The L9 Group of international label associations are pleased to announce the results of the 2025 L9 World Label Awards (WLA) competition, which was judged by an international panel of judges selected from each of the participating associations. The judging took place in Barcelona the day before the Labelexpo Europe exhibition opened. The L9 is an alliance of global associations formed to jointly formulate policies and to collect strategic information of global interest to the worldwide label industries.

The competition has been held in the existing format since 2001, with a change to the current class structure in 2012. The existing class structure encompasses all the principal printing processes and market applications used in the international label industry.

All member associations are invited to submit entries in any of the 24 classes of the competition, thus ensuring that a true international flavor is maintained. The results are a true representation of the worldwide label industry. This is actually the 34th year that the competition has been held (discounting the four years that it was not held because of Covid-19).

In 2025 entries were received from the following associations: FINAT (Europe), JFLP (Japan), TLMI (USA), LMAI (India), FPLMA (Australia), SALMA (New Zealand), and CPF (China). In total 84 entries were received, resulting in 27 winners and 13 honorable mention awards being given.

The judges for the WLA 2025 competition included: Steve Wood (FINAT), Keith Nagle (TLMI), Jon Murray (FPLMA), Araki Yoshitake (JFLP), Craig Nicholas (SALMA), Harveer Sahni (LMAI), and Prof. Xu (CPF).

Results

Class 1: Flexo Line

Winner SALMA: MCC Auckland for Musashi Range

This label shows a solid and even black coverage with excellent reversing out of very fine text. The company name in red is varnished, and a silver print is used to highlight other features.

Class 2: Flexo Line & Screen

Winner TLMI: Fortis Solutions Group for Prime Strawberry Banana SS

A distinctive sleeve for the product, created by collaboration between customer / prepress and print teams. The background features a smooth transition from 100% to 1% dot The product name in solid black is gloss varnished with a soft touch matte coating on the rest. Finally enhanced with a scratch ‘n sniff patch.

H/M SALMA: MCC Albany  for Terra Sancta Olive Oil

This job was converted to flexo from an offset job and had to match the previous work. It features impressive halftone work with sharp fine text reproduction. The cold foiling and detailed label shape further enhance the label.

Class 3: Flexo Color Process

Winner CPF: Company Cymmetrik (Jiangsu) for P&G HR – Hair Recipe (Moonlight Flower) Shampoo

An interesting two-sided label printed in three layers on transparent film. After printing the process color back image, a middle layer of two hits of white made a base for the front image.

The reproduction of the fine Chinese characters excelled.

H/M SALMA: Kiwi Labels for Hellers Danish Eye Bacon

Printed CMYK flexo with reversed out white text tested the skills of the plate mounting and the operators. The reversed out text is sharp and clean, and the overall appearance is effective.

Class 4: Flexo Wines and Spirits

Joint Winner CPF: Haoneng Industries Corp Ltd for West Lake Green Rain Beer

A visually interesting label, using a micro-optical structure array on the film. Through the Moire effect, a 3D image is created to the naked eye with apparent parallax when viewed from different angles. Good clean foiling holds very fine details.

Joint Winner LMAI: Any Graphics for Grand Whisky

A nicely printed label, with even background color. The effective use of accurate embossing and cold foiling gives the label a luxury look.  

H/M FPLMA: Multi-Color Adelaide for Beenleigh Rum

This label is imaged on both sides. This is done by printing on two separate substrates (PP Clear and PP Silver), which are then laminated together before going through the finishing processes.

The back of the label is halftone monochrome, whereas the front of the label has an excellent solid background, with very clean reversed out fine text, and clean gold printing.

Class 5: Letterpress Line

Winner FINAT:  Tikedo Srl, Italy for Tenuta Albaricca Olio Extra Vergine

Excellent overall solid black, with accurate and fine reversed out text. The main image is a hot-foil logo with sharp and clean detail.

Class 6: Letterpress Line & Screen

Winner FINAT: Kuresa S.A., Peru for L’Essence Colonia orquidea Exotica

Printed on film, the background is a very even solid print of Pan 516c, with a sharp halftone representation of an orchid in Pan 2352c, over which a varnish has been accurately printed.

The name and details of the product are screen printed in white. There is some very small and fine text which has been printed excellently.

Class 7: Letterpress Color Process

Winner  JFLP: Kyushu Craft Industries for Handmade Horse Meat Croquette

This label is printed on PP synthetic paper. The yellow in the process set was warmed slightly to produce a visually appealing representation of the croquette. The reversed out Japanese and western text is, in places, very fine, but has been printed well, and is in some places extremely fine and sharp.

