On Aug. 5, 2016, Sun Chemical and Flint Group announced that Sun Chemical is acquiring Flint Group’s  European publication gravure ink business. Of course, completion is still subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the competition authorities.
 
For Sun Chemical, the move allows the company to add customers as well as to augment its product portfolio. For Flint Group, selling off the publication gravure business in Europe allows it to increase focus on its core web offset markets.
 
I can’t recall any other acquisitions between the two largest international ink companies, which in itself is noteworthy. It is also interesting to see where the European publication ink business now stands.
 
Felipe Mellado, chief marketing officer and Board Member for Sun Chemical, said that this purchase shows that Sun Chemical remains committed to all its publication businesses.
 
“The acquisition of Flint Group’s publication gravure ink business reaffirms our commitment to this sector and will enable us to further strengthen and enhance the performance of our own publication gravure plants,” Mellado said.
 
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Sun Chemical – securing the long-term supply for our publication gravure customers in Europe,” added Tony Lord, GM Print Media Europe, Middle East and Africa/VP European Operations.
 
This move can’t be looked at in a vacuum, though. Back in February 2016, Flint Group acquired the web offset business of Siegwerk Druckfarben, the fifth-largest international ink manufacturer.
 
“This investment confirms our long term commitment to customers in these key market segments and re-enforces our unique offering to the market of inks, press room chemicals and transfer media products,” said Antoine Fady, CEO, Flint Group, said at the time. “This commitment guarantees a long term supply position for our heatset and news ink customers and further enhances our strong focus on the print media and packaging markets across the world.”
 
The decision to divest its web offset ink business allowed Siegwerk to focus on its core packaging ink segment. At the time, Siegwerk noted that its publication gravure ink business was remaining in its hands. Siegwerk added that its market share of approximately 45% in Europe gives the company a strong market position in publication gravure.
 
“To ensure the lasting success of our company, we need to clearly devote our resources to serving the markets of tomorrow. We will do so by focusing on our core packaging printing business,” Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker noted at the time.
 
So, at the end of this flurry of activity in Europe, we see that Flint Group and Sun Chemical remain in the European web offset (heatset and news ink) markets, and Sun Chemical and Siegwerk in the European publication gravure ink segments. While withdrawing from the European publication gravure ink business, Flint Group maintains its large position as one of the two largest North America publication gravure ink suppliers (along with Qaud/Graphics’ CR/T).
 
Looking closely, these shifts make sense. Siegwerk is a liquid ink specialist, so focusing on gravure publication inks and gravure packaging inks (as well as flexo inks) is logical. Flint Group is a global leader in offset inks. Sun Chemical has a solid position in the publication gravure ink field in Europe. These two moves, taken together, allow each company to further emphasize their core markets.