WA printer scoops LATMA Awards
More than 160 members attended the awards dinner that was held in the Olympic Room of the hallowed Melbourne Cricket Ground, with a view overlooking the floodlit turf and displaying the newly completed stands prepared for the recent 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Perth company Label Magic beat a strong field to garner the award for its Irwin River Grenache 2004 wine label.
Peter Sage, chairman of the LATMA Awards, had high praise for Label Magic, which also won gold in the Rotary Letterpress section and two other minor awards although it only employs 10 people.
“The win by the small Perth printer proves that member companies do not have to be large to pick up the top award. It definitely provides encouragement to smaller label printers to enter LATMA's 2007 awards,” says Sage.
The winning entry was printed CMYK plus two spot colours, varnish and hot foil. Label Magic had used intermittent rotary letterpress with flexo varnish unit and foiling in line in the production process.
Kelvyn Shaw, proprietor of Label Magic, says it was a humbling experience to be selected against such a strong field.
“It is a fantastic achievement for the company, and full credit goes to designer Michael René from Complete Graphic Designs, who shares with me the honours for the award-winning label,” says Shaw.
Judges for this year's event were Rodney Urquhart (National Printing Laboratory), Don Woolman (retired ex Precision Labels), Bob James, (ex Melbourne College of Printing) and Iain Kennedy (Web Press Australia).
LATMA puts the spotlight on training
Speaking at the event, Frank Gavrilos, NSW President, praised the initiative of the Victorian Government in agreeing to fund additional skilled training, which he says LATMA members should consider.
“The $240 million Government initiative has been extended from funding only new employees to also cover existing employees, utilising RMIT and TAFE colleges, offering LATMA members a unique opportunity to have their employees' training costs completely covered,” says Gavrilos.
He urges members in Victoria to familiarise themselves with the funding scheme and to make contact with the colleges to assist in setting up schemes appropriate to the $650 million label and tag manufacturing industry.
The industry is hoping to attract more employees by reducing the current four-year apprenticeship to 24-30 months.
Training is becoming a central issue for the industry and LATMA recently introduced a four-point plan to address it. The plan calls for:
Gavrilos pointed out that members were prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on improving equipment but very little in improving the skills of their greatest resource - their employees. The LATMA plan would begin to correct this anomaly.
In announcing this year's LATMA awards, the awards committee paid tribute to the high standard of production exhibited by entrants. Major winners at the Awards were: