Label Industry Global Awards winners announced

On the first evening of Labelexpo Europe, hundreds of global suppliers, converters, trade associations and media gathered to celebrate and reward excellence in the label industry at The Label Industry Global Awards Gala Dinner. Votes were collated from across the world and industry expert Mike Fairley kick-started the awards ceremony.

The award winners for the following four categories were:

The R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award – sponsored by Avery Dennison
Winner: Andrew Jack, Dow Corning

Andrew Jack (pictured center) has a career spanning over thirty-five years in the silicone industry. He has had a major impact on the world of labels through his dedication to pioneering products in solventless silicones, water-based silicones and, more recently, the provision of advanced cost-effective products that offer improvements in applied silicone costs. He has also worked tirelessly in supporting FINAT and the development of global standards.

Label Industry Award for Continuous Innovation – sponsored by Labels & Labeling, NarroWebTech and Label & Narrow Web
Winner: Rotoflex International

The judges selected Rotoflex International as their unanimous winner of this award for ‘being at the forefront of technology-driven innovation in the fields of label inspection, slitting and re-winding for more than 25 years’. The company’s recent innovations have extended into the specialized pharma-security and digital web-finishing areas.

Label Industry Award for New Innovation – sponsored by HP and EskoArtwork
Winner: Advanced Vision Technology (AVT)

‘Since its formation, AVT has dedicated itself to raising the level of automatic inspection systems for web applications in the label and package printing markets through the use of sophisticated optical machine vision technologies,’ said the judging panel. ‘It is now a world leader in this technology, with more than 1,500 PrintVision systems installed worldwide.’

European Converter of the Year – sponsored by Xsys Print Solutions
Winner: The Schreiner Group

The judging panel unanimously selected the Schreiner Group as the 2007 winner, commenting: ‘The Schreiner Group, under company president Helmut Schreiner, is undoubtedly one of the most innovative, creative and fastest-growing label groups in Europe with divisions at the forefront of pharmaceutical labels, labels with security features and traceable codes, customer-specific bar code and RFID label systems, and high-grade electroluminescence products. They are worthy winners of this European award.’

Mike Fairley, Label Industry Global Awards judging panel chairman, commented: ‘The quality of entries for the awards continues at the highest level and makes an ongoing challenge for the judges. Each winner has made a significant contribution to the growth of the industry and I would like to congratulate them all on their awards.’

The Label Industry Global Awards take place at Labelexpo Europe and Labelexpo Americas. The next awards will take place in Chicago in September 2008.