Pakko nominated for AFR Boss Innovation award
Brisbane package printing outfit Pakko is on the shortlist for the 2021 Australian Financial Review (AFR) Boss Most Innovative Company Award.
Owner and managing director Nina Nguyen said, “I’m so excited I can't contain myself.” Nguyen has also just won the PIDA Young Packaging Professional of the Year for 2021.
Pakko was established in Queensland in 2017 by Nguyen, who began her foray into boxes six years prior, when she founded The Box Company in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley area.
In what it says is a first for Australian packaging, Pakko created the Interactive Design Process (IDP), a simple platform for creating and designing tailored, branded packaging on the Pakko website. This tech-savvy innovation allows customers to design online, brand their design, review a sample, receive an instant quote, and finally, place an order online. Within 10-12 days the order is ready.
The company says its long-term goals include simplifying the user experience in the development of custom packaging, reducing delivery times by 50 per cent, and continuing to excel in globally competitive manufacturing standards, pricing and sustainability.
Pakko prints on its boxes with a four-colour MTEX digital printer, a water-based single-pass system for digital printing of labels and corrugated boxes, manufactured in Portugal, and distributed here by Neil Southerington’s Graffica operation. The Pakko client list includes some impressive names, such as Telstra and Heineken.
Nguyen said, “The company was established with a vision to create an Australian packaging house that will compete with global standards at every level. Our mission is to bring creativity and colour into every package and make each experience meaningful. Packaging is powerful; it can add value, it can send a new message or enhance brand awareness. We develop and deliver packages that represents the character of every brand and every business we work with.”
Pakko operates from Brisbane, employing local people and sourcing all production materials from local paper merchants. Nguyen says, “We believe in supporting our community; when we work together, we all succeed.
“Traditionally, in Australia, business has sought packaging and manufacture from overseas – our team at Pakko is on a mission to show the world that Australian packaging and manufacture is more efficient, innovative and competitive than that of our global counterparts,” says Nguyen.
All the materials used to create Pakko packaging is sustainability sourced certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Food and Drug Administration.
The PIDA Young Packaging Professional of the Year accolade provides incentive and recognition to young professionals currently working in and seeking to pursue their career within the ANZ packaging industry.
MC for the PIDA 2021 event, publisher of media partners Food & Drink Business and PKN Packaging News, Lindy Hughson, said: "The AIP’s encouragement of young packaging professionals through this award is to be commended, as is their extensive industry education and training that they make available to these individuals to advance their careers."
Speaking on behalf of Nguyen, who was unable to attend the ceremony, Jo Di Loreto of Pakko said, "On behalf of Nina and the whole team at Pakko, we would love to thank everyone at AIP and PIDA for the award. I know Nina would absolutely be jumping up and down with this accolade. She's doing so much for young people in packaging and she is so passionate about it."