Flint Group honors industry with Narrow Web Print Awards

More than 150 entries were received from 55 converters from around the world in this year’s Flint Group Narrow Web Print Awards competition. The winners were presented their prizes during an awards ceremony at Labelexpo Europe 2013.

Awards were presented in 10 different categories, with all print submissions using inks, coatings and specialty products supplied by Flint Group Narrow Web.

Winners included: India’s Pragati Pack, Jenkins Group of New Zealand, Brazilian converter Prakolar Rotulos Auto Adhesivos, Flexikett and Limo Labels from Denmark, Ireland’s Multiprint Labels, Swiss firm Omnipack and JPL Etiquettes of France.

New for 2013 was a special category introduced for web packaging applications, encouraging label printers to demonstrate additional applications possible using narrow and mid web presses. This inaugural award was given to Italy’s ACM.

Flint Group itself was presented with the Award for Innovation at the Label Industry Global Awards for its EkoCure UV LED ink technologies. Flint Group was named joint winner alongside co-supplier and development partner Mark Andy.

Mike Buystedt, vice-president of Flint Group Narrow Web, North America, said: ‘The criteria for judging followed the guidelines that are standards set by the industry associations FINAT and TLMI and included: registration, smoothness of dot/vignette, overall print quality and degree of difficulty.

‘Judging the label submissions is a great challenge, which is taken very seriously. We have to look to the most intricate detail that sets one great print apart from another. In some of these cases, we give honorable mention to designs that are a close second.’

Niklas Olsson, Flint Group Narrow Web global brand manager, added: ‘The Print Awards continue to be a fantastic tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity our global customers demonstrate as they submit the most creative use of color, design, and materials in narrow web label printing.

‘It is truly an honor to see the print quality submitted by our customers. Each year we look forward to the judging; it is amazing to see the quality and stunning effects converters around the world create when using the inks we supply them. It’s encouraging to see the sophistication and excellence in every detail in their printing – truly pushing the bar in cutting edge designs and application of inks.’