The reusable cup category is crowded with virtue. Recycled this, plant-based that, a sleeve that promises to save the world and still leaks in a laptop bag.
FOAMO won because the industry, voting on product, put it at the top of that pile.
On 11 December 2025, at the BPMA’s 60th anniversary at The Brewery in London, First Editions’ FOAMO reusable cup took Platinum in Drinkware and Platinum for UK Made Product of the Year. On 21 January 2026, at the BPMA Annual Awards Dinner at the CBS Arena in Coventry, it took the Product Awards Grand Prix.
That is not a colourway with a better press release. That is the supply chain saying: stock this, or explain why not.
What it actually is
FOAMO is a reusable coffee cup with a foamed core. First Editions’ winning entry, published by the BPMA, describes patented “bubble-tech” insulation: microscopic air pockets that hold heat, cut weight, and do away with a cardboard sleeve.
The same entry says the cup is made from 70% plant-based materials, dishwasher safe, and recyclable in household recycling. It says the foaming technology reduces plastic use by 50%, and claims a carbon footprint “up to 20x smaller than standard reusable cups”. It says the cup is manufactured in the UK on energy-efficient, renewable-powered machinery.
Those are First Editions’ published claims, carried on the official awards page. We have not audited the life-cycle assessment. FOAMO’s own site points to an LCA report for the 50% less material and 20× carbon figures. Treat the numbers as the company’s, not as ours.
A 2 April 2025 Packaging Europe piece, reporting First Editions’ launch, adds plant-level detail the awards copy skips. The cups are designed, engineered and manufactured in Birmingham at Tyseley Energy Park, on all-electric Sumitomo (SHI) Demag IntElect2 machines, with cells powered by on-site biomass electricity. The company told Packaging Europe the polymer is food-grade polypropylene from a renewable feedstock created from 70% waste, such as cooking oil, and that the cup is kerbside recyclable including the in-mould label.
Packaging Europe also reported First Editions’ figures of 85% less virgin polymer than comparable reusable hot cups, a foamed wall 50% lighter than traditional plastic coffee cups, and independent tests by WMG at Warwick University: internal temperature still 69°C after 10 minutes, and “Co2e per kilogram is 0.0372”. We have not seen the Warwick paper. Attribute it.
FOAMO’s consumer site sells the Original Coffee Cup at £9.95, in multiple colours, and names Mark Alderson as FOAMO founder.
Why distributors should care
Most “eco cups” fail the Tuesday test. A client asks where it is made, what the 70% actually is, and whether it can go in the household bin. The room goes quiet.
FOAMO is useful here even if you never buy it. It is a standard. UK-made. A named plant. A named process. A claim you can send back to the supplier and say: match this, or stop calling it sustainable.
Tyseley Energy Park, writing in March 2026, said First Editions began in 1994 as a UK importer, moved into UK print and then UK moulding, and is now an independent family-run business and “the largest specialist trade supplier of British-made branded sports bottles”. It put FOAMO at 60g.
We’re incredibly proud to share that FOAMO has been voted BPMA Grand Prix winner. FOAMO isn’t just another cup. It’s reshaping the way we think about plastic, sustainability, and reusable solutions, proving that innovation can drive real change.
Most reusable cups solve the waste problem but quietly create an emissions one. Foamo was built to tackle both. If we want people to genuinely switch to reusables, the carbon footprint has to be lower from the very first use — not the 100th.
What to stock in 2026
If you are building a drinkware offer for the rest of this year, do not start with colour. Start with the questions FOAMO is already being asked.
- Where is it moulded? A UK plant is a story you can stand behind. An unnamed Far East line with a green sticker is not.
- What is the 70%? Plant-based, waste cooking oil, recycled content — they are not the same. Get the feedstock in writing.
- What happens at the end? Household recycling, including the label and lid, or a special scheme nobody will use.
- Does it need a sleeve? If it still needs a cardboard hug, the insulation story is incomplete.
- Would they buy it unbranded? FOAMO is sold to consumers at £9.95. That is retail equivalence in a price.
You do not have to make FOAMO your only cup. You do have to stop briefing cups that cannot survive those five questions.
The Grand Prix is a buying signal
Awards can be noise. This one is a filter. The Product Awards Grand Prix is the piece the rest of the drinkware table has to beat.
Merchandisers who still open a 2026 scheme with a cheap double-wall and a hope are selling last year’s compromise. The industry already voted.
Stock the cup that can answer the ESG meeting. Or stock the one that can beat it. Do not stock the one that changes the subject.
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