TLMI's Eugene Singer Award Winners
GLOUCESTER, MA—The Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute (TLMI) recently announced the winners of the prestigious Eugene Singer Award for Management Excellence. One of TLMI’s highest honors, this award recognizes excellence in business management measured and defined by an established set of growth and profitability ratios through the participation in the TLMI Management Ratio Study.
The Singer Award is given annually to four narrow web converting companies—each company within a certain sales range category. The 2011 TLMI Eugene Singer Awards were given to the following companies at the association’s recent Converter Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona:
• Fountain Valley, CA-based Coast Label Company won in the small company category for the fourth time. The small company category is defined by annual sales of less than $6 million. Company President, Craig Moreland, commented, “Coast Label Company is very proud to have earned the Eugene Singer Award for 2011. I believe that there is more value in the various TLMI competitions and certifications than we as members sometimes acknowledge. After winning the Singer Award for the third time in 2010, I challenged my team to try to achieve what I dubbed the “Triple Crown.” I wanted Coast Label Company to become ISO 9001:2008 certified, L.I.F.E.® certified, and win the Eugene Singer Award—all in the same year. It was a really lofty goal and I’m very proud to report that the Coast Label Team achieved our goal of the “Triple Crown,” and I believe that the desire to put in the hard work that created that result can be directly attributed to our being active in TLMI.”
• Fairfield, OH-based Kopco Graphics, Inc. won for the mid-range company category, defined by sales of $6 - $14 million. This is also Kopco’s fourth TLMI Eugene Singer Award. Walter Zeek, company President and CEO, stated, “Winning the Eugene Singer award for the 4th time is just as exciting as the first. Although the award is mainly driven by financial performance, the real driver of the results come from the employees and the hundreds of decisions made each business day. Our employees have taken great pride and ownership of their jobs which is the reason the performance over the past four years has continued to exceed the prior year. I am very proud to be associated with such a good group of people at Kopco Graphics.”
• Aurora, IL-based The Label Printers won for the medium company category, defined by sales of $15 - $35 million. This is The Label Printer’s third Eugene Singer Award. Chief of Operations, Lori Campbell, commented, “We are thankful to TLMI for offering the Ratio Study as a member benefit; I view it as the real prize here. It provides us with the roadmap for where to focus our efforts. However, the nature of our continuous improvement culture can sometimes result in a negative feeling, i.e. if we’re always looking to improve, we are never satisfied … it’s never enough. The Eugene Singer Award allows us to jump off that continuous improvement highway even if only for a day and reflect that our efforts DO make a difference. We’re so very grateful for that perspective, it re-energizes us for “what’s next.” All of our efforts mean nothing without our customers and our biggest thanks go to them.”
• Longwood, FL-based Consolidated Label won for the large company category defined by sales greater than $35 million. This is Consolidated Label’s tenth Eugene Singer Award. Company President, Joel Carmany, commented, “We are honored to win the Singer award for the 10th year running. It is truly a culmination of a tremendous team effort over many years. The award represents a constant reminder to keep growing and improving our entire company.”
TLMI President, Frank Sablone, comments, “TLMI would like to congratulate this year’s Eugene Singer Award Winners. The fact that the winning companies have all won the Eugene Singer Award previously only reinforces the true value our converter members get out of participating in the Ratio Study. The ability to benchmark your company’s performance metrics against other companies in your size range, in addition to the rest of the industry, is something that no other label association offers. We are extremely fortunate to have such a program in place, and one that carries such a long and honored history.”
