UBM Canon Packaging Group Proudly Announces the Winners of the 2014 Visionary Awards for the Global Packaging Industry

NEW YORK, June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Canon Packaging Group announced the winners of the 2014 Visionary Awards last night at a gala event at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, held in conjunction with the AmeriStar Package Awards and the EastPack event.

Presented by UBM Canon, and sponsored by Packaging Digest, Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News and EastPack, the Visionary Awards pays tribute to individuals and teams who showed vision and leadership in advancing their company's goals of innovation, differentiation, savings and growth. Visionary Award winners were selected based on the significance of their accomplishments, the measureable results of their accomplishments, and their success in motivating their team, based on personal accounts/testimonials. Judging was performed by an impartial panel of third-party jurors with expertise in packaging.

2014 Visionary Award Winners

PACKAGING PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS CATEGORY

GOLD AWARD – Diageo Team Cube, consisting of Paul Millar, Head of Packaging Technology; Dawn Reilly, COGS Reduction Brand Change Manager; Ray Webb, Project Engineer; Ian Bell, Packaging Development Technologist; and Donal Comerford, Central Manufacturing Lead, for developing and constructing a radical concept—a low-cost modular production plant for the blending and packaging of spirits—and commercialized it in multiple geographies within 12 months. The solution met operational requirements and saved 60 percent on capital investment.

SILVER AWARD – Mother Parkers RealCup Operations Startup Team, consisting of Stephen Leung, Plant Manager: Chris Meffen, Production Manager; Dennis Paynter, President of Coffee Operations, Lib Trombetta, Vice Director of Innovation and Technology; Yucheng Fu, Product Engineering Manager; and Janet Nagy, Human-Resources Manager, for completely gutting the existing Specialty Plant, dedicated to organic coffee and other specialty products, and doubling the size to the current RealCup Plant.

Since the conversion, the plant has successfully launched more than 180 individual stock-keeping units, driving growth in the company's private label and branded business in the exploding category of single-serve coffee and tea.

PACKAGING DEVELOPMENT & DESIGN CATEGORY

GOLD AWARD – Joe Mase, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, for his development of two significant healthcare packaging solutions. The PreventIV Measures program at Sagent is a comprehensive and proprietary approach to packaging and labeling that helps healthcare professionals accurately distinguish between look-alike, sound-alike products, making it easier for them to select the correct one. Mase also invented the Enlightened HRBC (high-resolution bar code) when he worked at Baxter, making it easier for bar codes on transparent IV bags to be scanned by printing the white spaces instead of the black bars.

SILVER AWARD – Mother Parkers Innovation and Technology team, consisting of Margaret LaRocque, Packaging Engineer; Shelby Parkinson, Analytical Lab Technician; Yucheng Fu, Product Engineering Manager; Paul Yang, Packaging Manager; and Lib Trombetta, Director of Innovation and Technology, for their EcoCup packaging project. The single-serve beverage cup design consists of a clear lid and translucent capsule. A breakaway tab enables the components to be easily separated by hand for recycling and/or composting.

The ceremony also honored winners of the AmeriStar Package Awards, sponsored by the Institute of Packaging Professionals. For a complete list of 2014 AmeriStar winners visit iopp.org.

Join the conversation and congratulate the winners using #PackVision and #IoPPAmeriStar.

About Packaging Digest
Packaging Digest is the premier packaging media brand. Respected worldwide for its timely and extensive coverage of trends, best practices and new technologies, the magazine reaches more than 80,000 subscribers who comprise decision makers in corporate management, operations and engineering as well as design and brand leaders. Through its online presence, Packaging Digest also offers expanded reach via enewsletters, videos, webcasts and other targeted services, making this brand the vehicle of choice for those seeking to reach the $470 billion global packaging market. Packaging Digest is a media brand of UBM Canon.

About Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News (PMP News) is a comprehensive resource for medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing professionals who need focused, reliable, and timely information to make intelligent packaging decisions. PMP News reaches more than 63,000 packaging professionals in the healthcare product packaging market via magazine, online, digital editions, e-newsletters, webcasts, whitepapers, and UBM Canon packaging trade shows.

About UBM Canon
UBM Canon LLC, the leading B2B media company dedicated exclusively to the global $3.0 trillion advanced manufacturing sector, helps support the flow of information, commerce and innovation in such sophisticated segments as medical devices and pharmaceutical development. UBM Canon also addresses cutting-edge developments in broader areas of advanced engineering design and manufacturing, and manufacturing processes and packaging. UBM Canon is part of UBM plc (UBM.L) a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

About UBM plc
UBM plc is a global events-led marketing services and communications company. We help businesses do business, bringing the world's buyers and sellers together at events and online, as well as producing and distributing news and specialist content. Our 5,500 staff in more than 30 countries is organized into expert teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

For more information, go to www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBM plc to get the latest UBM corporate news.

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SOURCE UBM Canon Packaging Group