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The company developed a brand new 189 ml bottle that is tactile and easy for children to use.

Only six weeks after the initial customer discussions, Nampak had finalised its bottle design. Taking the specific needs of children into consideration, Nampak ensured the bottle was lightweight enough for children to hold, and that it fitted neatly into children's hands to avoid spillages.

Nampak says its objectives in the project were to: develop a 100% recyclable child-friendly bottle; break into the school milk market, where it had not previously had a presence; and increase awareness of the recyclability and sustainability of HDPE milk bottles among school children and their teachers.

Helping with the last objective, Nampak jointly produced a leaflet for schoolchildren called Plastic Fantastic Milk Bottles. In this, a cow called Luci explained how to recycle the milk bottles and the new bottle is good for the environment.

The success of the bottle in South Wales schools has given Nampak confidence about its use elsewhere and, having talked with other customers, it is predicting multi-million unit sales.

Nampak has been highly proactive in promoting the sustainability of plastics bottles. It has a dedicated website, www.bottle2bottle.com, to communicate the benefits of plastic bottle recycling to adults and the young.

It was a leading participant, along with Dairy Crest, Marks & Spencer, Nextek and Wrap in a project to develop closed loop recycling of PET and HDPE bottles in the UK. Following trials, Nampak committed a multi-million pound investment to the manufacture of milk bottles from recycled HDPE.

Its work has earned Nampak widespread recognition, with an earlier Plastics Industry Award supplemented by accolades from Starpack, the Worldstar Sustainability Awards and others.

Finalists

MAST Carbon Automotive (Highly Commended)

Starting up only six years ago, MAST Carbon Automotive, based in Gosport, Hampshire, is a developer of technology to control and reduce evaporative fuel emissions from petrol vehicles. Working exclusively with Kautex Textron, a purge heater was developed which was then integrated into a carbon canister made from a grade of DSM's Stanyl polyamide 46. The initial purge heater development was supported by a government Smart award. Four patents surround development of the technology. MAST Carbon Automotive said the business plan for the product projects turnover of more than €100m in the next ten years.

Cobra Technical Mouldings

After narrowly averting bankruptcy in 2005 when its major customer MG Rover collapsed, Cobra realised it needed to diversify, not just in its products, but also geographically. New automotive business needed to be found overseas. From a starting position of zero exports, Cobra rapidly built its overseas client list so that 90% of its turnover is now in export sales. In recognition, Cobra won a UK Trade and Investment Business Development Award for exporting in 2008, beating strong competition from other companies throughout the West Midlands.

Nifco UK

After undertaking a comprehensive turnaround of its manufacturing operations, the automotive supplier turned to how its six-strong sales team operated, with a view to improving and supporting its activities. Key objectives also included new business generation and profit. A sales strategy was drawn up for 2008-09 which was implemented with greater support and training for sales people. Among the successful outcomes, Nifco UK says it has had increases in the number of enquiries and the number of sales visits. The latter activities directly impacted on increased sales nominations from customers, said Nifco.

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