appointments  printing - flexo 
Finewrap Australia took the annual Afta (Australian Flexo Technical Association) Best of Show Award for the best piece of flexo printing of the year, winning with its Kettle Sensations Honey Soy job, which the judges described as ’a brilliant print reproduction.’ The Award was announced at the annual Afta Forum, held this year in Terrigal, and attended by more than 200 industry figures. Durinf the conference a new Council was elected, with Espak plant manager Shane Pearce the new chairman. Other new Council members included James Luttick fmor Multiflex, Kym Bridges form MacDermid, David Geering from Laserlife, and Bob Jago from Espak.

During the awards presentation the other Gold award winners were announced, which included LeMac Enterprises, AEP Flexopack of New Zealand, FlexPack in Queensland, together with global giants Huhtamaki and TetraPak. Calwright Packaging was also a Gold award winner, in the narrow web surface print film category, despite its current difficult trading position.

The Hall of Fame Award was given to Iain Kennedy of Aldus Graftek, who has been in the flexo industry for 43 years and is a long time Afta council member. Retiring Afta chairman Andrew Maxwell said the Hall of Fame award had been given to Mr Kennedy due to his unstinting support of flexo through the years, his passion to see the industry develop, and his commitment to his customers.

Two new awards were given; the Apprentice of the Year, and the Chairman’s award for outstanding contribution. Mr Maxwell said the Afta Council had instigated the Apprentice of the Year award to help develop new young talent for the future. The winner was Matthew Gibson, who was with Calwright when he won the award, but is now somewhat ironically with another company in light of Calwright’s own uncertain future. Matthew netted an excellent prize of an all expenses paid study trip to the US.

The Chairman’s Award has been created to recognise outstanding contribution to the industry by an Australian company or individual, that will benefit the industry as a whole. The Award was given to Matthew Bernasconi from Opaltone Graphic Solutions for his development of seven colour process printing. Mr Bernasconi was in the US so could not be present for the award, but in true movie star fashion there was a video link up so he could proclaim his appreciation.

Overall the Awards judges said they were encouraged by the rising quality level in the awards, but were a little disappointed in the numbers, with only 20 companies sending in entries, representing only around a third of those eligible.