30 September 2002

BPIF Excellence Awards 2002

Click here to see the full list of 2002 Awards' winners In only its 4th year, the BPIF’s Excellence Awards 2002 registered an astonishing 70% increase in guest numbers with over 300 attending the gala event at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square on Monday (9 September). Ian Byers of headline sponsor LloydsTSB was impressed with his organisation’s first association with the BPIF. "The level of attendance, the quality of the entrants and the professionalism of the event exceeded our expectations. The Excellence Awards 2002 is a strong base from which to build further. We’re actively considering supporting the event again in 2003 as well as working more closely with the BPIF in other areas," he says. The coach trip that 17 of Buckingham Colour's employees made down the M1 on Monday afternoon was rewarded as they returned in the early hours of Tuesday having won this year's UK Company of the Year Award. An effervescent Richard Knowles (Chairman) says: "This award publicly recognises and rewards the achievement of every single member of the Buckingham Colour Group`s team. The whole company was tremendously excited about being short-listed for this prestigious award and to be the chosen winner has made us extremely proud. We're all delighted." Other winners included TJ International which scooped both the Employers’ Training Award and the Environment Award, Field Boxmore which won the Safety Award at its labelling plant in Wrexham, and William Pollard which beat off strong competition in the Best Use of Digital Print Category. MPG Books won the inaugural Turnaround Award and MetalFX narrowly pipped Inkland at the post for the Supplier of the Year Award. The Individual and Apprentice categories of the National Training and Development Awards were hard fought with John Hodgins of Century Cutting & Creasing winning the former and Lee Taylor of Trafford Park Printers beating five other Apprentice finalists, every one of which had made the journey down to London for the event. Simon Curry, commercial director of BT Openworld delivered a compelling speech to open the event: "Broadband needs a powerful evangelist in order to deliver its full potential to the UK economy, and quickly. With the obvious benefits that it brings to the industry, printing could and should be that evangelist. Most of today's capital equipment is digital. In addition to the clear efficiencies of high bandwidth file transfer, collaborative networking between supplier and customers and the employee satisfaction that effective implementation of technology that broadband brings, it will drive a faster return on the considerable capital investment for printing companies. This industry led the adoption of ISDN. It can do the same for broadband, and that's why BT Openworld is delighted to be supporting this event." Hosting his first Excellence Awards, BPIF CEO Michael Johnson was encouraged by the turnout and more importantly the calibre of business excellence within the industry: "What was brought out in all the awards, from Safety to Turnaround, was the importance of people. Although the types of companies were very different, from labelling to books, from large to small and from Newcastle to Padstow, the common thread was effective training and communications of the workforce. In fact training often extends to other stakeholders such as the customer particularly where a new technology, such as digital printing, is being adopted. We will foster this competition to grow in the future as a key part of our commitment to promoting a competitive and profitable UK printing industry," he promised.