2012 Excellence in Flexography Awards Announced

SAN ANTONIO—March 18, 2012—The Flexographic Technical Association’s 2012 Excellence in Flexography Awards competition aimed to rate the execution and degree of difficulty of nearly 500 submissions from every flexographic segment. This year, the competition’s 36 volunteer judges bestowed 130 awards; including 36 gold medals, 37 silver medals, 46 bronze medalists and three self-promotion accolades. Held annually, since 1960, to date more than 4,500 awards have resulted from the contests.

Formal unveiling of FTA’s 2012 award winners, came at a gala banquet held in conjunction with the organization’s 54th Annual Forum and 30th Edition of its INFO*FLEX Exhibition. The events are currently taking place at the Grand Hyatt and Henry B. Gonzalez Convention center, respectively. INFO*FLEX, which bows at 12:30 pm, Monday, March 19 will house an “awards gallery,” where every winning print piece will be on display.

“Last year, there were few awards that stood out with higher line counts. The percentage is higher this year with the expanded use of HD technology,” said Steve Mullins, Excellence in Flexography Awards committee chairman. “This is the second year that overall difficulty and quality have taken a sizeable step up. What I’m hoping for is a common sense approach to the application of new technology. And we’re starting to see what can happen.”

In the end, the following entries—all gold medalists—stood above the rest, capturing the highly coveted “Best of Show” in their respective classes:

• Ampac Paper Inc. for P.S. Aéropostale Happy Fun Day
• Plastic Packaging Inc. for Disney Take Along Treat
• Labelad Ltd. for Southern Comfort® Voodoo, Vampire, Zombies
• Golden Era Group for Kellogg's® Corn Flakes with Real Honey Cereal Box
• Paper and Design GmbH for Just Refreshing Napkin
• Advance Packaging Corp. for Mastronardi Produce Ltd. Gourmet Greenhouse Vegetables Tray
• Rock-Tenn Co. for Greens Garden Kit
• Encore Envelopes Ltd. For Club Med Envelope

By category, the 57 companies that earned 2012 Excellence in Flexography awards list out as follows:

WIDE WEB

Ampac Paper, Inc., Anagram International, Eye Corporate Planning Co. Ltd., Exopack, Folmex SA de CV, Jen-Coat Inc., Pioneer Balloon Co., Plastic Packaging Technologies LLC, PolyCello, The Robinette Co., Sunshine Plastics Corp., Tufco Technologies Inc., Yoshimoto Printing Co. Ltd.

MID WEB

Eagle Flexible Packaging Inc., Label Technology Inc., MPI Labels of Baltimore Inc., Perfection Packaging, Plastic Packaging Inc.

NARROW WEB

ASL Print FX, Bay Tech Label Inc., Berry Plastics Corp., Cal Tape & Label Co., Cameo Crafts, Collotype Labels, G-3 Enterprises, HAVI Global Solutions, J. Ryan Printers, The Label Co., Labelad Ltd., Labeltronix, McDowell Label, Omet S.r.l., Publishers Printing Co.

PAPERBOARD

Golden Era Group, Tetra Pak Jurong Pte. Ltd.

NAPKINS

Decoprint, InnoWare Paper Inc., Paper and Design GmbH

CORRUGATED

Advance Packaging Corp., Bennett Packaging, Golden Era Group, Great Lakes, International Paper Co. Inc., Lewisburg Container Co., Master Packaging Inc., Packaging Corp., SSCC-Castle Rock Display Group, United Engravers, Wellpappe Auerswalde GmbH

PREPRINT

Packaging Technologies Inc., Rock Tenn Preprint Canada Inc., Rock-Tenn Co.

ENVELOPE

Encore Envelopes Ltd., Mac Papers Envelope Converters Inc., Tension Envelope Corp.

STUDENT

California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School.

A complete medal recap can be found in FLEXO Magazine's Annual Awards issue.

About FTA/FFTA: Flexographic Technical Association (FTA), chartered in 1958, is a professional society dedicated to bringing all members of the flexographic printing community—printers, suppliers, consumer product companies, institutions, prepress houses and others--together by providing opportunities for the free exchange of technical ideas and discussion of mutual concerns. It is a proponent of maintaining and advancing quality standards and includes 1,650 member sites that represent more than 1,400 companies and 60,000 individuals. Foundation of FTA, founded in 1974, is the educational arm of FTA and is dedicated to supporting and advancing the flexographic printing industry.