In its 13th year, and considered to be the industry benchmark, the PrintWeek Awards is the flagship of PrintWeek and WhatPackaging? magazines (under the aegis of Haymarket SAC), the country’s voice for the printing and packaging industry. 

In all, 48 Prisms were handed out in the course of the evening, in 33 categories. There were 11 Performance Awards, 18 Quality Awards and four Special Industry Awards.

Addressing the gathering via a recorded video, Saket Kanoria of TCPL said, “I am profoundly honoured and humbled to accept on behalf of TCPL Packaging the prestigious PrintWeek Company of the Year Award. This recognition holds immense significance in the world of print and packaging, and it’s a moment that fills us at TCPL with pride.”

Incidentally, this is TCPL’s first-ever win at the PrintWeek Awards. Kanoria thanked the jury members and auditors as well as the team at Haymarket Sac for “acknowledging the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our entire team at TCPL”. He said, “This award is a testament to the resolute efforts and tireless pursuit of excellence by every member of our organisation.” 

Book of the Night unveiled by PrintWeek Company of the Year Award winner - TCPL

For the 13th edition of the PrintWeek Awards, this year, the Awards received submissions from 100 printing and packaging leaders. More than 700 print and packaging samples were evaluated by 23 Jury members comprising industry experts, brand representatives and print buyers during the Jury Week held on 4-6 October. All print samples were coded and the identity of the company was kept confidential. The Jury reviewed the entries, discussed their choices with their fellow Juries and then made the final selections.   

On the Awards night, Manipal Technologies won the Book Printer of the Year (Specialty and Trade) jointly with Nutech. TCPL Packaging also won the Innovative Printer of the Year (PET, LDPE, HDPE, PVC, PP, PS, metal / glass) category, for creating a sustainable all-PE stand-up pouch for Whey chocolate one-kg pouch, along with Pune-based Sai Paks. 

First-time winners and joint winners were the running themes of the evening. This, in turn, points towards two major industry trends – technology implementation across the board and the proliferation of small, often craft-based businesses and D2C brands, thanks to the rising demand for fast, easily ordered short-run packaging. Plus, more and more companies are adopting in-house skills to boost technical expertise, at the same time, implementing structural changes, adding automation and tweaking the work process.

This year, there were 14 first-time winners, including multi-locational behemoth and boutique converters based in tier-II cities – TCPL Packaging; Quarterfold Printabilities; EPL; Multivista; Kwality Offset; Lipi International; Nisarga Works; Sain Packaging; Print Vision; iMS Group; Holostik; Afflatus; Hitech Print Systems and Yarbal Print-Pack.

Highlighting how the industry has collectively proven itself in delivering innovative, eye-catching products, joint winners were declared in 15 categories. Some of the prominent categories were Most Challenging Project of the Year (Afflatus Gravure and Holostik India); Customer Service Company of the Year (DCD Printers and S Kumar Multiproducts); Green Company of the Year (EPL and Multivista); Export Company of the Year (Brilliant Printers and Quarterfold Printabilities); Innovative Printer of the Year (paper / paperboard / corrugated) (Perfect Packaging and ITC Packaging and Printing Business); Label Printer of the Year (Any Graphics and Kwality Offset); Packaging Converter of the Year (F&B) (ITC and Lipi International); Packaging Converter of the Year (Letra Graphix and Sain Packaging) 

Meanwhile, eight companies took home the Awards in multiple categories. Among them, Kolkata-based CDC Printers took home four Prisms, including two in the coveted Performance category (Book Education Company of the Year and Customer Service Company of the Year).

CDC Printers wins Book Education Company of the Year 2023

Hitech Print Systems wins Factory of the Year 2023

Hitech Print Systems, Nutech Print Services; Silverpoint Print Services; Letra Graphix; ITC, TCPL Packaging and Trigon Digipack all took home two Prisms each.

Other major winners of the evening were Avantika Printers (Digital Photo Album Printer of the Year); Prodon Enterprise (Fine Art Printer of the Year); ABP (Newspaper Printer of the Year); Ocean’s Deep Printers (Packaging Converter of the Year (FMCG)); Spectrum Scan (POS / POP Printer of the Year); Manjushree Technopack (Packaging Company of the Year - Rigid Packaging (Metal / PET / Plastic)); Parakh Flexipacks (Packaging Company of the Year - Flexible Packaging); Printmann Group (Packaging Company of the Year - Folding Cartons (Boutique)); Parksons Packaging (Packaging Company of the Year - Folding Cartons (Large volumes)); Khetan Corru Case (MSME Company of the Year)

Earlier in the evening, Hormazd Sorabjee, the managing director of Haymarket Sac India and editor of Autocar in India welcomed 300 print delegates. Hormazd Sorabjee thanked the print and packaging industry for the overwhelming response. Later, Sorabjee shared the feedback from the Award auditors, JK Doshi. He said, “There is a steady increase in the scale of operations; there is improvement in profitability leading to healthy cash accruals as well as improvement in liquidity; plus better ratings due to client diversification in India and overseas.”

