Adams and Focal lead the field at National Print Awards

Regional printers are the big winners of this year’s National Print Awards, with Adams Print from Geelong and Tasmania’s Focal Printing taking home three gold each.

Adams Print won gold in both the case bound and limp bound book printing categories, and won the one, two or three colour printing title and the Heidelberg Award for Excellence in Craft for its limp bound book, ‘Geelong Art Gallery – Collections’.

Best of all, it won the Judges’ Award for Excellence with the case-bound book, ‘The Extraordinary Life of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones’, an award presented to the best all-round print work.

Robert Soutar, production manager at Adams Print, was surprised by the firm’s incredible showing, putting it down to patience, hard work and attention to detail.

He says, “You have to have the right clients to be able to produce quality work. So much of the market is price driven, but we were lucky enough to have clients that care about quality.

“It’s great to have customers that see printing the same way we do.”

Soutar says staff at Adams Print care deeply about the quality of their work, some so committed they drive from their homes in Melbourne every week.

He says “We work tirelessly, everything has to be spot on because quality is what we’re about.

“You have to care about the quality of your work or you just get sucked into the price wars.

“But you also have to respect your competition or you aren’t motivated enough to keep improving and you fall behind.”

Adams Print’s kit is led by a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL105 six colour B1 press and a Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 Anicolor.

The other big winner was small Tasmanian firm Focal Printing, which with only seven full-time staff won three gold medals including the best small business award.

It won the multi-piece productions and campaigns; and booklets, catalogues and magazines saddle-stitched categories.

Owner Geoff White says, “It’s easier to keep the quality high in a small company than a bigger one.

“You have to be diligent at work at it to make sure you don’t let it slip, and motivate staff to do their best.”

White says he has worked to establish a tradition of quality throughout the business, employing a Swiss-trained production manager to oversee the floor and has tried to instil the same values in his children.

He says, “He comes from a high-quality background like me, so I think we have assembled a great team that can keep the tradition alive.

“There’s a bit of luck involved too, but I think the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

White says Focal Printing invests in quality equipment, such as a Ryobi five colour with coater offset press, which allows the firm to handle long and short run orders of quality work.

Perth digital printer Discus on Demand won the Currie Group Award for the Most Innovative Use of Imaging in Printing for ‘Brothers Wedding Book’, which won the gold award for Innovation. It added a second gold for digital wide format printing.

Double golds also went to STI Group and Rawson Graphics from NSW, and Picpress and Mercedes Waratah from Victoria.

Most of the remaining Golds went to South Australia, with The Bowden Group, Finsbury Green, Newstyle Printing, Openbook Howden Design & Print and Cutler Innovative Print Solutions all going home with a top award.

The Fuji Xerox Award for the Most Effective Use of Digital Printing Technologies was given to Momento Pro for its entry, ‘Bhutan – Black Ribbon’.

The Media Super Future Leaders Award, created to recognise and reward exceptional young employees, was presented to John Billett, a print machinist with Foot & Playstead in Tasmania.

About 400 guests attended the awards at Sydney’s Westin hotel on Friday, which was hosted by radio and TV presenter Libbi Gorr along with Melbourne businessman Will Fowles, with comedian and ventriloquist Dean Atkinson providing entertainment.

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