Rengo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka; President & CEO: Kiyoshi Otsubo) announces that the company has won a Bronze Award in the Food Categories of the Pentawards 2012 worldwide packaging design competition with the JA TSUGARU - Apple Gift Box, created for JA Tsugaru Hirosaki (Head Office: Hirosaki-shi, Aomori; Chairman: Kosei Nishizawa).

The aim of Pentawards is to widely promote awareness of packaging design as a communication tool that is even more important than advertising and promotion. It is known as the world's most rigorous and impartial packaging design competition. The awards ceremony was held on October 4, 2012, in Paris, France.

Rengo's award-winning design for JA Tsugaru Hirosaki's JA TSUGARU - Apple Gift Box, conveys the delicious taste and high quality of Tsugaru Hirosaki Apples, which are marketed by JA on behalf of Aomori Prefecture, Japan's largest apple-producing region accounting for half of the national output.

The award highly commended the concept behind the gift box design, which embodies not only the delicious taste and fine quality of Tsugaru Hirosaki Apples achieved through painstaking attention to each individual apple during the growing process, but also the Japanese spirit of omotenashi, or providing extra-special treatment. This is Rengo's second Pentaward in two years after it won a Silver Award last year with DyDo DRINCO, INC.'s SAMURAI-ESPRESSO product.

The value of a product is enhanced through its packaging. The Rengo Group, and its Design and Marketing Center in particular, will continue contributing to customers’ product development, sales promotion and image enhancement by offering comprehensive design and packaging solutions.

As a “General Packaging Industry” (GPI), Rengo seeks to become a comprehensive packaging provider that actively proposes solutions to fulfill all the packaging needs of various industries through continual innovation. Rengo accepts this award as encouragement to continue creating new value in packaging.