Gravure Packaging has walked away with an unprecedented haul from this year’s Pride in Print awards for its environmental innovations, taking home five gold medals, a Highly Commended citation, and awards for category and process.
Based in Wellington, New Zealand and with a sister company in Sydney, Gravure Packaging (GPL) produces gravure-printed flexible packaging, and according to managing director Greg Chapman, is committed to investing in quality people, equipment, and processes. “That commitment is enabling us to successfully compete in the global packaging marketplace and continue to win valuable export work,” he said.
GPL picked up the category award in Industry Development and Creativity, Sustainable Print For Tomorrow’s World, for its Ausgreen light-protecting shrink sleeve. The sleeve uses GPL’s new ‘Blizzard’ technology, which Chapman says aims to provide light protection that won’t end up in landfill.
“Sandwiched into the shrink sleeve structure, this technology acts as a selective light protection barrier,” he said. “It provides brand managers with an excellent, bright and colourful aesthetic, a good light barrier and, in concert with the use of transparent PET bottles, an end product that can now be recycled.”
The Blizzard coating is a new technology that uses less ink and is compatible with clear bottles. “To date, our solution has provided the opportunity for 7.6 million plastic bottles to be recycled,” said Chapman. “Due to the technical benefits of the process, it has comparably used both 2500kg less ink and 200,000kg less Titanium Dioxide.”
GPL’s other major award, in gravure process, was for Kiwi Farm kiwi fruit juice labels printed with ‘GravureHD’ cylinders, developed alongside the company’s ink supplier and cylinder engraver over the past two years. These produce high-quality images with less ink and power than standard cylinders require.
“The photography capturing the freshness of the kiwi fruit and leaves was paramount to the Kiwi Farm juice brand, which undertook a major rebrand in 2017,” said Chapman. “Our cylinders have replicated the finest details of the leaves and even kiwi fruit hairs, which was previously unachievable.”
