PALO ALTO, Calif. – HP today announced the winners of the third annual HP Indigo Digital Labels and Packaging Contest, which recognizes customers from around the world for their commitment to excellence and innovation in digital printing – the fastest growing segment of the label and packaging converting industry.(1)

The contest witnessed significant growth in 2009 with more than 270 entries submitted – a 48-percent jump compared to last year. All submitted entries were produced on HP Indigo presses and were showcased in HP's exhibit at the Labelexpo Europe trade show in Brussels last month.

Winners received their awards at a gala dinner held during Labelexpo. HP will have the contest's winning entries on display this month, from Oct. 5-7, at the Pack Expo trade show, Las Vegas, in booth No. S5356.

Unlocking creativity in converting and product branding
"Product brand owners, designers and label and packaging converters are growing in creative directions based on the outstanding quality and production flexibility HP Indigo offers," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. "The end result is that the industry is seeing more and more top-quality labels and packaging work produced with digital – especially the winning entries showcased in this year's contest."

Categories for the contest included label printing for wine, household, industrial, food, pharmaceutical, alcoholic beverage and nutraceutical products. In addition, the contest honored the best shrink sleeve entry and the best entry produced as a self-promotion of a converter's own capabilities.
Contest entries were judged by a panel of independent, industry-recognized experts, including: Paul Baker, principal scientist at Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Ltd.; Paul Clayton, managing director of Royston Labels; Michael Fairley, director of strategic development for Tarsus Expositions and Publishing's Label Group; Andrew Thomas, group managing editor, Labels & Labeling; and Anthony White of AWA Consulting.

HP launched the contest in 2007 to promote quality and ingenuity in the digital labels and packaging printing market, and invited HP Indigo press users to submit jobs that represent the distinctiveness of their company, prove their progressive printing capabilities and showcase the impressive execution of a digital production challenge.

Innovative Labeling Solutions, a U.S. firm based in Hamilton, Ohio, took home three best-of-category prizes at the gala, plus four additional honors. The complete list of HP Indigo Digital Labels and Packaging Printing Contest best-of-category winners is below, with the category or categories each firm won shown in parenthesis.
•    DB TECH, Korea (industrial labels, pharmaceutical labels)
•    FORLABELS Ltd., Greece (food product labels)
•    Gold Coast Graphics, USA (wine labels)
•    Innovative Labeling Solutions, USA (household product labels, neutraceutical labels, self-promotional work)
•    Kalfany Süße Werbung GmbH & Co. KG, Germany (flexible packaging)
•    Setprint Centro Tecnológico Digital Ltda., Brazil (health and beauty labels)
•    Supa Stik Labels & Labeling Systems Pty. Ltd., Australia (alcoholic beverage labels)
•    Traco Manufacturing, USA (shrink sleeve packaging)

In addition to these honors, judges in the Digital Labels and Packaging Printing Contest presented special recognition awards to Bridge Publications; Do-It Corp.; Dow Industries; Geostick B.V.; Label Solutions-Palero Impresores; Manufacturas Metálicas Canals SA; Osaka Sealing Printing Co. Ltd.; RFID n Print Pty. Ltd.; SEIKO Co. Ltd.; and Setprint Centro Tecnológico Digital Ltda. in recognition of unique, high-quality entries those firms produced using HP Indigo technology.

HP digital printing solutions for labels and packaging include the HP Indigo press ws4500, which is the converting industry's best-selling digital color press, and the HP Indigo WS6000, a high-productivity press designed to be more cost-effective than flexographic printing on up to 80 percent of the label jobs converters produce. HP Indigo presses are renowned for quality and, in the past two years, labels printed on HP Indigo have earned best-in-show honors at industry contests that also judged entries printed on flexographic and offset presses.(2)


(1) HP internal estimates.
(2) HP Indigo-printed labels were best-in-show winners in the packagePRINTING magazine 2007 Excellence Awards and the Tag & Label Manufacturers Institute 2008 awards competition.