Packaging Gateway

Daily Newsletter

10 August 2023

Daily Newsletter

Excellence in Flexography Awards 2023 winners announced

The awards honour companies who have exceptional quality and precise consistency in the package printing and converting industry.

The Flexographic Technical Association (FTA)’s Excellence in Flexography Awards has honoured companies in the package printing and conversion industry.

The entries are individually evaluated by a panel of judges on the degree of difficulty and level of execution across gold, silver, and bronze awards.

After being honoured at the awards, the winning companies are featured in Flexo Magazine’s awards issue, promoted on the FTA’s social media channels, and displayed in the Awards Gallery at INFOFLEX exhibition convention.

The Excellence in Flexography Awards 2023 winners

In the Wide Web category, gold and best of show awards went to PPC Flexible Packaging and American Packaging Corp.

For the Mid Web category, the top prizes went to Accredo Packaging and Sunshine FPC Inc.

From a wide range of entries in the Narrow Web category, Multi-Color Corp, Berry Global, G3 Enterprises, PPC Flexible Packaging, and McDowell Label, were all given gold awards, with the latter winning two awards.

In the Combined Corrugated category, the gold winners were Marvaco Ltd on behalf of Adara Pakkaus Oy and Advance Packaging Corp, which won two awards.

For Preprinted Linerboard, International Paper won an impressive three gold awards.

Finally, in the Envelope and Self-Promotion category, Encore Envelopes, Tension Corp, and Priority Envelope, all achieved gold with the latter winning three awards.

Excellence in Flexography Awards committee chair Alix Guyot commented: “This year we really saw what’s possible when entrants optimise for their pressrooms and focus on the printing.”

The FTA was founded in 1958 and its members include printers, consumer product companies, and manufacturers.

Generative AI remains an untapped potential across the consumer industry

GlobalData estimates the total AI market will be worth $909 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 35.2% between 2022 and 2030. The consumer goods, foodservice, and packaging sectors are undergoing digital transformation, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing consumer preferences. AI can help companies operating in these sectors by significantly reducing costs and production times. In Nestlé's 2022 full-year results, the company announced a renewed focus on digitalization to drive growth. Financial and reputational pressures associated with supply chain disruptions and sustainability concerns are also driving interest in the digitalization of supply chains. Data science and ML are strong investments across all areas. However, the sectors cannot stop at AI-powered data analytics applications. They must also explore computer vision (CV), smart robots, AI sensors that automate manufacturing and distribution logistics, and generative AI tools that increase efficiency across corporate departments and customer service operations and enable innovation in product design. For the most part, the consumer goods, foodservice, and packaging sectors will not play a significant role in creating and developing AI hardware or platforms. Instead, these sectors will help scale up the adoption of AI technologies, such as CV, conversational platforms, and smart robots. This adoption will be driven by the financial benefits and potential cost savings AI automation delivers across global supply chains.