It is a famous
saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”! The last labelexpo held as a globally
attended event was “Labelexpo Europe 2019” in Brussels, and while writing about
the event on this blog, I titled it as
Labelexpo
Europe 2019, the best ever! I had started that article with the words; “From
the word go, Labelexpo Europe 2019 was a vibrant and happening show!” and so it
was. Each year a multitude of visitors from various segments of label
industry which include printers,
suppliers, consultants, media and label users make a beeline for this august
show, wishing it to be bigger and better than before . Little did anyone know
or visualized that the humanity will go through a traumatic time of life termed
as a “pandemic.” If all goes well, it will be four long years before the next
Labelexpo Europe may be held in Brussels in 2023, a show that is referred to as
the Mecca for the international labels community. The past three years have witnessed
immense human suffering, many lost their lives and there were a vast number of
businesses that suffered. Post a gigantic global drive to vaccinate the world
population against the terrible virus Covid-19, normalcy started surfacing and
businesses started limping back to life. The announcement of Labelexpo Americas
was welcome news but there was still an air of caution about getting infected
because the virus had not been completely eradicated. Labelexpo Americas is a
much smaller event as compared to the European event. The yearning by the
labels industry to venture out again to witness the new developments and
network with global peers in the widespread labels industry surfaced and
finally the American event turned out to be a remarkable success. At the Labelexpo
Americas 2022, the joy in togetherness after a hiatus of three years was
evident!
Label
Industry Global Awards 2022
https://youtu.be/_7DLJvRYkUI
In the evening
of the first day of Labelexpo Americas 2022 The Global Label Reunion Party 2022
was organized and the Label industry Global Awards were announced. The winners
were chosen by a judging panel consisting of Lori Campbell, chairman of TLMI,
Linnea Keen, president of TLMI, Philippe Voet, president of FINAT, Greg Hrinya,
editor of Label & Narrow Web, James Quirk, then group editor of Labels
& Labeling, and Jean Poncet, editor-in-chief at Etiq+Pack. The chair of the
judging panel was Andy Thomas-Emans, strategic director Tarsus Labels & Packaging
Group.
As previously announced, the winner of the 2022 R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award is Harveer Sahni, the author of this blog. The judging
panel felt Harveer meets all the criteria for excellence demanded by the
industry’s most prestigious award for an individual’s contribution to the
growth and development of the global labels industry. His history in building a
company to manufacture self-adhesive labels in India, through to his central
role in building the Indian label association and then acting as an influential
ambassador on the world stage, all helped the judging panel to come to their
decision. He was introduced by the TLMI President Linnea Keen who
conferred the award to him. Speaking on the occasion Harveer Sahni spoke of his
journey in labels and the lessons he learnt. His speech can be head on the
following link;
https://youtu.be/ySJ_9JhSHFg
Other winners announced
are as follows:
The Rising Star Award went to Stijn Billiet, Global Sustainability Director, MCC
Label. Stijn joined MCC in 2020 and made an immediate impact bringing
sustainability onto the agenda of the business. Early 2021 he presented a
roadmap for all global production sites to reduce their carbon footprint,
guiding the Belgian facility to carbon neutral production. Stijn represents MCC
in its collaboration with organizations such as Holy Grail, RecyClass, APR, and
CELAB. The judging panel felt Stijn has demonstrated clear potential to be a
future leader and is already a strong voice within the labels industry.
The Environmental Sustainability Award was won by Flint Group Narrow Web, for a new line of products
designed to enable more sustainable packaging. The first product in the series,
Evolution Deinking Primer, when used with Flint Group EkoCure XS inks, enables
deinking of crystallisable shrink sleeves, allowing the clean sleeve label
material to be recovered and recycled into PET packaging. The judging panel
felt that the Evolution Deinking Primer makes a major contribution to
developing a circular lifecycle for label materials.
The Innovation Award for companies with over 300 employees went to Actega for its Signite decoration technology.
Utilizing the latest in UV-curable chemistry, Signite decorations are created
entirely on press, eliminating the need for the laminated constructions used in
traditional pressure-sensitive label production. Signite decorations are built
in register with the graphics and label content, so there is no die cutting and
no matrix to dispose of. Signite decorations are applied with a specialist
inline applicator developed by Actega, initially for glass straight-walled
containers. The judging panel felt this to be a step change in the way label
decorations are produced and a major contribution to industry sustainability.
The Innovation Award for companies with under 300 employees was awarded to S-OneLP for its ReEarth compostable
flexible packaging films. ReEarth films have achieved ASTM D6400 commercial compostability
standards and are both BPI and USDA Biopreferred certified. A compostable print
film, adhesive, and sealant layer make up this laminated structure that can be
surface printed with digital or flexographic technologies. The judging panel
felt that with more label converters diversifying into flexible packaging
products, a fully compostable solution is a great aid to future packaging
industry sustainability.
The Rising Star award is sponsored by Avery
Dennison; the Environmental Sustainability award is sponsored by Labels &
Labeling; the Innovation Award for companies up to 300 employees is sponsored
by Flint Group Narrow Web; and the Innovation Award for companies over 300 is
sponsored by Xeikon.
Labelexpo Americas 2022
Defying the caution and scare of Covid-19 visitors travelled
across continents to witness the ample display of technologies and solutions at
the event. There were a lot of live equipment running and there was a sense of fulfillment
amongst the visitors. The show was vibrant and a wonderful precursor to the
biggest of them all, “Labelexpo Europe 2023 at Brussels”. I reproduce
pictures of my walk through the show.
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| Lisa Milburn MD Tarsus Labels group |
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| Dougles Emslie Group CEO Trasus |
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| Linnea Keen President TLMI |
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| Omet team with Paolo Grasso (Actega) |
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| Geoffery Martin Global CEO CCL Label |
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| Christian Menegon Business Dev, Mgr HP |
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| Marco Calcagni Sales Director Omet |
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Ramon Lee MD Brotech, Keren Bec and Leaf Zhang
|
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| Natalia Tsamorina at the Cartes Stand |
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| Mark Andy/Rotoflex Stand |
Written and compiled by Harveer Sahni
Chairman, Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi and recipient of R. Stanton Avery
Global Achievement Award 2022 September 2022
