L9 restructures World Label Awards

Finat has announced the decision by the L9 to restructure the World Label Awards Competition and launch the ‘Best-of-the-Best’ contest. The L9 alliance of global label associations formulates policies and strategic information in connection with global matters affecting the label industry.

The changes agreed upon at the L9 meeting in Chicago at Labelexpo Americas in September 2012 are said to reflect the evolution of label markets and label converting technology. The new format of comprises 22 classes which recognize ‘technical excellence’ in the different technologies as the main differentiator. The wine and spirits class has separate classes within those technologies. All other segments compete against each other. This arrangement is said to give many other converters an opportunity to win an award.

The 22 category winners for 2012 were selected by a panel, chaired by Tony White (Finat), which also consisted of one nominee from each participating association. The winners will be announced in February 2013.

The winners were also the finalists of a new L9 ‘Best-of-the-Best’ global awards, which will be celebrated annually during the Labelexpo show in September. It will honor the most outstanding labels in flexography, letterpress, offset litho, combination printing and digital Printing. The first L9 Best-of-the-Best awards will be presented during the Labelexpo Global Awards gala on the first evening of Labelexpo Europe 2013 in Brussels.

The World Label Awards (WLA) began in 1991 as an informal contest between the associations of Europe (Finat) and North America (TLMI), both of which have well-established regional competitions. In the course of the years other regional associations joined. Geographies that are currently participating include TLMI (North America), JFLP (Japan), LMAI (India), Latma (Australia), Salma (New Zealand), PEIAC (China) and Finat (Europe). With Abiea (Brazil) and Ametiq (Mexico), Latin America is expected to follow soon.