Label Industry Global Awards winners revealed

The label industry’s international community celebrated last night as many senior executives of leading press and material manufacturers gathered for the Label Industry Global Awards 2013. Held as part of Labelexpo Europe, the awards celebrated its 10th edition as it returned to Brussels’ Event Lounge to honor those label companies pushing the excellence boundaries in service and product design and performance.

Tomas Rink from Ritrama receives the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by Avery Dennison at the Label Industry Global Awards

Ritrama’s Tomas Rink received the 2013 R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by Avery Dennison. Recognizing the vision and values of Stan Avery and his pioneering efforts, Tomas Rink joins fellow label industry leaders including RotoMetric’s Steve Lee, Helmut Schreiner and Lars Eriksen from Nilpeter.

Eshuis and its Coca Cola ‘Share a coke with…’ project triumphed in the European Converter of the Year Award, sponsored by Flint Group. The judges were impressed by how Eshuis has played the lead role in the soft drink giant’s marketing campaign which involved bringing together 18 European label printers all under Eshuis’ direction as a major brand service provider.

The Award for Sustainability, sponsored by Xeikon was presented to Avery Dennison for its Bottle-to-Bottle Portfolio of pressure-sensitive labels. Developed to address critical barriers to the effective recycling of PET bottles, Avery Dennison’s Bottle-to-Bottle portfolio of pressure-sensitive adhesives incorporate a ‘switchable’ adhesive which adheres to PET surfaces until a bond is broken at the recycler, so cleanly releasing the label from the PET. The judges saw the innovation as offering major sustainability benefits for global consumer products end-users.

Attracting the highest ever number of entrants, the Label Industry Global Award for Innovation, sponsored by Labels & Labeling, NarroWebTech and Label & Narrow Web magazines, was jointly won by Mark Andy and Flint Group Narrow Web. Flint Group was honored for its Ekocure UV LED ink technology which the judges described as providing improved cure response, cost and productivity savings, waste reduction, energy savings and enhanced safety that will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the future of the label industry. Mark Andy was singled out for its complementary ProLED ink curing technology which delivers high production rates and energy savings in excess of 50 percent when compared to traditional HgUV systems.

Mike Fairley, chair of the judges commented: ‘Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners. The label industry continues to serve as a shining example of innovation and passion for best practice in business. Striving to set the highest possible standards and raise the bar across the printing industry, the label sector is one of the most exciting, inspiring and vibrant marketplaces to work in and everyone who took part in this year’s awards program should be exceptionally proud of their achievements.’