Professor Tan Junqiao, founder and honorary chairman of the China Label Sub Association of the Printing and Printing Equipment Industries Association of China (PEIAC), has been chosen as the recipient of the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Label Industry Global Awards. Judging for the 14th annual awards program took place during the FINAT European Label Forum (ELF) in Berlin, where the judging panel met to consider entries across four award categories. 

Sponsored by Avery Dennison, the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed upon an individual who has made a substantial and key contribution to the promotion and growth of the label industry over a minimum of 25 years. Professor Tan, the first Chinese winner of this prestigious award, is highly regarded and respected as the true founder and motivator of China’s label and packaging printing industries, having spent 36 years in both starting and helping build the country’s industry from ground zero to the present day - initializing the industry’s development, promoting China’s printing technology innovations, defining production standards, organizing and participating in events, improving government policies and in enterprise development.

Instrumental in promoting and introducing flexo printing into China, which involved convincing government agencies to reduce import taxes on flexo presses and, more recently, digital presses, Professor Tan has also provided valuable consulting advice to many global label converter and supplier companies entering China, helping them to define business development strategies, establish manufacturing locations and set-up subsidiaries or joint ventures.

Professor Tan joins the ranks of eminent and distinguished past winners including: Suzanne Zaccone of GSI Technologies, Tomas Rink of Ritrama, RotoMetric’s Steve Lee, Helmut Schreiner, Nilpeter’s Lars Eriksen, Kurt Walker of FINAT and FLEXcon’s Neil McDonough. 

During the same meeting, the judging panel announced details of the finalists for the three other categories. The 2017 finalists are:

The Award for Innovation (for companies with more than 300 employees), sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web (in alphabetical order):

• Aurika UAB
• Esko
• HERMA GmbH
• Klockner Pentaplast
• Lintec Corporation
• Multi-Color Corporation

The Award for Innovation (for companies with up to 300 employees), sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web (in alphabetical order):

• AIM, Inc
• Bobst
• Constantia Flexibles
• GEW (EC) Limited
• PowerForward Inc

The Award for Sustainability, sponsored by Xeikon (in alphabetical order):

• Avery Dennison
• ebeam Technologies
• Source labels 

Mike Fairley, chair of the judges explained: “Professor Tan was the stand-out choice for this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, with multiple recommendations from around the world. His passion and dedication over many years to promoting the development of a modern label printing industry in his country have led to him being widely acclaimed as the true pioneer and founding father of the Chinese label industry. We look forward to honoring Professor Tan and the other winners in person at the awards ceremony in September.”

Judges for this year’s awards, under the chairmanship of Mike Fairley were: Thomas Hagmaier, president of FINAT; Craig Moreland, chairman of TLMI; Andy Thomas, strategic director, Labels & Labeling and Rosina Obermayer, editor of NarrowWebTech.

The winners will be announced at the Label Industry Global Awards ceremony and dinner on 25 September, where Professor Tan will be officially presented with his award. Held as part of Labelexpo Europe in Brussels, tickets are available to purchase at www.labelawards.com.