Indian Label Awards winners announced

Andy Thomas reports from the Indian Label Awards ceremony, held last week during Labelexpo India 

There were a record 178 entries to the Indian Label Awards, which were organized jointly by the LMAI and the Tarsus Labels Group and sponsored by Avery Dennison, Omet, HP, Nilpeter, UPM Raflatac, SMI Coated Products, Orthotec, Label Planet, Rotometrics, Rotatek and Creed Engineers. 

The host for the evening was the glamorous Shonali Nagrani, a former Miss India. The awards were introduced by LMAI president Vivek Kapoor, who said the Indian converter industry has now reached global standards of excellence and is on a healthy road to future growth. 

‘There has been much speculation about how many international presses are being imported into India and there is double digit growth in end user label requirements. This is truly a take-off point for the Indian labels industry,’ Kapoor told a packed event. 

The LMAI was very keen to emphasize that the judging was carried out entirely independently, and to avoid any suspicion of conflict of interest, Kapoor withdrew his labels from the competition. The judging panel consisted of Kiran Prayagi, Rajiv Dhar and Deepak Manchanda, with the latter stressing that the labels were judged ‘blind’ without knowing the names of the submitting companies. 

Anil Sharma, managing director, materials South East Asia for Gold awards sponsor Avery Dennison, said that India is on the way to creating ‘one of the world’s great label markets’. He emphasized the importance of educating end users in the benefits of pressure-sensitive labeling and outlined the commitment of Avery Dennison to helping create the conditions for growth. He cited the $50m investment the company has poured into materials manufacturing at its Pune plant in India, as well as announcing a Bangalore distribution center for 2011 – to cheers from the audience. 

Sharma finished with a call for the Indian government to continue its tentative moves towards FDI in the organized retail sector, saying this would ‘allow us to have great growth opportunities’. 

Following the presentation of the awards, Mike Fairley was presented with an LMAI Lifetime Achievement award. Fairley then went on to present awards to the Indian winners of the World Label Association awards. The awards were presented to Any Graphics, which also won WLA awards in 2005 and 2008, and Gururaj Ballarwad for Wintek Flexo. Harveer Sahni, MD of Weldon Celloplast, was recognized for his role in the WLA judging panel. The audience was also asked to acknowledge the hard work of the Tarsus organizing team – particularly Jade Grace and Claire Farrugia – and the LMAI working committee: president Vivek Kapoor, vice president Ajay Agarwal, secretary RL Deshpande, and treasurer and Young Managers Club president Sandeep Zaveri. The YMC has been extremely active in India and much of the credit goes to Zaveri and to treasurer Pawandeep Sahni of Weldon Celloplast. 

The award winners in full – who now go forward for the next WLA awards – are: 

Flexo Category – sponsored by Omet 

Flexo Line: Winner Pragati Flexo; runner up Letra Graphics 

Flexo Line & Screen Tone: Winner Webtech; runner up Maharashi Labels 

Flexo Color Process: Winner Maharashi Labels; runner up Mudrika Labels  

Letterpress Category – sponsored by Orthotec/Label Planet 

Letterpress Line: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Sicon Packs 

Letterpress Line & Screen Tone: Winner Kumar Labels; runner up Mudrika Labels 

Letterpress Color Process: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Mudrika Labels  

Screen Category – sponsored by Nilpeter 

Screen Line: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Webtech 

Screen Line & Screen Tone: Maharashi Labels; runner up AnyGraphics 

Screen Color Process: Winner Interlabels; runner up Interlabels  

Offset Category – sponsored by Rotatek/Creed Engineers 

Offset Line: Winner Veekay/Printman; runner up Ajanta Packaging 

Offset Line & Screen Tone: Veekay/Printman; runner up Ajanta Packaging 

Offset Color Process: Winner Ajanta Packaging; runner up AnyGraphics  

Wine/Spirits Category – sponsored by Rotometrics 

Flexo Wine/Spirits: winner Synergy Packaging; joint runners up Prabhakar Print Pack and Pragati Flexo 

Letterpress Wine/Spirits: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Icon Prints 

Offset Flexo Wine/Spirits: Winner Ajanta Packaging  

Cosmetics Category – sponsored by UPM Raflatac 

Flexo Cosmetics: Winner Pragati Flexo; runner up Wintek Flexo 

Letterpress Cosmetics: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Icon Prints 

Offset Cosmetics: Winner Ajanta Packaging; runner up Veekay/Printman 

Multi-Process Category – sponsored by SMI Coated Products 

Color Process Line: Winner Total Print Solution; runner up Pragati Flexo 

Color Process Line/Screen/Tone: Winner Pragati Flexo; runner up Wintek Flexo 

Color Process: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Pragati Flexo  

Any Process Category – sponsored by Avery Dennison 

Coupons/Tickets: Winner and runner up Syndicate Labels 

Tags: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Sel-Jagat Printers 

Non-Pressure Sensitive: Winner AnyGraphics; runner up Kumar Labels  

Digital Labels Category – sponsored by HP Indigo

Innovation award demonstrating use of in-line printing and converting procedures: Winner and runner up Sel Jagat Printers 

Digital Printing: Winner Sgre Labels; runner up Interlabels 

Booklets: Winner Syndicate Labels; runner up Pragati Flexo
 

Pictured: The LMAI committee celebrates a successful awards evening

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