FINAT international label award winners announced

This year's international label awards were announced in Warsaw last month. The competition attracted almost 200 entries from around the world. Organized by FINAT, the worldwide association for self-adhesive labels, the competition saw some of the very latest developments in label printing and design.

Jules Lejeune, managing director of FINAT, said the judges were looking beyond just a label's appearance: ‘Printing and product decoration are two key elements in a list of characteristics which define a winner in the competition. However, some entries also demonstrated the growing importance of other benefits of self-adhesive labels which we don't always think about. These include their effectiveness as a marketing tool? What security features do they provide? Can they be used in a logistics environment? Do they provide customer convenience and protection, as well as versatility and functionality?'

At the end of this process the judges selected 15 winners in four categories along with 46 others which were highly commended. Chairman of the FINAT judging panel, Tony White said: ‘This year's winners have shown the world that labels are more than just product decoration. Leading edge quality and innovation have revolutionised our industry so that today's modern supermarkets and other retailers now rely on us for labels which not only inform consumers as to what they are buying but they help to sell the product too.’

This year's FINAT label winners will now go forward to the World Labelling Association's competition in Chicago in September to challenge entries from the USA, Japan, Australia, India and Russia.

The principle category winners are listed below:

Marketing and end-use applications:
Wines and Spirits: Illospear, from Wales, for its Bombay Sapphire gin label
Food: Etisan Etiket, from Turkey, for a hazelnut chocolate label
Household products: Skanem Liverpool UK for Sun Fresh Comfort
Industrial: Skanem SkurupAB of Sweden for 'Tikkurila Taika', which also won the overall marketing group award
Cosmetics: WDH SA from Poland for 'Avon Naturals'
Pharmaceuticals: No winning award
Security: Securikett Ulrich & Horn GmbH from Austria with 2-Schichtiges Nummernetikett mit VOID
Booklets and coupons: No winning award

Printing processes:
Flexographic: Labelsco, from England, won the group award with nu:green (and also took 4 out of the 5 nominated awards)
Letterpress: BV Kolibri, from The Netherlands, with Greenland The Milky Way
Screen printing: Flexiket A/S, Denmark
Offset printing (narrow web): Collotype of Australia
Combination: Collotype of Australia for Stamp of Australia which also won a special commendation from the judges

Alternative uses of a label press (for non-adhesive tags, cartons or promotional):
Non-adhesive tags: Marzeek Etiketten GmbH of Austria for 'Adelholzener'.
Cartons: Kimbells Pack Inc of the Philippines with Zenzest Perfume KC – Water
Promotional: Skanem Skurup Sweden with 'Summertime'
 
Innovation:
Schreiner Group from Germany with an antenna capable of receiving FM, AM GPS and other signals in an automobile which also won the overall group award.