FINAT, the Europe-based global association for the self-adhesive labelling industry, announced the winners of its 32nd label awards competition at the award ceremony of its annual congress in Athens. This year proved to be a strong year. The competition attracted 325 entries — the third highest number ever. Entries came from 52 companies, including from countries Brazil and Peru. The judging panel of this year’s label competition included Murat Sipahioglu (Avery Dennison, Turkey), Steve Wood (UK), an expert in screen printing and other printing processes, Gregory Kokkoris (Dot Repro, Greece), Lianne van den Berg (Cartils, The Netherlands) and chairman of the judging panel Tony White (UK).

Refining categories: Wine
Each year FINAT looks at ways in which it can refine the competition. This year it was agreed that all wine labels should be entered in their own category. Wine labels usually gravitate towards higher quality by the nature of their design. This sometimes meant that good quality entries in other classes did not feature in the top awards.

The judging comittee reviewed 40 entries in this new “Wine” category resulting in a “Best in Show” award and 13 Highly Commended certificates. FINAT believes that this will become an even more popular category in future years. The same can be said of the cosmetic category where all the cosmetic labels were grouped under one class. This was an even greater success with more over 70 entries in this category.

Best in Show winner: a real credit to the wine and label industry
The Best in Show and the Marketing/End-Uses Group awards went to Collotype Labels USA for its Le Pich label.

“This is an outstanding label on many levels,” comments Tony White. “We were extremely impressed not only by the technical excellence of the label, but also by its artistic appearance. “The design is very authoritative and confident. This label would sell the wine purely on the quality of the label. Its dramatic look grabs the consumer’s attention. Using the screen and offset litho processes along with delicate and very accurate foiling with the additional bonus of embossing the whole label exudes quality.

Below are the top 12 countries entering and winning awards: :

India                 62         12 awards (19.4%)
Turkey              37            8 awards (21.6%)
Germany           34         10 awards (29.5%)
Poland              29            9 awards (31.0%)
Switzerland       19            6 awards (31.5%)
Austria              19            6 awards (31.7%)
Sweden             14            3 awards (21.4%)
Denmark           13            0 awards (0%)
Spain                13            4 awards (30.7%)
UK                    13            3 awards (23.0%)
France              12            5 awards (41.6%)
Australia           12            6 awards (50.0%)

Many of the winners from this year’s competition will be entered in the World Label Awards competition which will take place just before Labelexpo USA in September.

From the previous year’s FINAT winners, five received a World Label award including the Schreiner Group (D), Royston Labels (UK), Skanem Introl (PL), Etimag Etiket (TR) and Collotype (USA).

The winners of the 2012 FINAT label competition

A. Marketing/End-Uses Group:

Group Winner is Collotype Labels USA for Le Pich

Wines: Collotype Labels, USA for Le Pich and Collotype Labels Australia for Christobel’s
Alcoholic Drinks: Pragati Flexo Pct.Ltd., India for Coeur de Lion
Food Products: Permapack AG., Switzerland for Mövenpick Honey Mustard Limited Edition
Household Products: Skanem Skurup AB, Sweden for Bio Bact Tomat
Industrial Products: Skanem Poznan for Platinum Max Expert XD SW-30
Cosmetics: Skanem Poznan, Poland for Cinderella Hair and Body Wash
Pharmaceutical: Pragati Flexo Pvt. Ltd., India for Arshonil Rasayanam
Security: Schreiner Group GmbH & Co. KG., Germany for NFC Sticker Touch 2ID
Booklets: Pago International AG., Switzerland for Harmony Fruit & Yoghurt Dessert
Promotional Coupons: Pilot Italia SpA., Italy for Print Buyer
Self Promotional: Germark S.A., Spain for Running Girl and Purgina spol. S.r.o., Slovakia for The Art of labels Purgina – Hand
Sets of Labels: FD-Etiketten GmbH Germany for Perlmutt/Goldrausch

B. Printing Processes Group: Group Winner is Skanem Poznan, Poland for Soplica Szlachetna Wódka 500ml. A well produced label offering the expectation of a product of quality and sophistication in the bottle.

Flexography: Skanem Durham, UK for Comma Prolife
Rotary Letterpress: Cabas S.A., Greece for Metaxa 7* Flasc 20cl A’side
Screen Printing (Silk): no winner
Reel fed Offset Litho: schäfer-etiketten GmbH & Co. KG., Germany for Bondex Express
Digital Printing: August Faller KG., Germany for binop
Combination Printing: Skanem Poznan, Poland for Soplica Szlachetna Wódka 500ml

C. Non-Adhesive Applications Group: Group Winner is Skanem Poznan, Poland for Eveline Cosmetics – Anti Stress. A well produced label with exceptional skin tones contributes strongly to making this entry a group winner. Very good use of the flexographic process.

Non-adhesive labels/tags: Skanem Poznan Poland for Eveline Cosmetics – Anti Stress
Cartons: Pragati Flexo Pvt. Ltd., India for Cubraxis M 5mg. 20 Tabs
Sleeves: Etimag Etiket, Turkey for Coca Cola Studio Kaprol 250 ml.

D. Innovation Group: The two joint group winners are Schreiner Group GmbH & Co. Ltd., Germany for Nameplate with integrated pressure compensation seal and Auraprint Oy, Finland for Orian Clean Card Pro.