Resino Printing Inks, Ballerup, Denmark, is a leader in packaging inks as well as some unique niches, ranging from nonwovens to meat casings. The company’s history is also quite interesting, and the journey Resino has taken over the past 63 years is unique in so many ways.

Resino was founded in 1957 as a manufacturer of publication gravure inks. However, Resino could not survive in the publication gravure market and thus, the company went into bankruptcy in 1982. Many companies could not survive this, but this is where the company veers off, as an enterprising employee buys the company out of bankruptcy.

“The former laboratory technician in Resino, a man with a great drive and many ideas, named Finn Cederstrøm sees potential in Resino and decides to buy the company at auction,” said Clara Tuxen of Resino Printing Inks.

“With almost no money on hand, Finn picks up and collects the small pieces of Resino,” Tuxen added. “Finn works hard, spends many hours in the laboratory and finds an opportunity in the niche market of printing on meat casings. Finn decides to focus exclusively on the market of meat casings, which turns out to be a huge success. The hard work throughout the years pays off and Resino expands its business to several markets, for instance, food packaging and nonwoven hygiene printing.”

The focus on expert research, advanced technology and carefully selecting raw materials leads to Resino becoming world leader in printing inks for meat casings and the company exports printing inks to five continents and more than 40 countries.

In 2019, Resino initiated a generational shift. Finn’s daughter, Signe Cederstrøm, takes over as the CEO of Resino. Finn continues to share his vast knowledge inside the company. Signe has great ambitions for Resino, and she focuses on modernizing and digitalizing the company to strengthen the company’s global position even further.

Tuxen noted that the company’s expertise in flexo inks has paved the way for new opportunities.

“Resino is an expert in reactive inks for flexo printing, and we are focusing on the markets of meat casing, nonwovens and food packaging,” she noted. “In the market of meat casings, we deliver high quality fine print decoration on all types of meat casings. We offer two-component inks that are respectively water-based and solvent-based inks as well as UV curing inks, which have great adhesion, low migration risk and boiling and sterilization resistance properties.

“Another important market is printing on nonwoven diapers and other hygiene products,” Tuxen added. “Here, we work with both solvent-based and water-based one- and two-component inks. Printing on hygiene materials is a delicate process, where it is necessary to balance physical performance and regulatory demands.”

“Food packaging is another market we are focusing on, in which we offer both solvent-based, water-based and UV curing inks. In this category, inks can be used for indirect and direct food contact, and even ink can be offered for edible print. Inks can be used for informative- and/or decorative purposes, but they all must comply with regulatory and safety standards,” Tuxen said.

Resino Printing Inks has an excellent R&D team, which has come up with specialized technologies that separate Resino from its competitors. One example is its development of cationic UV curing inks.

“We use a technology for our UV inks that differs from traditional UV curing inks,” Tuxen reported. “RESUCAT® inks are based on cationic UV curing technology. The advantages for cationic UV curing are continued curing after exposure to UV light, excellent adhesion on difficult substrates, low shrinkage, high flexibility and high heat and chemical resistances.

“We use the same specialized technologies to develop inkjet variants of UV and water-based inks that fit into these sophisticated markets,” she added. “This allows us to offer inks for inkjet printing to provide the opportunity for personalized printing and small circulation designs.”

Resino operates in markets with strict regulations and thus, regulatory compliance is key to the company.

“It is especially inks for meat casing and direct food contact that are influenced by high regulatory standards. To assure credibility of our information, we work with third party institutes which validate the data to always ensure that regulatory standards are met,” Tuxen said.

Innovation and service are critical to the success of any ink company, and Resino Printing Inks is well set in these regards.

“Innovation is a core value of Resino Printing Inks and thus, 20% of our talented employees work within product development,” Tuxen observed. “We have innovation projects in close cooperation with customers, who provide valuable input on their customers’ needs, and as a result, we can assure developments fit exactly to the market demands. This innovative approach between Resino and its customers ensures good results, particularly when special printing properties are required on complicated substrates.

“Resino is focusing on creating value by providing excellent service towards our customers,” Tuxen added. “One way of creating value is to offer custom-made inks, which requires a close partnership with customers. It is important to create solutions which leads to increased value for the customers of our customers. Therefore, we support our customers during the entire process, from supplies, through printing and converting and support towards the brand owner. Technical assistance comes natural to us and we like our customers to think of Resino as an integrated part of their technical solutions.”

Tuxen said that Resino is currently working on a variety of new solutions for nonwovens and packaging inks.

“We are making an effort on the nonwoven hygiene market by shifting from two-component solvent based to one-component water-based inks,” Tuxen said.

A new legislation comes into force within EU which bans the use of plastic-coated paper and board for disposable tableware. Resino has worked in close cooperation with customers to find solutions and we have developed varnishes, based on acrylic binders as well as natural materials, which can replace the plastic coating.” Tuxen said.

“With the increased focus on reducing plastic consumption, there is also a great need in the market to reduce/eliminate plastic-coated food packaging. Plastic has protective functions, which does not appear in paper and board packaging, and we support our customers in finding an alternative barrier to take on this protective function. We consider this as part of our contribution to sustainability and UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Tuxen said.

As a result, Resino Printing Inks sees sustainability as the key to the future.

“Food safety and regulatory compliances are forever tightening, and we expect this to continue,” Tuxen concluded. “It is important for us to stay at the forefront of this and these issues will remain a high priority in our development work. Sustainability is also an issue we must consider in our product developments, both in the form of renewable resources and biodegradability. Furthermore, Resino is active in a ‘Circular monoplast’ project to improve recyclability of plastics.”