Hormazd Sorabjee was delighted about the growth in books. He said, “The India Book Market Report 2022 prophesies Rs 98,920 crore for the print book market by 2024-25. It was Rs 30,660-crore ten years ago.”

He felt three things are a must. “Industry status for the print companies and packaging converters in India.” Also, he felt, “Since 1986, digital printing has been announced as the printing solution of the future. 35 years have passed by. I feel that digital print business is growing.”

Manabu Yamazaki, president and CEO of Canon India, was the chief guest of the PrintWeek Awards. On the occasion, he complimented PrintWeek Awards for providing a benchmark for the finest creativity in the professional printing segment. He highlighted Canon’s association with the platform which has been a long one.

Yamazaki added, “Despite the pandemic-induced slowdown, the industry was quick to pick up, especially with the increased adoption of digital across industries. The printing industry has undergone rapid transformation in the last couple of years augmented by advanced innovations and a rise in customers adopting digital experiences.”

Then, Manabu Yamazaki highlighted some of the key trends which he has discerned. He said, “In India, volume growth of commercial printing, decentralisation of digital printing, and its expansion in tier-II and III cities is driving new applications for industry. It has been up to each industry as to how they join the digital bandwagon and stay relevant in today’s dynamic landscape.”

Kalpak Shah, assistant manager, awards and events, said, “We wholeheartedly thank the industry for its generous support in making the Awards a success. We also thank our partners for helping us make the event an industry benchmark."

The evening concluded with the unveiling of the Book of the Night.

Complete list of the winners

Student of the Year

Aarti Desai

Ved Vikas Bachhav

Most Challenging Project of the Year

Afflatus Gravures  

Holostik India  

Factory of the Year

Hitech Print Systems  

Customer Service Company of the Year

CDC Printers  

S Kumar Multiproducts  

Green Company of the Year – Large

EPL  

Multivista Global  

Export Company of the Year

Brilliant Printers  

Quarterfold Printabilities  

Book Printer of the Year (Education)

Nutech Print Services India

Silverpoint Press  

Book Printer of the Year (Specialty and Trade)

Manipal Technologies  

Nutech Print Services India

Book Printer of the Year (Print on Demand - POD)

Silverpoint Press  

Brochure & Catalogue Printer of the Year

CDC Printers  

Digital Printer of the Year

Letra Graphix  

Digital Photo Album Printer of the Year

Avantika Printers 

Fine Art Printer of the Year

Nisarga Works  

Prodon Enterprise

Innovative Printer of the Year (paper / paperboard / corrugated)

Perfect Packaging

ITC Packaging and Printing Business

Innovative Printer of the Year (PET, LDPE, HDPE, PVC, PP, PS, metal / glass)

Sai Paks India  

TCPL Packaging  

Label Printer of the Year

Any Graphics  

Kwality Offset Printers 

Newspaper Printer of the Year

ABP  

Packaging Converter of the Year (F&B)

ITC Packaging and Printing Business

Lipi International  

Packaging Converter of the Year (FMCG)

Ocean's Deep Printers 

Packaging Converter of the Year (Pharma)

Letra Graphix  

Sain Packaging  

Packaging Converter of the Year (Rigid Box)

Trigon Digipack  

Print Vision  

Packaging Converter of the Year (Paper Bag and Textile Boxes)

CDC Printers  

POS / POP Printer of the Year

Spectrum Scan  

Pre-Media Company of the Year

IMS Group India  

Pre-Press and Design Service Provider of the Year

Trigon Digipack  

Packaging Company of the Year - Rigid Packaging (Metal / PET / Plastic)

Manjushree Technopack  

Packaging Company of the Year - Flexible Packaging

Parakh Flexipacks

Packaging Company of the Year - Folding Cartons (Boutique)

Printmann Group

Packaging Company of the Year - Folding Cartons (Large volumes)

Parksons Packaging  

SME Company of the Year

Yarbal Print-Pack  

MSME Company of the Year

Hitech Print Systems  

Khetan Corru Case  

Book Education Company of The Year

CDC Printers  

PrintWeek Printing Company of the Year

TCPL Packaging