Flexotech 2012 gives a Royal Gold to Smurfit Kappa

Smurfit Kappa Print Vision – Tannochside, has been awarded Gold for its Corrugated Post-Print in the 2012 Flexotech International Print & Innovation Awards. The award was given for Smurfit Kappa’s Royal Salute 21-year-old blended whisky packaging for Chivas Brothers. The FSC certified, coated

EB-Flute, pack used a mixture of duotone and three colour process (black, magenta and yellow) to achieve exceptionally high levels of contrast and visual impact.

Using mixed screen technology, Smurfit Kappa Tannochside was able to fine-tune the density of colour across the pack to allow the very bright and detailed highlights within the design to reproduce striking images of the premium products – a ceramic flagon, metallic label, velvet bag and gold rope closure – contained within the pack.

Chivas Brothers, Royal Salute 21-year-old blended whisky is primarily sold in International Markets. Originally produced in 1953 to honour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, using 21-year-old whiskies, as a tribute to the 21-gun salute at her coronation, each new blend is much sought after as a connoisseurs limited edition.

The demanding and high specification design called for high levels of printing expertise and Smurfit Kappa Tannochside was chosen by Chivas Brothers because of their specialist knowledge of high-quality, cost-effective and flexible packaging solutions. Tannochside is well known for its ability to produce high-quality graphics on a variety of material combinations, enabling short lead times and lower run lengths over more expensive processes.

Robert Ritchie, Category Manager – Supply Chain at Chivas Brothers congratulated the Smurfit Kappa Team on the award: “You can be proud of your achievement. I congratulate each of you for your dedication and hard work. May all your future efforts be equally successful and rewarding.”

The award was presented by Kevin Keegan OBE, at the the annual FlexoTech International Print and Innovations Awards gala dinner held at the Hilton London Metropole. John Glancy, Technical Manager at Smurfit Kappa Tannochside commented: “Our success can largely be attributed to the close collaboration of our prepress team and IML, our on site repro supplier, who were able to match high-end repro techniques precisely to Tannochside’s process capability. “The end result as everyone here tonight can see is stunning, and to be awarded Gold ahead of all these worldwide entries, some from as far away as Argentina, is a considerable honour.”

www.smurfitkappa.com