H/M LMAI: Any Graphics (P) Ltd for Pine Fragrance Oil

A label printed onto film, using a special white ink as underbase, followed by CMYK process colors. A good use of tactile varnishing to highlight the product name.

Class 8: Letterpress Wines & Spirits

Winner JFLP: SATO for Iwate Common Beer

Printed in letterpress process on semi coated paper, this label has really fine Japanese characters, which have been reversed out of the four color process. These characters have remained absolutely sharp, with no indication of filling in. The four-colour process screen ruling is extremely fine.

Class 9: Offset Line

Winner TLMI: MCC North America, Napa for Castello di Amerosa – Serata

This label was mostly printed with offset gold onto the black substrate, achieving an outstanding result. The main image was varnished. The border and shield were foiled, but giving a very detailed result.

H/M FINAT: MCC Premium Label Solutions, Australia for Sparrow and Barrow Pinot Noir

What appears to be a simple label, has foil applied, printed with a flexo matte varnish, then a screen high build varnish, and red printed onto the foil. The registration of these processes makes it an excellent label.

Class 10: Offset Line & Screen

Winner FINAT: MCC Premium Label Solutions, Australia for William Light

An interesting label, in as much as there were quite a few variations on the theme, where each label had a different wood grain effect. The labels had a tactile effect, created by applying a flexo matte varnish, and a screen high build varnish. The foil blocking created a deboss to accentuate this effect.

Class 11: Offset Color Process

Winner FINAT: Multi-Color Corporation Americas for Freakshow Petite Petit

A visually impressive label, busy! Printed litho in eight colors, CMYK with four matched additional colors, using 175 line stochastic screening. It has an almost continuous tone appearance.

Other processes used to effect are rotary hot foil, screen varnish, and embossing.

Class 12: Offset Wine & Spirits

Winner CPF: Yantai Shenma Packaging Co., Ltd. Printing Branch for Duomingli V9 Wine

A visually striking label. Good solid black offset print, with a similarly solid red in the main logo.

The label is enhanced by embossing with matt gold cold foiling, and screen varnishing. The embossing is in good register with the foiling.

H/M  JFLP:  Shinwa Label for Wagauji Dive to Future Japanese Sake

The label gives the impression of travelling into time. Good use of process colors over the white print. Good clean silver foiling around the main image.

Class 13: Combination Line

Winner CPF: Suzhou Jiangtian Packing Technology Co., Ltd. for LUX Essential Oil Fragrance Series Fresh Freesia Conditioner

This label was printed in flexo, with a screen print of tactile varnish containing iridescent particles. The effect changes with viewing angle. The flexo print is very sharp, reproducing the Chinese characters cleanly. The label also has cold foiling which has been carried out with skill.

Class 14: Combination Line and Screen

Winner LMAI: Holostik India Limited for Olfactive

Printed predominantly by flexography, screen printing is used to enhance the design of the window frame and the intricate surrounding design. A holographic foil has been printed inside the window aperture, which has an outside scene on it.

Class 15: Combination Color Process

Winner FINAT: Sancak Etiket, Turkey for Nicea Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Printed on silver stock, the background is predominantly a good even opaque white. The mock gold foiling is created from process colours printed onto the silver substrate. The individual spot colors in the design are created form the process color, which are finally enhanced by the accurate screen printing of tactile varnish.

H/M TLMI:  McDowell Label for Electric Lemonade

This graphic intensive and highly embellished shrink sleeve provides a truly immersive experience for the renowned edc/insomniac tour. Combination processes include a very tight four-color process work, line work, a pattern varnish, doming, and a glow in the dark ink, which all shrinks uniformly.

Class 16: Combination Wine and Spirits

Winner JFLP: Sunmec Co Ltd for Japan’s Spiciest Sake

Printed in offset and letterpress, the label features a motif of randomly arranged triangles. By using silver materials, it showcases a dynamic interplay between white tones and RioTone textures, creating a striking visual contrast. To evoke a sense of depth and weight, it is printed in rich black, with several white-outlined elements that highlight the precision of the registration.

H/M FINAT: Multi-Color Italia S.p.A for Calimaia Nobile di Montepulciano

Printed in offset and flexo, and embellished with a tactile screen varnish, embossing and debossing (background texture) the label gives a very pleasant visual and tactile result.

Class 17: Digital Line

Winner SALMA: MCC Albany for True Honey Rare Harvest 2050+ Manuka Honey

This is a label for a very expensive honey. Starting with a digital print, the printer used a technique called “floating foil,” which is the printing of the foil on top of a screen printed high build varnish.

