May 30, 2007 -- CONCORD, N.H. -- Concord Litho, one of the country's leading independent printing companies, won nine design and production excellence awards at the 17th annual National Calendar Awards competition held in Ohio last month. Concord Litho won five Golds, three Silvers, and one Bronze for excellence in calendar work done primarily for non-profit organizations, including Disabled American Veterans, Salesian Missions, AMVETS National Service Foundation, and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. More than 300 calendars were submitted for this year's competition, which is sponsored and judged by the Calendar Marketing Association, the only worldwide trade association for the $1.4 billion calendar industry. The National Calendar Awards program is the industry's top annual competition, recognizing the highest quality calendar design and production in the world. "Calendars are an incredibly important product for many of our clients, especially non-profits who leverage them in their fundraising efforts and as a cost-effective way to connect with their donors 365 days a year," says Tom Cook, president of Concord Litho. "The quality and craftsmanship of our calendar production is known nationwide . . . we’re thrilled to share this success with our clients, who can now proudly display and call their calendars ‘national award-winners.’ " Concord Litho, which produces more than 50 million calendars annually, won awards in every calendar class it entered -- pocket planners, wall calendars, and poster calendars. The $42 million company has seven sheetfed and web presses, an in-house bindery, a kitting and fulfillment center, and a special Fundraising Division that caters exclusively to non-profit organizations, providing services from copywriting and graphic design to development of custom paper premiums, such as gift wrap, cards, bookmarks, and calendars. Featuring metallic inks and unique use of spot gloss varnish, Concord Litho’s 2007 promotional wall calendar, "Innovation With Impact," which it designed and printed, won four National Calendar awards, including three Golds and a special technical award for Best Printing. Other standouts include "Best Non-Profit Pocket Planner" for a 2007 datebook featuring angel artwork for Salesian Missions, and "Best Non-Profit Wall Calendar" for "Dawn’s Early Light," a special edition calendar Concord Litho designed and produced for Disabled American Veterans. "We’re always looking for new formats and efficiencies in producing all our printed products, including calendars," Cook says, adding that the company’s Fundraising Division is currently designing several new cost-effective calendar formats to help clients offset recent postal increases. Concord Litho also won a Gold Award for "Most Original Calendar" for production of a 10.5-inch-by-4-foot moon phase poster for New York City publishing company Davis-Delaney Arrow / Phase Five Communications. Available at retail stores and online at www.lunarcalendar.com, the poster features intricate trapping, metallic inks, and gloss and matte varnishes on high-quality black poster stock. The project was run on a 7-color KBA large-format sheetfed press.