Now in its fifth year, the 2007 Horners’ Bottlemaking Award has been awarded to  Ragasco AS for the BP Gas Light, the lightweight  composite gas cylinder.

Developed and manufactured by Ragasco in Norway and sold in the UK through  BP, this unique lightweight composite gas cylinder was a clear winner with the judges.  The innovative use of multiple materials to replace the traditional steel bottles was regarded a great achievement and it was agreed that this development extends the scope of blow moulding into a new area of application.   The pleasing design and enhanced user-friendly features such as reduced weight, easy to see gas level, non-corrosive and non-explosive all added to it being selected as the 2007 winner.

The bottle itself is made from filament-wound glass fibre GRP composite with a blow moulded HDPE inner liner designed to withhold the pressure of the gas it contains. The outer casing is a two part plastic moulding, making it 100% non-corrosive and weighing 50% less than steel bottles containing the same gas volume.  The easy grip handles combined with its reduced weight makes is more manageable for distributors, filling operators, deliverymen and users.  The manufacturer also state that when attacked by fire, it will react with a controlled burnout instead of an explosion, making is much safer to transport, distribute and use.

On winning  this award  Hans Henrik Larsen, Sales Director at Ragasco commented: “We at Ragasco AS are both proud and honoured to have received this award. We are at the same time sincerely delighted that a global and leading company like BP has recognized the unique qualities of our product, and consider the BP Gas Light to be the perfect choice of gas cylinders and ideal for their customers”. 

Craig Stoddart,  BP’s   Marketing Development Manager added: "We are delighted the BP Gas Light has won this award and it is great recognition of the close, strategic partnership we have with Ragasco. In BP Gas Light, we have brought unrivalled innovation to the gas bottle industry and we are able to exceed our customer’s expectations and give them the features and benefits they have been demanding for many years”.

The judging of the Award took place at the British Plastics Federation Offices in London and the judging panel consisted of the Master of the Worshipful Company of Horners, David Oxley; Court Assistants David Williams and Don Cooper, Graham Porcas of Proma Machinery, Mike Boswell of Plastribution, Sarah Plant from BPF and John Bunker formerly of Plysu and Blowmocan.

The Award will be presented by the Lord Mayor of London at the Worshipful Company of Horner’s Annual Banquet to be held at the Mansion House, London on 4^th October 2007.

‘The Worshipful Company of Horners’ absorbed the ‘Bottlemakers Company’ in 1467 – at that time bottles were made in leather.  After World War 2 many applications for natural horn such as cutlery handles, combs and brushes etc were being made from plastics. The Horners therefore decided to adopt the plastics industry. Since that time the use of plastics to make bottles has grown steadily into what is today a major UK manufacturing industry.

In recognition of the coming together of plastics and bottles, the Horners and Bottlemakers Company has initiated a new and exciting award, announced in 2002.

2007 Sponsors

2006 Winner

DR.FROHN, BP-MONTY and Werit UK

Now in its fourth year, the 2006 Horners’ Bottle making Award has been awarded to the DR. FROHN designed BP 20 litre ‘Monty’ plastic canister.

Developed by DR.ING.W.FROHN GMBH & CO KG in partnership with BP and manufactured by Werit UK Limited, based in Manchester, the Monty pack is a lightweight, stackable, plastic retail container which allows automated high speed filling with a unique patented “ECOVENT” anti-glug discharge feature now introduced throughout Europe by BP Castrol.

Moulded in HDPE and manufactured on a specially equipped blow moulding machine, the ingeniously designed Ecovent Discharge System vents through a channel running beneath and through the handle. This minimises potentially dangerous splashing of contents, drastically reduces emptying time, and improves pouring accuracy.

Significantly the ECOVENT Canister with its anti-glug discharge feature can be used for an extensive range of corrosive and hazardous liquids due to its robust yet light design which has achieved full UN Approval.

The Bottlemaking Award aims to highlight the achievements of bottle manufacturers who are traditionally out of the spotlight and DR. FROHN, in partnership with WERIT, has introduced the Ecovent System into the UK Industrial Packaging Market. WERIT UK Head of Operations John Duffy is confident that the UK market will be keen to take advantage of the safety and efficiency features offered by this innovation.

On winning the award Dr. Eric Frohn commented: “We at Frohn GmbH are very pleased that a major international company such as BP has recognised the opportunities offered by our product and are proud and honoured to receive this Horners Award”.   BP Castrol’s Mr. John Bates also added “I consider this to be a fantastic achievement and would like to take the opportunity to thank all concerned in the Monty Project for their help, support and advice”.

The judging of the Award took place at the British Plastics Federation Offices in London and the judging panel was made up of the Master of the Worshipful Company of Horners, Ray Anstis; Court Assistants Don Cooper, Alan Griffiths and David Williams former President of the BPF; Alison Vincent of AVA Packaging Consultant; Darren Round, General Manger of Husky Injection Moulding Systems; Karen Hately of the Society of Plastic Engineers and Andy Beevers, Publishing Director of Emap Maclaren.

The Award was presented at the Worshipful Company of Horner’s Annual Banquet held at the Mansion House, London in October 2006.

2005 Winner

RPC, Llantrisant produce a  'Smooth (ie)' Recycled bottle for Marks & Spencer's

Now in its third year, the 2005 Horners’ Bottlemakers Award has been awarded to RPC Containers Limited based in Llantrisant Wales, for their latest bottle design launched to the UK market.

The Award aims to highlight the achievements of bottle manufacturers who are traditionally out of the spotlight and RPC’s clear PET bottle, made by the injection stretch blow process, contains 30% PCR (Post Consumer Recycled), which is the first commercial application of such a high percentage of PCR-PET being used in a PET bottle for food use.

The clear bottles – in 250ml and 300ml sizes – are part of a six month trial, established by Marks & Spencer in conjunction with recycling specialist Closed Loop London, that involves the incorporation of around 1,500 tonnes of recycled PET (rPET) into the packaging of the Company’s ‘Food to Go’ range.  The RPC Llantrisant bottles are for fruit juices and smoothies.

As a major manufacturing company, the RPC Group has recognised its environmental responsibility locally, nationally and worldwide, covering the products the Company manufactures, the materials it uses, the way in which the products are produced and their environmental impact during distribution.  RPC has invested considerable time, effort, money and initiatives over many years to the benefit of the whole industry by helping to improve the image of the thin walled plastic bottle as ecologically acceptable.

On winning the award, Mr Bryan Glasper, General Manager of RPC Containers Llantrisant commented: “We are honoured to have received this award and consider it a tribute to RPC Llantrisant’s technical and production expertise but, equally important, it demonstrates the initiatives that the RPC Group continues to take to promote a more positive environmental profile for plastics packaging and enhance its perception among end consumers.”

The judging of the Award was held at the British Plastics Federation Offices in London and the judging panel was made up of Dr Brian Ridgewell, the Master of the Worshipful Company of Horners; David Oxley – Renter Warder; Don Cooper, Court Assistant and Alan Griffiths also Court Assistant, plus David Jago, Editorial Director of Mintel International Group; and Graham Porcas, Managing Director of Kautex UK Machinery Sales.

The Award will be presented by the Lord Mayor at the Worshipful Company of Horner’s Annual Banquet to be held at the Mansion House, London on 6^th October.

Awarding their ‘Bottlemaking Award’ for the second year the Horners Company decided that the dual chamber polypropylene bottle made by Alpla for Henkel, to package their Limelite toilet cleaner was the winning entry.