Class 18: Digital Line & Screen

Winner CPF: Suzhou Jiangtian Packing Technology Co., Ltd. for  Ferrero Chocolate Dancing

Printed digitally using a Durst press onto a bright silver substrate the label is distinctive by way of the high build design surrounding the central image.

Class 19: Digital Color Process

Winner FINAT: Çiftsan Label & Packaging Ltd, Turkey for Valeria Delicious Crème Mains

A digital print onto a semi-rigid substrate. A tactile feel comes from the printing of varnish over the detail in the image. The feel comes from lamination with soft touch lamination.

H/M CPF: Baoshen Science & Applied Technologies Co., Ltd for Buddhist Five Precepts Diagram

Printed digitally, this label is aimed at anti-counterfeiting using fluorescent colorless anti-counterfeiting + water-discoloring anti-counterfeiting inks.

Class 20: Digital Wine & Spirits

Winner TLMI: MCC Paarl (South Africa) for Women of the World

Starting from just a photograph, with some gold foiling, the printer suggested adding some high build screen to several areas of the picture. The label was further enhanced using matte and gloss varnish to create the tactile feel.

H/M FPLMA: Label House for Embelir

Printed digitally, finishing on an ABG Digicon involved flexo, hot foil, emboss and deboss and produced a simple but visually pleasing label. The embossing of the nest and foiled bird is in perfect register.

Class 21: Screen Printing

Winner FINAT: Çiftsan Label & Packaging Ltd, Turkey for Royal Caviar Shampoo

The no-label look will look good on the product. The screen printing of the very fine lettering in several languages is very clear and easy to read. The “R” logo is detailed with a high build screen varnish containing glitter on the individual dots.

H/M LMAI: Any Graphics (P) Ltd for Clown Laughing

A fine example of screen printing. The colors are even, and the fit is really good. The use of a high build varnish is in excellent register.

Class 22: Gravure

Winner LMAI: Orianaa Decorpack PVT Ltd for Omeelax & Omeelax Plus 200ml

Printed in gravure onto film, the label shows a good even print of all colors. The white background has good opacity. All the text is clear, and the register is very good.

H/M CPF:  Zhejiang Zhongyu Science & Technology Co Ltd., for 3D Cloud Film Anti-counterfeiting In-mold Label

This product is composed of a 3-layer structure. The outermost layer is a cloud film with naked-eye 3D anti-counterfeiting effect. The middle layer is the printing layer, which is printed by gravure – the golden patterns and the red background is reverse printed; the innermost layer is the printing and laminating layer, which can be directly attached to the bottle body. The combination of this in-mold label and 3D effect anti-counterfeiting technology not only increases the visual impact but also improves the anti-counterfeiting level of the label.

Class 23: Booklets

Winner FINAT: Helvetikett AG, Switzerland for Sustainable 14 page F.E.A.R. Booklet “Haarlemmermeer”

A 14-page booklet printed s/f litho, then folded and converted into a label using Fix a Form. The product is designed to speak to younger adults. It is sustainable as it contains no plastics.

H/M LMAI: Letra Graphix PVT Ltd for Bazooka Extreme Fat Burner

The label is printed in flexo and screen featuring cold foil, screen emboss, and gloss varnish. It is a two-layer label with a peelable top layer printed on a foil, to reveal the instructions printed on the lower paper layer.

Class 24: Innovation

Joint Winner CPF: Maxim Smart Manufacturing Co. Ltd for EcoCustoms Customs Data/Product Information Multi-purpose Label

This QR code label serves as the digital product passport for the item. The EcoCustoms QR code can help export enterprises clear customs quickly. With this QR code technology, two different sets of product information can be scanned through the same QR code. When scanned by consumers, product descriptions or consumer interaction information can be seen. When scanned by customs staff, the information necessary for customs clearance will be displayed, which can help import and export traders clear customs quickly.

Joint Winner JFLP: Kanazawa Seal for New Year Treasure Ship

This label was created for a limited-edition New Year sake by Toyoguchi Naohiko Laboratory in Ishikawa. It features a treasure ship and the 2025 zodiac sign “Snake,” with artwork and a palindrome poem by Kutani ware artist Seito Tamura. Designed to be removable, the label can be placed under a pillow on New Year’s Eve for good dreams or framed as a keepsake.

To mimic Kutani ware’s texture, resin is applied to colored areas for a ceramic-like feel. The label’s structure and printing were carefully engineered for precision and elegance.

Joint Winner LMAI: Any Graphics (P) Ltd for Kashmir Honey

This is a distinctive label for Kashmir Honey, with a kiss-cut around the butterfly logo. When the label is applied to the cylindrical container, the butterfly’s wings stand away from the surface.

The label also features accurate spot high build varnishing and gold detailing.