David McGinlay of Müller Martini receives the Novel Manufacturing award from Stationers’ Company master Ian Bennett (picture: David Jones)

 

The winner of 2017 Stationers’ Company Innovations Excellence Awards was the Publishers’ Licensing Society for its online solution to managing and monetising rights for authors and publishers of extracted works, but printing equipment vendors and printing companies also figured strongly.

Held at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London on 20 June, the fourth annual event for the first time made awards in six categories in addition to the overall Innovator of the Year award.

The Novel Manufacturing prize went to Müller Martini for the InfiniTrim three-knife book trimmer. Interviewed at the awards ceremony by BBC Radio 4 presenter Peter Day, sales manager David McGinlay explained that the unit, which can trim 2200 copies an hour, potentially all of different sizes, was a “ground-up development” and that the company had already sold the first two and a half years’ production to an “online retailer”.

Hobs Group took the award for Creative Communication for its “4D” technology. Based around 3D printing of building models for the construction sector, the fourth dimension is time, which enables Hobs’ clients to present the development of building projects and sites over time in a very direct and easy-to-grasp way. Receiving the award, James Duckenfield, group CEO, suggested that there was also a fifth “data” dimension that could be added, displaying costs or statistics, though 3D printing of buildings themselves is very much in its infancy.

Designs for Retail Markets was won by Parkside Flexibles packaging for a novel lasered resealable flexo-printed “sharing” bag; Ultimate Digital was commended in this category for its personalised KitKat campaign.

Other awards went to Calibre Audio Library, a national charity whose CAL Download mobile app allows blind and partially-sighted people access to around 10,000 audio books, and Dennis Publishing for linking its car magazines with a sales-focused website; the Publishers’ Licensing Society also won in a category as well as taking the overall prize. All six winners plus commended entries will receive £3000-worth of consultancy from intellectual property protection consultants Mathys & Squire.