Stan Boardman entertained the guests at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton
Under the threat of an impending snow storm, the European Flexographic Industry Association gathered the flexo community at its annual awards and gala dinner evening on March 21 at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. By Neel Madsen.
For the second year running, EFIA held its gala dinner at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton and over 450 guests enjoyed a great evening celebrating the best in flexo printing and innovation.
Chairman David Galton welcomed the guests and said, ‘Each year, as time passes, I worry that we will see standards slip, companies close and the recession biting our industry hard. And yet, here I stand, with you before me, with a large enthusiastic audience and more entries to the competition than we’ve ever had, and a more prosperous and advanced industry than we’ve ever seen before. I can only conclude that we must be doing something right as an industry.’
In his response to the chairman, John Law, managing director at Sun Chemical, praised the association’s hard work establishing the online training scheme, Academy 2. He said, ‘Please remember Academy 2 is not designed just for printers today, but for our whole flexo industry. Its modular format means old hands can do refresher training, support staff can learn more to help those on the shop floor, and all parts of the supply chain from designers to indeed ink manufacturers and of course printers.’
The entertainment part of the awards evening came from comedian Stan Boardman, who amused the audience with his inimitable brand of humour, while his son, Paul, presided over the more serious part of the show, presenting the winners with awards and certificates.
Gold awards
In total, there were 24 gold, 21 silver, 16 bronze and 16 ‘highly commended’ awards handed out, giving much cause for celebration amongst the winners.
The association said that following feedback from the membership, some changes had been made to this year’s competition to reflect the needs of the industry and more accurately align the submissions into categories. This meant that the flexible, pre-print, sacks, labels and miscellaneous categories had been replaced with two more closely matched groups, namely ‘Flexo print on paper’ and ‘Flexo print on film’. Flexo print on paper, wide web, gold was won by Forum Packaging for Baileys Performance Balancer Horse Feed, and super wide web gold by CRP Print & Packaging for Carling Cider. In the Flexo print on film category, narrow web gold went to Douglas Storrie Labels for WuffitMix, medium web gold to Interflex Group for Nescafé Original and wide web gold also to Interflex for Cussons Baby Wipes.
In the corrugated post print category, gold for coated line and screen went to inspirepac for Haribo Supermix, gold for coated process was awarded to Smurfit Kappa Print Vision, Chelmsford, for Triibe Celtic Spirit, gold for uncoated line to DS Smith Packaging for Wells & Young’s Courage Directors, which also won gold for uncoated tone for Wrigley Starburst Tray. The gold for post print on folder gluers uncoated went to Smurfit Kappa Print Vision, Tannochside, for Lauder’s Queen Mary Special Blend.
New this year was the ‘use of flexo for brands’ category, where the gold went to Sun Branding Solutions for Heinz Weight Watchers Steam & Serve Range. Use of flexo in a combination print gold was awarded to Labelgraphics Collotype for Beefeater Gin (front and back).
In the international categories, best corrugated post print gold was awarded to Smurfit Kappa Delitzsch for Tauberfranken, flexo print on paper gold and also best overall international print gold went to Rocktenn Pre Print Canada Inc for Skotidakis Greek Yogurt, while flexo print on film gold was awarded to UKR Plastic for Biskonti Mini Rolls.
Paragon Print & Packaging won gold in the printer manufacturing efficiency category for its ‘efficiency submission’, while the gold for supplier manufacturing efficiency went to IST (UK) Ltd for the MBS-6 UV system. Gold for technical innovation printer went to Learoyd Packaging for three designs done for an M&S confectionary range, and gold for technical innovation supplier was awarded to IST (UK) Ltd again for the MBS-6 UV system, and to JM Heaford Ltd for its Narrow Web Plate Mounting Machine FTS.
Awarded to the company with the most gold awards, repro supplier of the year was won by V&W Graphics. Gold for supplier of the year, as chosen by the membership, went to Sun Chemical, and student of the year was Chris Bursnell from Skymark. Best in show gold went to Interflex Group for Nescafé Original, silver to CRP Print & Packaging for Carling Cider, and bronze to Smurfit Kappa Print Vision Chelmsford for Triibe Celtic Spirit.
