6 December 2018

BPIF Member success at the Irish Print Awards

Two BPIF members from Northern Ireland received accolades from the Irish print community at the latest Irish Print Awards.

Fresh from the success in the Book category at last year's awards, Impro have now achieved top honours in the Brochure Printer of the Year category - sponsored by Antalis.

Pictured from Impro are Ernest Culley (left), Gordon Grattan (middle right) and Kirk Dominy (right).

It was also fantastic to see a company that invests heavily in training achieve success at the awards.  Nuprint's pre-press technician, Lauren Harkin, won the Print Media Apprentice - NI Level 3 category; sponsored by Alphagraphics and Bottcher.

Lauren Harkin (Nuprint, right) receiving her award from David Phillips (Alpagraphics).

Lauren joined the company as an apprentice in 2017, after completing A-Levels in Engineering and Double Award Applied Science. Also a student at Belfast Met, she beat off stiff competition from 74 of her peers to win at the Irish Print Awards.

"I'm absolutely delighted to have won the award," said Lauren. "I would really encourage more women to go down the STEM apprenticeship route. The print industry is developing very fast and becoming increasingly technologically advanced, so the future will require staff with a strong background in STEM subjects."

Gavin Killeen, Managing Director of Nuprint, said Lauren was a "shining example of a female in a male-dominated print industry excelling and embracing STEM."

Read more about Lauren's success on the Bussiness First website here.

Congratulations to all finalists and award winners - the full list of winners is available on the Irish Print Awards website here.