Alzamora Group, a company specialising in the development and manufacture of cartonboard packaging, has received three new accolades at the European Carton Excellence Awards 2026, organised by Pro Carton and the European Carton Makers Association (ECMA). The annual awards recognise outstanding achievements across the European carton and cartonboard packaging industry.
The awards were presented in Rome on 17 September, as part of the 30th edition of the competition. Alzamora Group was recognised across three different categories: innovation, sustainability and beverage packaging.
The Innovation Award was presented to KidGuard, a solution developed and patented by Alzamora Group for products requiring protection against access by young children. Its first application was developed in collaboration with Proquimia for household detergent packaging.
The key advance behind KidGuard is that it is the first solution on the market to integrate a child-resistant system into packaging made from a single piece of cartonboard. Unlike other solutions that require multiple components or combine different materials, KidGuard incorporates the safety mechanism directly into the structure of the pack. Through a combination of folds, the design creates a sliding panel and a side-locking mechanism that require a specific sequence of movements to access the contents.
Made from CrownBoard Kraft by Billerud, KidGuard is a mono-material packaging solution, manufactured entirely from cartonboard, simplifying its material composition and facilitating recycling. It has also been designed for production and packing on automated industrial lines.
The effectiveness of its child-resistant system has been validated through testing carried out by AIJU, a technology institute specialising in product safety. The tests assessed the pack’s resistance to opening by children aged between 12 and 35 months. KidGuard successfully passed the tests, supporting the effectiveness of its opening and locking mechanism.
The Sustainability Award recognised the packaging developed in collaboration with Skin + Me, a British brand specialising in personalised skincare treatments. Working closely with the Skin + Me team, Alzamora Group developed a pack tailored to the requirements of its direct-to-consumer model: one capable of protecting and presenting the product while also being suitable for direct postal delivery.
Ferran Berga, UK Managing Director at Alzamora Group, who collected the award in Rome, said: “This award demonstrates that sustainability is also about how we design and optimise every pack. With Skin + Me, we created a cartonboard structure that protects and presents the product while also allowing it to be sent directly through the postal system.”
Made from Ensocoat 2S by Stora Enso, one of the main technical challenges was to minimise the overall thickness of the pack in order to meet the 25 mm limit applicable to certain UK postal formats, despite the product itself having a diameter of 23 mm.
This optimisation enables the pack to be sent directly to consumers through established postal channels while maintaining product protection and delivering a carefully considered unboxing experience.
The third accolade, the Beverage Award, went to the Tequila Buen Amigo Duo Pack, developed for Zamora Company. The brief was to create a promotional pack for two bottles of tequila that moved beyond the conventional box format and turned the presentation of the product into an experience.
One of the pack’s most distinctive features is its opening system. An outer sleeve holds the pack closed; once removed, the structure unfolds in an unexpected way to reveal the two bottles. This structural reveal creates a striking ‘wow’ moment when the pack is opened, making the unboxing itself an integral part of the product experience.
Made from FBB Bright folding by Metsä Board, the packaging features 360-degree printing inspired by the patterns and visual richness of Mexican culture. A combination of gloss and matt UV varnishes, metallic effects, embossing and debossing creates contrast, depth and a range of visual and tactile effects, reinforcing the product’s premium positioning.
The three award-winning projects address very different challenges – child safety, postal efficiency and product experience – yet share the same approach: using the structural possibilities of cartonboard to solve specific customer requirements.
Patricia Berga, Regional Sales Manager at Alzamora Group, said: “Receiving three awards in the same year, across such different categories, reflects the range of packaging challenges we work on. Every project starts with a specific customer requirement, and by bringing our teams together we are able to turn that requirement into a functional and innovative solution.”
With these three new accolades, Alzamora Group further strengthens its international track record in the development of cartonboard packaging solutions, reinforcing its commitment to structural innovation, sustainability and close collaboration with its customers. The latest achievements bring the total number of awards received by Alzamora Group in Pro Carton competitions to 16.