The winners of the prestigious Eugene Singer Award for Management Excellence were honored at therecent converter meeting in Naples, FL. One of TLMI’s highest honors, this award recognizes excellence in business management measured and defined by an established set of growth andprofitability ratios through the TLMI Management Ratio Study. Award recipients were asked to share some comments for the TLMI Illuminator, and to express what this honor means to them personally,and to their companies.

Fountain Valley, CA-based Coast Label Company won in their category for the second time, and company CEO,Craig Moreland, had the following to say upon being notified that Coast Label was once again the small company category award recipient. “When we won this award last year I feel that I didn’t give nearly enoughpublic credit to the people who really do all the work at Coast Label Company. After all, by buying a label business and showing up as President on my first day in the industry, I didn’t exactly work my way up through the organization. I’ve never made plates, run a press, cleaned an ink pan, or rewound labels. I just stand back and make profound statements like “I’ve seen that press run 750 feet a minute at Label Expo, and I’d really like us to try and do that here.

It’s my team of people who have to listen to me - the guy who can’t do any of their jobs – challenge them to do things faster, better and more economically. They are all amazingly good sports about it, and they work very hard at continuously improving how we do everything. They deserve a lot of credit and a big “thank you” from me for working so diligently, putting up with my constant pushing and prodding, and bringing in the numbers that allowed Coast Label Company to earn the Eugene Singer Award for 2008.

This year’s winner in the Mid-Range category was Fairfield, OH-based Kopco Graphics, Inc. This is Kopco’s first time winning the Eugene Singer Award and President, Doug Kopp, had the following to say about being awarded with one of our industry’s highest honors. “This is one of TLMI’s highest honors and it is just a real thrill to be this year’s recipient of the Singer Award. Every year you turn in your Ratio Study and then go to the Spring Meeting and watch other companies win. During a very difficult year for many of us, we were able to overcome various increased operating expenses and compete in a highly competitive marketplace. In spite of it all, we were able to post some pretty good numbers. To say that it was a team effort by all of our 38 employees at both the Cincinnati and Bradenton locations does not do them full justice. From the top to the bottom, they are the best and certainly without their combined dedicated efforts, this award would not have been possible. I wishthey could all be here to receive this award. I’m so proud of them. We knew we had a chance to win this year but when Frank Sablone called and said that we had won, it was the icing on a fantastic year for Kopco Graphics. We look forward to being a contender next year.

This was Burr Ridge, IL-based GSI Technologies’ fifth time receiving the Singer Award, and Suzanne and Bob Zaccone had the following to say upon being notified. “We are honored to have won this prestigious award for the fifth time. While reflecting on last year, we realized that the more things change the more they stay the same. The change we have seen is that today we have more engineers on staff than sales people and our salespeople, now more than ever before, are thinking in a more technical way. Yet things have stayed the same in that GSI Technologies’ success is firmly based on our staff! We need to thank our customers, suppliers, our parent company Thrall Enterprises Inc., and most of all our staff as together they assembled the projects and the team to move forward.

The final Singer Award presented, for the large company category, was delivered to Longwood, FL-based Consolidated Label. This is Consolidated Label’s seventh consecutive time winning the award, and the first time they have won in the large company category.Joel Carmany, company CEO, commented, “It’s a great honor for Consolidated Label to win the Singer award inthis our 25th year in business. Our employees appreciate the award in recognition of their continuing hard work and extra effort. We thank our customers for the continued support over the years that make this all possible.

Eugene Singer Award for Management Excellence 2008
Coast Label Company - Small

Kopco Graphics, Inc.- Mid-Range

GSI Technologies, LLC - Medium

Consolidated Label Co. - Large