Five award-winning packaging innovations powered by Stora Enso cartonboard

A sustainability-focused skincare subscription pack. An advent calendar that replaces traditional plastic components. A premium perfume carton designed to elevate the unboxing experience.

While these packaging concepts serve very different consumer needs, they have one thing in common: they were all created using Stora Enso cartonboard and recognised at the 2026 European Carton Excellence Awards (ECEA), one of Europe’s most prestigious competitions for cartonboard packaging.

The awards bring together brand owners, converters, designers and material suppliers from across Europe to celebrate packaging solutions that combine design excellence, functionality and innovation.

This year’s winning entries demonstrate how cartonboard continues to unlock new possibilities across beauty, confectionery, e-commerce, gifting and consumer goods.

Five winning solutions, five different success stories

• The Rituals Deluxe Advent Calendar 2025, developed by Van Genechten Packaging for Rituals, captured the Public Award, highlighting how premium seasonal packaging can create a memorable brand experience while showcasing the versatility of cartonboard.
  
  
• In the confectionery category, the Lindt & Sprüngli Felt Advent Calendar won the Confectionery / Chocolate Award. Developed by Van Genechten Packaging, the solution combines sophisticated finishing techniques with a folding carton design that replaces a traditional plastic inlay, demonstrating how premium design and material efficiency can go hand in hand.
  
  
• For the beauty segment, PHEYM - Eau de Parfum was recognised as the winner in the Beauty & Cosmetics category. Produced by MM Packaging GmbH for Galmeo, the packaging features a sophisticated drawer-style structure enhanced with premium finishes, embossing and tactile details that create an elevated unboxing experience.
  
  
• In direct-to-consumer skincare, the Skin + Me Pillow Carton Pack for DTC Subscription secured the Sustainability Award. Developed by Offset Print & Packaging Limited, part of the Alzamora Group, the distinctive pillow-shaped design combines protection, presentation and postal efficiency while eliminating the need for unnecessary packaging components.
  
  
• Completing the winning line-up, Prebena - PF received the award in the General Packaging & FMCG Packaging category. Developed by Lucaprint Spa for PREBENA, the solution demonstrates how cartonboard can deliver both functionality and shelf appeal for everyday consumer products.
  
  

Together, these five award-winning packaging concepts showcase the versatility of cartonboard and the broad range of possibilities it offers across different market segments. From luxury beauty applications and seasonal gifting to e-commerce and FMCG packaging, they highlight how innovation, functionality and strong design can come together in a single material solution.

Why this matters

The European Carton Excellence Awards showcase some of the most innovative cartonboard packaging concepts in Europe. For Stora Enso, seeing customers and partners recognised across multiple award categories demonstrates how material expertise can help create packaging solutions that stand out in increasingly competitive markets.

The diversity of this year’s winning projects is particularly noteworthy. They range from premium beauty and gifting experiences to subscription packaging and everyday consumer goods, illustrating how cartonboard can support a wide variety of design ambitions, technical requirements and consumer expectations.

Just as importantly, these achievements highlight the close collaboration between brand owners, designers, converters and material suppliers that is required to bring innovative packaging concepts to life.

Whether the goal is to create a memorable consumer experience, simplify packaging structures, improve functionality or advance sustainability ambitions, these five award-winning projects demonstrate how cartonboard continues to drive innovation across the packaging value chain.

“All the winning packages tell an important story about where our industry is heading. They show how quickly cartonboard packaging is responding to changing expectations from consumers, brands, retailers and regulators, from demands for circularity and resource efficiency to the need for packaging that performs beautifully, protects products and supports more sustainable choices.”

Andreas Birmoser, Head of Business Area Cartonboard, Stora Enso and President of Pro Carton

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Stora Enso: The renewable materials company

Stora Enso is a global leader in renewable materials with a strong focus on packaging. Our purpose is to replace non-renewable materials with renewable solutions. Together with our customers, we design and deliver competitive, high-quality packaging materials and solutions, made from fresh and recycled fibers, accelerating the transition to a circular bioeconomy.