Global label industry celebrates excellence at awards ceremony

Last night at Labelexpo Americas, 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 from across the world were collated earlier in the year and a Judging Panel met this summer to review the nominations for each award.

Award for Continuous Innovation
(Sponsored by: Labels & Labeling, Label & Narrow Web, and NarroWebTech magazines)

Winner: DuPont

This award recognizes innovation and rewards a company that is instrumental in continuously developing new technologies and systems that are benefiting the label industry.

Awards chairman Mike Fairley said: ‘DuPont has served as one of the prime movers of the label industry away from a craft-based industry to a science-based industry over many years. The quality and reproducibility of the flexographic label process today owes much to their creativity and innovation.’

Dupont, founded in 1802, has continuously developed a wide range of innovative and sustainable product and service solutions for markets as diverse as agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.

In the printing and graphics field, innovation has been continuous and on many fronts, whether design, pre-press, or the pressroom, using film or digital. Examples of products which have been of major benefit to the label industry include, the ongoing evolution of Cyrel photopolymer plates, the Cyrel Digital Imager technology, color management solutions, digital proofing and workflow – all of which enable flexographic printers to compete head to head with the offset and gravure processes. Most recently, DuPont has introduced the environmentally friendly FAST thermal dry flexographic plate, which has a complete absence of solvents or drying requirements.

Award for New Innovation
(Sponsored by MPS)

Winner: Esko

Esko is a relatively new name in the label industry although its roots go back to the early 1980s. However, the Judging Panel awarded the New Innovation Award to the company for its work as a key industry pioneer over the past five to ten years.

The company’s products in the label and tag field today cover a broad range of applications, using different substrates and print technologies, so as to provide desktop tools that enhance popular design applications, offer expert pre-production tools, automate workflows and optimize output quality for various print processes. Specific innovative products introduced in recent years include Scope workflow, Graphic editors, BackStage workflow management software, FlexRip and FlexProof.

The Judging Panel was particularly impressed with Esko’s innovative solutions that addressed JDF, remote proofing, 3D virtual imaging, plus exceptional quality dots on the plate, fast make-ready – and a key commitment to a digital future for labels.

RFID Smart Label Manufacturer Award
Sponsored by XSYS Print Solutions, A Flint Group Company

Winner: Graphic Solutions International LLC

Graphic Solutions was one of the pioneers of printed circuit and RFID smart label solutions. The company specializes in pressure-sensitive labels, RFID antennas, printed circuitry and thin flexible batteries for microelectronics, as well as turn key RFID systems, and have been manufacturing printed circuitry solutions for more than ten years.

The Judging Panel said: ‘Graphic Solutions International was developing RFID and smart solutions long before it became a high profile growth sector. They have been key pioneers and innovators over many years and have created markets and applications far beyond the more popular logistics and retails sectors of today. The label industry needs such pioneering converters to develop a route to the future.’

Graphic Solutions have the capability of printing any frequency, including 13.56 MHz, 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz RFID labels. In addition to conductive ink printing, the company has a continuous web assembly system that produces RFID inlays that offer numerous improvements over conventional printed circuit technology.

R.Stanton Lifetime Achievement Award
(Sponsored by Avery Dennison)

Winner: Calvin Frost, Channeled Resources Group

Surrounded by colleagues, friends and family, Calvin Frost (pictured center), CEO of the Channeled Resources Group based in Chicago, collected the prestigious R. Stanton Lifetime Achievement Award from Dean Scarborough, president and CEO of award sponsors Avery Dennison (pictured left). Last year's winner Lars Eriksen of Nilpeter (pictured right) also made a speech. Mr Frost has been recognized with this award as the leading international champion of recycling and environmental awareness in the label industry, devoting most of his working life and career to salvaging PSA waste and turning it into useful materials by making pressure-sensitive products more environmentally friendly. His ongoing mission is to continue to channel cost-effective and environmentally responsible solutions to global label converters and industry suppliers.

Mr Frost began his career with several marketing positions before establishing the Channeled Resources Group in Chicago in the mid-1970s. The Group, under his leadership and guidance, is a pioneer and worldwide leader in the field of re-processed paper, film labelstocks and liners as well as in the re-use and recycling of pressure-sensitive waste.

Throughout his long association with the label industry, Mr Frost has played an active role in the sector and in recycling organizations all over the world.

Calvin Frost said: ‘I think more than anything the award reflects our industry’s increasing concern for environmental awareness.  To coin a favorite of mine, “the economy needs to be a subset of the environment, not the other way around”. The award makes me realize that our industry is serious about the need for environmental change which will make us more competitive with competing technologies.  I am humbled by this award and dedicate it to those who have supported my passion for change.’

Mike Fairley, Label Industry Global Awards Judging Panel chairman, said: ‘I would like to congratulate all of tonight’s winners. The label industry is developing rapidly and we’re very pleased to see this global community recognize and reward both individuals and organizations who make significant contributions to shaping the future of the industry.’

The Label Industry Global Awards take place at Labelexpo Americas and Labelexpo Europe. The next Awards will take place in Brussels in September 2005.

More photos of the awards will soon be available at http://www.labelawards.com/