awards  Pride in Print 
Wellington’s Service Printers Ltd is the first company in the history of the Pride In Print awards to win the Supreme Award three times. Service Printers took the Supreme Award for its entry “Future Watch” a study of biotechnology trends through the next 20 years produced by Origin Design Ltd for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. Future Watch beat over 900 entries from all forms of printing to take out the 2006 title.

The awards were announced before a sell-out crowd of 1000 people at the industry’s 13th Pride In Print ceremony at the Sky City Convention Centre on Friday evening.

Supreme award finalists were Modern Bookbinding, Wickliffe Ltd, Panprint Ltd, Original Screen, APN Print Tauranga, Huhtamaki Henderson, Convex Plastics Ltd and Gravure Packaging Ltd.

Winner, Service Printers’ general manager John Durney paid tribute to the ethics of “traditional craftsmanship” that company founder Bob Masters had inspired in his team.

“Thirty years ago Bob founded the company and drew a line in the sand. Work had to be of a high quality. If something was found wanting his favourite line was ‘Anyone could print that’. But it was not good enough for him.”

He also paid tribute to suppliers Wellington Print Finishers and client Origin Design who had “pushed the envelope” with the design.

Head of sheetfed judges Bunny Nicholson says two sets of judges from the sheetfed section independently judged Future Watch to be the best nomination for the Supreme Award.

“Future Watch was beautifully printed with good registration. The degree of difficulty was very high and yet it stood out for its accurate die-cutting and embossing, good borders, line-ups and top-class finishing.”

While Future Watch took the top honours, there were also 85 Gold Medals and 154 Highly-Commended awards announced on the night.

Pride In Print has expanded to embrace 11 categories ranging from gravure and flexo to packaging, web, screen printing, sheetfed, digital, business forms and specialist processes, as well as ‘industry development’ categories such as an environmental award and export award.

Convenor of Judges Grant Letfus says the amount of investment the print and packaging industries had put into new equipment is being reflected in the quality seen in entries.

“There has been a general rise in standards across most print categories, with a marked rise in quality in the web offset category for daily and weekly newspapers, and corrugated packaging also consistently high. Sheetfed magazine quality is the highest-ever seen in Pride In Print.”

Apprentice of the Year, also part of the PIP Awards went to Jacob Wentholt of Amcor Flexibles Australasia, based in East Tamaki.