TLMI has announced that five converter member companies have won World Label Awards. The L9 World Label Awards (WLA) competition is judged by an international panel of judges representing each of the participating L9 member associations.

The judging took place in Brussels the day before Labelexpo Europe 2018 at the exhibition venue. TLMI members that won awards are: Labeltronix, McDowell Label & Screen Printing, Multi-Color Corporation, Syracuse Label & Surround Printing, and Yerecic Label.

The L9 is an alliance of global label associations created to jointly formulate policies and collect strategic information of global interest to the worldwide label industry and every year L9 association members are invited to submit entries for the World Label Awards, ensuring the competition is comprised of submissions from a wide representation of regions across the globe. The 2018 competition included entries from TLMI (USA), FINAT (Europe), JFLP (Japan), FPLMA (Australia), SALMA (New Zealand), and PEIAC (China).

In order to be considered for entry in this prestigious contest, a label converter must have previously won an award in their respective regional association’s competition. Each L9 member association is permitted to submit one entry in each class and entries from individual converters are not accepted. Winning an award in the WLA competition is highly valued throughout the worldwide label collective, as this achievement indicates awarded companies truly are ‘the very best of the best.’

The awards not only reflect the achievements of the production departments involved in producing the label, they are also used as a valuable marketing tool. The judging process is a rigorous one as the panel spends considerable time examining and debating the technical and aesthetic features of each label submitted including both printing/converting and finishing processes. “We examine each entry in great detail and make our decision based on our examination and the technical information provided. Although we expect a high standard of printing at this level and we also look for the quality of the design of the label and its final commercial application,” comments Tony White, Chairman of the judging panel. “Each year the quality level of the labels improves which makes selecting the winning labels all that more difficult.”

The judges for the 2018 competition included Mike Buystedt (Vice Chair), Noel Mitchell (FINAT), Andrew Maxwell (FPLMA), Mr Masaaki Yoshitake (JFLP), Ms Jean Li (PEIAC) and Harveer Sahni visiting judge (LMAI).

TMLM Member Winning Companies & Categories:

Class 1: Flexo Line
Winner TLMI: McDowell Label & Screen Printing, USA for “Braising Sauce”

Class 3: Flexo Color Process
Winner TLMI: Labeltronix, USA for “California Love”

Class 4: Flexo Wine/Spirits
Winner TLMI: Multicolor Corporation North America Wine & Spirits, USA for “Freakshow Zinfandel”

Class 14: Combination Line/Screen
Joint Winner TLMI: McDowell Label & Screen Printing, USA for “Burner”

Class 18: Digital Wine/Spirits
Winner TLMI: Syracuse Label & Surround Printing, USA for “Drawbridge Gin”

Class 19: Screen Printing
Winner TLMI: McDowell Label & Screen Printing, USA for “Pure Brazilian”

Class 21: Booklets
Winner TLMI: Yerecic Label, USA for “Campari Chef Inspired”