilliant creative idea is supported by the engineering and manufacturing expertise needed to make it happen.”
Casey McHugh, senior content manager at event organiser Easyfairs, commented, “What makes this year’s results so exciting is the sheer breadth of what innovation now means in packaging. Extraordinary pieces of luxury engineering sit alongside intelligent changes to everyday products, interactive experiences, new material approaches, and solutions designed to reduce environmental impact. The common thread is purpose. The strongest projects combine creativity with a clear understanding of the consumer, the challenge being solved and the value the packaging needs to create.”
Other innovations on show included the Cool>Can from deltaH Innovations, which took home first prize in the Innovation Gallery. The can features button-activated self-cooling technology, which has been commercialised by Brains Brewery.
Earlier, the second day started with the Power Hour session, which provided insights from women in the packaging industry. One of the speakers was Sophie Christie, supplier enablement lead at Tesco, who discussed her role in implementing GS1-compliant QR codes.
Later in the day, Jane Martin, head of communications and engagement at PackUK, and Karen Graley, COO at UK Packaging PRO, hosted a talk on EPR. Karen said she wanted to create a sense of certainty around the future of EPR, commenting, “Everyone has a role to play, not just producers, but waste management companies, local authorities, and material recovery facilities. There’s no one stakeholder that can deliver the whole system. One of the things producer responsibility can do is bring all of that together, share those industry insights, expertise, and knowledge that’s been gained over decades. Policy is one thing, but with the producer voice and expertise, we need to translate that into something tangible, meaningful and capable of creating the change that we all need.”
Creative designer Vincent Villeger delivered a presentation on packaging as a four-dimensional discipline, while Yoshi Nagamine, founder and CEO of ZEROBOX, offered a glimpse into the thinking behind his reusable modular logistics solution.
Organisers said early attendance data indicated that the show was the ‘best-attended yet’.
