Indian print firms win seven awards; Pragati, Thomson and Manipal Tech make India proud at Sappi Printer of the Year awards; Five Sappi awards for Pragati

With several prestigious awards being announced at the crucial month of June, printers from India bagged seven out of 22 honours at the Pinter of the Year awards. It was for the first time that the coveted award, organised by the international trading division of Sappi, Sappi Trading, was held in India.

Gold, silver and bronze awards were conferred to printers in nine categories namely — annual reports, books, brochures, calendars, catalogues, magazines, packaging and labels, general print and printer’s own promotion. India won four bronze, one silver, and two gold awards. 

While Pragati Offset bagged gold award in the packaging and labels category, Thomson Press won gold in the digital printing category. The lone silver also fell in Pragati’s kitty for its entry in the printer’s promotion category. It also won a bronze each for its submissions in the annual reports, calendar and book categories. Manipal Press collected a bronze under the books (web) category.

Congratulating the winners and calling them an inspiration to the global printing fraternity, Wayne Rau, CEO, Sappi Trading said: “India is a very strong player in the printing industry globally. A fact that gets further established by the seven awards won by the country, apart from several silvers and golds won by Indian printers at the Sappi Awards.”

P Narendra, director, Pragati Offset whom we thought would be elated after winning five awards was surprisingly a ‘bit disappointed’ at missing another Gold at the awards. He said: “We were looking for a gold in the calendar’s category as well, so we are a bit disappointed. The reason for printing a calendar with several innovations is because we wanted it to be our flagship entry to compete against the international printers. At the same time, the awards won for different categories testify that we are a good commercial printer across categories. We have won the Elephants earlier too and inshallah we expect to win it again this year”.

Notably, the digital printing category was swept by Asian printers. Commenting on it, Rau said: “Digital printing market has not taken off globally as everyone expected. However, in the last half-a-decade, Asian markets have taken the leading as far as installations of digital printers are concerned. I have no doubt that in another decade or so, Asia will be the leader in the digital printing market. This is because Asian markets are generally very digitally oriented,” he added.

“This is an India shining moment and as the years go by you would see lot of gold and silver awards coming our bay. We all take printing very seriously, the market is growing and so is the demand for quality. The awards we won represent the quality of work we have put in, and therefore, we are sure that we have a great chance at winning the Elephant as well,” Jassawala ofThomson Press.

Shashi Ranjan, vice president and SBU head, Manipal Technologies, shared the credit with his customer, Conde Nast India. “Getting honoured for a work on a platform that compares you with international competitors speaks volumes about the quality of work that is done in India. However, the honour has to be shared with the customer as well, because it is them who set the quality acceptance level. Both convertor and the client should be serious and aware about quality standards followed worldwide.”

Now, Pragati and Thomson would tussle with finalists from other regions for Sappi International Printer of the Year awards in their respective categories. Winners would be awarded the Elephant trophy which has long been considered as a sign of printing excellence by printers across continents.

Gold winners in the eleven categories from Asia are:

Silver winners in the eleven categories from Asia are:

Bronze winners in the eleven categories from Asia are: