Delighting our customers
Our Purpose of Redefining Packaging for a Changing World encourages every one of us to look outside the company and forward. To understand the way the world is changing so that we can help our customers with their biggest challenges today and in the future.
Responding to our customer’s changing needs with high-quality, innovative products and exceptional service is what stands us ahead of the competition and secures our position as the leading sustainable packaging provider.
Whether it’s increasing their bottom line, partnering to achieve their sustainability agenda, innovating with them or minimising the risk to their business, this award celebrates colleagues who relentlessly focus on delivering for our customers.
David García & Iago Candal
Converting and Printing Manager & Regional Design and Innovation Manager
Iberia, Packaging South
David and Iago developed and patented a new two-step printing and laser reprinting process changes how coded information is applied to printed paper and cardboard surfaces. The traditional method uses adhesive labels, but customers have reported problems with operational efficiency and sustainability.
The new two-step printing and laser reprinting process significantly reduces waste through eliminating labels and inks, while also allowing for more precise coding beyond just barcodes and achieving an optimal quality for reading in coding reading centres. It optimises operations and reduces losses throughout the supply chain. This innovative process can be applied to different materials without compromising recyclability.
This patented innovation has been successfully tested with major customers like L'Oreal and Zalando, and it has generated formal requests from customers who participated in the prototyping tests.
Kutno BHS Team
Mariusz Bobrzak, Paweł Tecław, Bartłomiej Gołębiewski, Tomasz Prokopiak, Marcin Stańczak, Marcin Sujecki, Marcin Figiel and Daniel Kaźmiercza
Kutno, Poland, Packaging East
Our Round Wrap innovation is a market-leading solution which provides a sustainable alternative to existing drinks packaging. The unique round shaped box is made with a specific boardgrade paper composition and low-grammage inner line (50g Kraftliner) that we were previously unable to make at our flexographic departments across Europe.
With our strategic customer Carlsberg interested in this product, the BHS team in Kutno, Poland, set out to prove that we can not only convert the necessary paper on the oldest corrugator in Poland, but any other newer machine across our entire business.
Through tenacity, hard work and dedication to this potentially transformative innovation, the team used their combined knowledge and experience to successfully resolve this complicated challenge that has tremendous results for our entire business.
With their knowledge now being shared across our packaging sites, their work has accelerated our innovation agenda and shown that with a laser-focus on delighting our customers, we can unlock new opportunities for DS Smith, adding significant value to our customers and helping them to achieve their sustainability goals.
I&T JLR Project Team
Elizabeth Price, Sandrine Turner, Marco Schneider, Stephen Ball, Simon Howard, Saravanan Pitchai, Amy Anderson, Shaun Cole, Mark Topley, Dean Leivers, Anne Wooding, Ryan King, Russell Morgan, Sean Connor, Sarah Garner, Mark Grogan, Janet Lord, Richard Evans, Andy Jones
Group I&T, UK
When our high-profile customer, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), asked us to support them with providing their third-party car parts packer – Unipart – with the materials they required, the team were faced with an enormous challenge with incredible opportunities for our business.
This wasn’t just your normal production operation, from box plant to customer, JLR required the materials ‘in real-time’, with orders to be manufactured on site at their global distribution centre, based in the UK.
To fulfil JLR’s requirements, we have set up a world-class site, inclusive of both hardware and software – allowing us to receive, plan and execute orders working side-by-side with both Unipart and JLR. Our technical, production and field teams were all on site for the ‘replenishment go-live’, and a ‘selling’ equivalent, with the project now moving into a business-as-usual phase.
The delivery team, comprising of colleagues from I&T, Packaging and a raft of functional specialists, have delivered nothing short of outstanding results.
NAPP Design & Innovation Team
Brian Romankow, Jamie Hernandez, Timothy Reynold, Shaun Stamford, Shawn Brannan, Alan Groff, Alexander Salerno, Henry Raymond, Holly Couch, Ivan Perez, Jeff Horman, Karyn Vance, Michael Buss, Scott Kiefer, Scott Carey
North America, NAPP
NAPP’s restructured Design & Innovation team has achieved remarkable success since the implementation of a series of strategic changes in 2022. By redefining roles, optimising processes, and fostering a more collaborative environment, the team has unlocked new levels of creativity and efficiency. These changes have not only streamlined the workflow but also empowered team members to leverage their unique strengths, leading to more innovative and impactful solutions.
One key area of improvement has been the enhanced communication and collaboration across departments. The changes have impacted the way our Sales and Customer Service teams work with the Designers, bringing more accountability through a ground-up software solution in project management (Smartsheet) and adding a project manager so the team can focus on getting the work done.
In Fiscal Year 22/23 alone, the team completed over 12,000 projects and logged nearly 18,000 hours of project time. This is up approximately 15% from FY 21/22 which was the first full year of using the project management system. Today, the NAPP Design & Innovation team processes up to 80 projects daily! Thanks to everyone on the team who goes above and beyond to keep our customers and stakeholders happy!
