Packaging & label specialists from the Asia Pacific region recognised and awarded for their flexographic prowess

Recently packaging and label specialists from the Asia Pacific region were recognised and awarded for their flexographic prowess at the recently held 3rd Asia Pacific Cyrel Grand Prix awards ceremony that took place at the Grand ballroom of the Hyatt on the bund in Shanghai. Putting India on the Specialists Map of flexographic packaging and label printers from the Asia Pacific region were eighteen printers from India who won various awards at this event.

Wintek Flexo Prints, Seljegat, Letra Graphix, Pragati Flexo, ICM-Amartara, Bilcare, Uflex, Betts India, Numex Blocks, Pinmark, Veepee Graphics Solutions and Unique Photo Offset Services are some of the notable winners. The awards ceremony hosted by Dupont saw over 200 attendees including customers, industry partners, academia and print buyers participated in the event that was spread over 14-15 Oct ‘10.

The Jury panel for the 3rd Cyrel Grand Prix-Asia Pacific met at the DuPont Packaging Graphics, Customer Technology Center in Shanghai on the 26-27th August 2010 to select the winners from 422 entries spread over 11 categories.  After two days of intense deliberation, the jury panel compromising of print buyers, printing gurus and noted print media professionals chose the winners for the 3rd Asia Pacific Cyrel Grand Prix awards.

Members of the jury panel included Mr. Gautam Bhattacharjee,  the Technology Director of Packaging & Development Asia Printing & Substrate Capability from P&G Technology (Beijing) Co.Ltd.; Mr. Guido Bambagioni, the Group Manager Packaging & Design from Nestle R&D Centre Beijing Ltd.; Mrs. Xiaoxia Wan, the Dean Prof. of School of Printing and Packaging Engineering from Wuhan University; Mr. Xu Wencai, Assistant President, Prof. Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication from Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication; Mr. Wolfgang Klos-Geiger, the Publisher and Editor of Flexo & Gravure Asia from G&K TechMedia GmbH.

Talking about the quality of the entries, Gautam Bhattacharjee said “The entries were very high quality, especially for a region like Asia where high quality flexography is relatively new.  We had a tough time selecting the winners.”

“I was impressed by the overall quality and the printing capability flexography has achieved, especially in the tag & label segment.  We can see the fantastic quality and effect flexography is able to deliver with the combination of various other processes and effects,” said Guido Bambagioni.

Vijay Ramachandran, marketing manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics-Asia Pacific, added, “It was an exciting two days.  It is clear that flexography is now breaking new horizons in Asia and you can see great quality from across the region. The quality of flexography coming from India, China & ASEAN is now world class, we are happy to be a part of this exciting industry and process”.

Also launched at the sidelines of the event was a forum for Asia-Pacific - Flexo4all. The six founding members including Dupoint, EskoArtwork, Seigwerk Inks, Comexi, Windmoller & Holscher and Tesa Tapes signed a MoU confirming the formation of the strategic alliance. These companies were also partners and sponsors of the awards event. Jagdish Kumar, regional director at DuPont Packaging Graphics, Asia Pacific called on the industry to unite together under the banner and jointly take flexography to newer heights in the region.

The Grand Prix Cyrel is designed and developed to be a powerful engine to promote the growth of flexography within the printing packaging industry. It is more than just an exhibition and more than a demonstration of packaging technologies and techniques. It is intended to provoke strategic thoughts in the minds of the packaging experts across the globe.

Prior to the event, the participants spent the day in an industry seminar titled “The Printpack Congress.” The congress discussed both technical and new developments in the industry. There was also a panel discussion consisting of print buyers and converters as well as industry partners to debate and discuss on a number of topics including sustainability.

DuPont Packaging Graphics is the world’s leading supplier of flexographic printing systems in digital and conventional formats; including Cyrel brand photopolymer plates, Cyrel Fast processing equipment, Cyrel round sleeves, mounting and finishing products.