L&L Global Awards honor industry's best

Labels & Labeling will host its first-ever global label awards during Labelexpo Europe 2025.

The Labels & Labeling Global Awards will honor outstanding achievements across three categories: innovation, sustainability and Converter of the Year.

The judging panel included Andy Thomas-Emans, strategic director of the labels group at Informa Markets, serving as chairman; Mark Glendenning, owner and CEO of Inland and chair of TLMI; Philippe Voet, CEO of Etivoet and chair of Finat; and Chelsea McDougall, editor of Labels & Labeling.

The judges chose winners from a curated list of nominees first selected by Labels & Labeling’s global editorial team, based on news coverage and industry impact reported by the magazine throughout the year.

‘Labels & Labeling’s international editorial team has drawn on our experience and industry insight to carefully select this year’s shortlist, recognizing true excellence, innovation and leadership across every corner of the world,’ McDougall says. ‘These awards are truly a celebration of the very best our industry has to offer.’

The winners will be announced at a welcome party on Sept 16, during the first night of Labelexpo Europe 2025.

Shortlist

The Innovation Award, sponsored by Gallus/Heidelberg, recognizes companies that have developed a specific, groundbreaking innovation that is new, novel, functional and impactful on the wider label and package printing industries.

The shortlisted nominees are: Esko for its Print Clone AI color matching tool; LemuGroup for its end-of-line automation; and Mark Andy for its Digital Series HD High-Speed 1200 press.

“These awards are truly a celebration of the very best our industry has to offer"

Esko launched its new AI color-matching technology that enables digital press operators to replicate colors from previously printed packaging, regardless of the original printing process. Print Clone reduces job completion times and boosts digital printing productivity.

It eliminates lengthy trial-and-error cycles, helping to minimize waste and subsequent environmental impact.

LemuGroup advances automation with its UltraCompact system, which uses robotics to pack rolls into boxes and palletize them. LemuGroup also offers inspection technology that can send a signal to the rewinder to mark a defective roll, enabling the UltraCompact to discard it before packing. The company is leading the industry in reducing manual labor and helping with the worker shortages that
converters across the globe are facing.

Launched at Labelexpo Americas 2024, Mark Andy’s Digital Series HD High-Speed 1200 press achieves an unprecedented speed of 480ft/min (146m/min) — the fastest multi-color UV inkjet press on the market today. The press was developed in collaboration with Hybrid Software companies, Global Graphics and Meteor Inkjet. The Global Graphics SmartDFE
powers Mark Andy’s new ProWorx digital front end, and the higher press is enabled by streaming real-time raster data directly to the printhead electronics provided by Meteor Inkjet.

In the sustainability category, nominees were selected for sustainable products or processes, developed by a supplier or converter, that promote a reduced environmental impact or a circular economy. The Sustainability Award is sponsored by Durst Group.

The shortlisted nominees are: Bio4life for
its home-compostable pressure-sensitive adhesive; Elkem for its recycled release liner silicones; and Polish converter Masterpress, for its development of magnetizable inks for shrink sleeves with Magnomer.

Bio4life launched a home-compostable pressure-sensitive adhesive suitable for direct food contact applications and certified to break down in homecomposting environments.

Bio4life has provided an alternative to traditional PS adhesives, while stepping up the game in reducing waste, promoting environmental responsibility, and meeting PPWR requirements in the European Union.

Elkem’s Silcolease range for release liners is 100 percent recycled, silicone-based, solvent-free products. These are developed using Elkem’s new, patented depolymerization technology, and have a 70 percent lower carbon footprint compared to their non-recycled counterparts. These recycled silicones mark a significant step toward a circular economy in liner recycling.

Polish converter Masterpress, in collaboration with Magnomer, has developed magnetizable inks for shrink sleeve applications. Magnetizable inks provide improved separation of the printed substrate in PET-on-PET shrink sleeves, where both the bottle and label are made from the same material and have the same density. The magnetic coating layer remains adhered to the shrink sleeve label throughout the recycling process. The magnet pulls out the label flakes, leaving behind clean PET bottle flakes ready for reuse.

The Converter of the Year award is sponsored by Flint Group. This award recognizes a label printing and converter company that has stood out over the last year and met a number of criteria, including a commitment to a diverse and inclusive workforce; development of training programs; contributions to charitable initiatives and the introduction of innovative products or programs.

The shortlisted nominees are Masterpress (Poland), OPM Group (UK) and Schreiner MedPharm (Germany).

‘The quality and creativity showcased in this year’s Global Label Awards shortlist is a powerful reminder of just how innovative and dynamic our industry continues to be,’ says Thomas-Emans, the awards chairman. ‘From sustainability breakthroughs to game-changing technologies, the entries truly reflect the spirit of progress driving label and package printing forward.’

The Labels & Labeling team selecting
the shortlist was: Adyasha Sinha, Akanksha
Meena, McDougall, Yolanda Wang, Piotr
Wnuk and Selah Zighelboim.