China Awards 2023 winners honored at Labelexpo Asia

The Media Impact Award of the Year, honoring the media platform demonstrating significant influence on the label and packaging industry in the country, was awarded to four winners: Xiaohumei Plays with Printing (TikTok), Niuge on Prepress Technology, HUSH Smart Label (TikTok), and Arojet Jet Printing (WeChat).

The Innovation Award recognizing the development of a specific innovation by a supplier company in 2022 was given to Spande, which impressed the judges with its S7 press, a new technology driving automation of the flexo process.

‘The press is equipped with the intelligent setup which integrates automated pressure adjustment from anilox to printing sleeve and print sleeve to anvil roll, along with intelligent auto registration,’ said the judges. ‘Automation also extends to the die-cutting unit, with both sides controlled by individual servo drives and servo/sensor-controlled cutting pressure. The combination of these systems means no manual setup is required.’

The shortlisted honorary mentions for the Innovation Award went to Maxcess (Zhuhai), Dangs and Pulisi.

Avery Dennison won the Sustainable Factory Award for Suppliers. The Sustainable Factory Award for Converters went to Jantan and Advance Printing.

The jury said: ‘Sustainability is influencing the development and transformation of the label printing industry. We are impressed by the innovative initiatives and results achieved by these three companies in terms of sustainability. In particular, Jantan and Advance Printing are in the competition for converters’ awards. Their scores are very close. Ultimately, we decided that both companies should receive the award.’

The Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a pivotal contribution to the promotion and growth of the label industry in the Chinese market and has been a high-profile industry influencer and motivator, was awarded to TC Chou.

The Label Awards judging panel commented: ‘TC Chou is a worthy winner of the China Achievement Award. This recognizes his unique contribution through the Cymmetrik Group, where he has worked for 43 years.’

Andy Thomas-Emans, chair of the judging panel, added: ‘For this Label Industry China Awards, we have been very impressed by the high quality of entries. I would like to thank everybody who submitted nominations, and on behalf of the judging panel, I would like to congratulate all the winners and finalists. The full range of innovation, team energy and powerful sustainability initiatives shone through during the judging process.’

Managing director of Labelexpo Global Series, Jade Grace, commented: ‘Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of this year’s Label Industry China Awards. We would also like to thank our sponsors - Avery Dennison, HP, Weigang, Pulisi, Flora and Label & Labeling magazine - for their support in making these awards possible and for their efforts in driving innovation and development in the industry.’

Kevin Liu, Labelexpo China project director, said:’ The Label Industry China Award is an extension of the Global Award. We hope all the winners can have greater success and inspire others in the sector to continue to drive the industry forward through this platform.’

The judging panel consisted of Xu Wencai, chairman of the packaging printing and label committee of the China Packaging Federation; Yin Jinhua, industry expert; Wang Yang, managing editor of CI Flexo Tech and Yolanda Wang, China editor of Labels & Labeling. The judging panel was chaired by Andy Thomas-Emans, strategic director of Tarsus Labels & Packaging Group.