The top two plaques in Australia’s Single Width Users Group technical competition are going to Western Australia yet again.
A determined team from Fairfax Media’s Rural Press Printing Mandurah print site scored their third consecutive win in the annual competiton, winning both the Art Rollers Shield and the Coates Australia (DIC Australia) trophy. Ron Brown (centre) is pictured with members of the jubilant Mandurah team (Greg Haley, Brendan Hannay and Stuart Holder) and Terry Brissett of Art Rollers (left) and Ian Johns (right) of DIC Australia.
Entries from the site figured not only in two of the top awards, but also among those highly commended. Their success left only one other major award up for grabs, with honours going to Shepparton Newspapers’ Newsprinters business unit.
Winners were:
Best overall print quality (Art Rollers Shield) – Rural Press Printing Mandurah (manroland Uniset 75 press) for ‘Avon Valley Advocate’;
Runner-up, Fairfax Regional Printers (Uniset 75) for ‘The Herald’;
Highly-commended, RPP Mandurah for ‘Merredin-Wheatbelt Mercury’.
Best four-colour newspaper (Coates Australia Shield) – RPP Mandurah for ‘Australian Financial Review’;
Runner-up, RPP North Richmond (Uniset 70) for ‘Hawkesbury Gazette’;
Highly commended, Newsprinters Shepparton (Goss Community) for ‘Shepparton News’.
Best coldest commercial production (Flint Ink Shield) – Newsprinters Shepparton for ‘SN Real Estate’;
Runners up (tie), Horton Media NZ (Goss Community) for ‘NZ Aviation’, and RPP Mandurah for ‘Good Guys’;
Highly commended, RPP Mandurah for ‘Australia Asia Business Weekly’.
The presentations were the highlight of the annual SWUG dinner, which included the announcement of Mesm Noureddin from Rural Press Printing’s Murray Bridge (South Australia) print centre as the 2009 apprentice of the year. Encouragement awards go also to James Johnstone from Canberra’s Capital Fine Print in Canberra and Sarah Weldon of host site Border Mail Printing. All three – who all come from Fairfax Media sites – will receive a travel prize.
Apart from a business technical agenda and Sunday night’s awards, the weekend conference has included a visit to Norske Skog’s Albury newsprint mill, and entertainment at the Kinross Woolshed.
It continues on Monday with a programme including assessement of the awards results, a motivational speaker, and finally a visit to the Border Mail Printing site across the border in Wodonga.
