Offset Alpine wins Sappi Trading Gold Award

Leading the charge of Australian companies that gathered a total of six silver and bronze awards, the Offset Alpine entry, a UV-coated publication published by renowned photographer Bob Armstrong, beat other finalists from Australia as well as entries from China, Singapore and Mexico. The Sappi Trading Printers of the Year awards, held last week at Flemington racecourse, proved once again that it represents the highest level of international competition in the printing industry.

“When the winner [Offset Alpine] goes forward to represent Sappi Trading at the international event to be held in the historic city of Boston in October this year, it is with the secure knowledge that they are the best of the best,” said Wayne Rau, new CEO of Sappi Trading.

The prestigious competition continues to attract an increasing amount of interest from printers in Australia and New Zealand. The entries are judged against others from the four regions where Sappi Trading operates; Asia, Central and South America and Australasia, including New Zealand. Despite not getting any awards in at least two of the nine categories, the number of silver and bronze awards won by Australian companies attests to the high quality of local printing.

The competition to win through to the world finals is intense with successful entries already recognised as prized examples of the craft of printing. Certainly Bob Armstrong maintains he has never seen his photographs better reproduced.


Although missing out on an award at this year’s National Print Awards, Body of Work, was designed as a showcase piece. Armstrong (pictured here centre with Grant Hackett and Michael Kinninmont of Offset Alpine) tells how he was approached by Michael Kinninmont, general manager of Offset Alpine to provide a job that would demonstrate the abilities of the company’s new Heidelberg press. What was suggested was perhaps one of the many annual reports for which Armstrong is a recognised leader in the field.

“I said no, we’re always liable to compromise in these situations,” said Armstrong. “I said I’d design a magazine from scratch to give the best possibility of showing what we both could do,” he said.

The result is a stunning work and a worthy Australian entrant into the Sappi Printers of the Year competition where it will be judged against gold medal winners from the USA, Europe and South Africa.

“You never know, this could be the one that brings home the Elephant Trophy,” said Time Schafer, managing director of Sappi Trading Australia.

And the other local winners are:

Drago Zoric, of Melbourne-based D&D Global Group won two silver medals in the brochures and printers own promotion categories.
West Australian, Andrew Neal, Scott Print, picked up silver in catalogues while PMP also won silver for magazines.
Queensland-based Platypus Graphics won two bronze awards in annual reports and brochures.



Mine hosts of the night: Wayne Rau, new CEO of Sappi Trading, Tim Schafer, managing director of Sappi Trading Australia with Hugh Martin, former CEO of Sappi Trading, recently retired to Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast.

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