PICA season comes to SA, WA and Northern Territory

PICA victories continue as South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia print companies go for gold and gain entry into the National Print Awards.

The first round of awards kicked of at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Friday 22 August where 470 staff, suppliers and supporters from the South Australian and Northern Territory converged to celebrate the best in printing.

"The standard of printing excellence continued to rise, providing the independent judging panel with the challenging and daunting task of differentiating between entries," said Peter Mansfield, general manager of Printing Industries, South Australia and Northern Territory.

38 gold, 32 silver and 28 bronze awards were presented to printers. The Best Overall Production awards went to Finsbury Green (South Australia) and Colemans Printing (Northern Territory).

Pictured: SA and NT regional president, Ian Bowden presenting the award to Peter Orel from Finsbury Green.

Mansfield added that in two categories, two golds were awarded because of the high standard and the judge's inability to separate the best entry.

Meanwhile Western Australia set a new record with its PICA awards on 23 August attracting 454 entries in 32 categories.

A total of 126 medals were presented – 39 gold – which automatically quality for entry in the new look National Print Awards – 48 silver and 39 bronze.

The Printing Industry Recognition Award was made to Dudley Scott, managing director of Scott Print who was recognised for his contributions to the Western Australian printing industry.

Scott has been at the forefront of one of Australia's leading printing companies and a tireless worker for reform, a great supported of Printing Industries and its activities and has blazed a trail of innovation and good business practice. Scott Print recently won a Benny in the prestigious US awards and is Perth's only ISO 14000 printing company.

Pictured: Ian Bowden presenting the award to Mark Teakle from
Colemans Printing.

Printing Industries' Western Australia regional president, John Stangeland, commended the industry on the high quality of its entries in a very challenging business year.

He said he believed the industry was entering “new and uncharted waters" on the issue of climate change and emissions taxes. He encouraged businesses to commit to the key issues of recruitment and training and to provide career and work place development opportunities to encourage employees into the industry as an industry of choice.

Chairman of the Australasian Paper Industry Association (APIA) and CEO of CPI Bernie Cassell, spoke of the dire consequences of the misrepresentations being made about the paper and printing industries. He reminded the Industry that credible international bodies had confirmed that paper and printing were among the few recognised sustainable industries.

Printing Industries' WA general manager, Paul Nieuwhof, said the industry's support of PICA guaranteed that the West would be well represented in the National print Awards in May 2009 and would come away very successful.

"Not wishing to stir up an interstate rivalries, we just tend to do it better here in the West, something even the Americans acknowledge with our recent successes in the Benny's and Binding Industries Awards," he said.