Kiwis Celebrate First Win at Aussie SWUG

Press Release from APN Print New Zealand, March 28 2012

Kiwis Celebrate First Win at Aussie SWUG

Two New Zealand APN Print plants are celebrating their first win in the prestigious Australian Single Width Users’ Group (SWUG) Awards.

APN Print Ellerslie and APN Print Hastings both achieved success at the Australian SWUG conference held recently in Brisbane.

APN Print Ellerslie won the inaugural Norske Skog trophy for best overall print quality on a double-width press for their submission of The New Zealand Herald edition January 31, and APN Print Hastings took out the award for best overall four-colour newspaper for the Hawke's Bay Today January 27 edition.

Ellerslie’s prize package was worth A$4500 with materials from Bottcher, Fujifilm, Ferag, AGFA and DS Chemport. Hastings received a package worth A$6500 comprising materials from AGFA, Flint and Fujifilm to the value of A$2500 plus a barbeque worth $4000 from DIC Australia.

It was the first time for both to pick up awards in Australia and Dan Blackbourn, GM Operations APN Print NZ, commented that this was a fantastic result for the New Zealand arm of the company.

“There are numerous people involved in winning these awards from those in head office to those on the press hall floor. Processes have been put in place over time to ensure that APN Print is recognised as a quality printer and guarantees to print award-winning publications.

“The two sites that entered are testimony that it is not just any one site in the APN Print stable that produces quality work and for both to be recognised is testimony to this. This also assists with the Trans Tasman rivalry and it is good to see NZ work recognised in the Australian awards.”

Russell Wieck, Operations manager at APN Print Ellerslie and Russell Johnston Press Supervisor at APN Print Hastings attended the conference for the first time and came back with some impressive silverware.

Russell Wieck said the inclusion of a double-width press category presented the opportunity for Ellerslie to be judged alongside other Australasian double-width sites.

“We were very keen to have our print quality displayed and scrutinised. The win confirms the relentless focus on quality at Ellerslie and reflects the efforts of the print teams as they strive to deliver fantastic print quality for every product leaving the site.

“The print teams work hard to ensure maintenance processes are completed, giving a press that prints to its optimum efficiency. This combined with the extensive staff training initiatives at APN Print delivers a quality result that we are all proud of.

“The win is a great result for the teams and one we will be keen to repeat in 2013.”

Russell Johnston paid tribute to his Hastings team for their work on HB Today, the site’s main client.

“It was a 16-page main edition broadsheet consisting of 14 pages of full process colour. Registration is not easily achieved on this press, but with hard work we put out a very good product for which I owe my team a great deal of thanks.”

Russell dedicated the win to Eric Lawrence, who sadly passed away on March 23 — “A friend, fantastic tradesman and one of the nicest guys I have ever meet, who will be missed by everyone who had the privilege to know him.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media