David Savastano, Editor03.29.16
150 N. Martingale, Suite 700
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Phone: (630) 382-1800
Fax: (847) 969-9758
www.inxinternational.com
Sales: $375 million.
Major Products: A full line of ink and coatings solutions technology for packaging, commercial and digital print applications, including metal decorating, flexographic, gravure, web offset, lamination, corrugated, sheetfed, digital and UV/EB inks and coatings.
Rick Clendenning
Key Personnel: Kotaro Morita, chairman; Rick Clendenning, president and CEO; Bryce Kristo, CFO and senior VP, general affairs; John Hrdlick, senior VP COO, operations; Rick Westrom, senior VP, strategic global sourcing/R&D director; Jonathan Ellaby, VP, international operations; Ron Deegan, VP sales North America, Liquid; Dave Waller, VP sales North American, Rigid Packaging & Offset; Mark Hill, VP liquid technology/assistant R&D director; Toru Kaneko, VP R&D director offset; Jon Graunke, VP/R&D director – energy curable technologies; Joe Kelly, VP/R&D director – water technologies; Dave Maternowski, VP quality systems; Dan Lombardo, VP of operations, Metal/Energy Curable; Jim Lambert, VP/GM Digital Division electronics & hardware; Joe Cichon, VP of manufacturing; Jim Bailen, VP of engineering; Michael Brice, VP of offset operations; Craig Reid, VP digital inkjet; Susan Supergan, SVP human resources
Number of Employees: Approximately 1,100.
Operating Facilities: Fifteen manufacturing locations and approximately 190 in-plant locations throughout North America. Three North American R&D Centers: West Chicago, IL (traditional ink technologies), San Leandro, CA (inkjet ink technologies) and Huntsville, AL (inkjet electronics, software and specialty printers).
Kotaro Morita
Subsidiaries: INX International U.K., Heywood, England; INX International France, Bretigny, France; INX Digital Milan, Italy; INX Digital Prague; Parent Company: Sakata INX, Osaka, Japan.
Comments: Led by its packaging inks, INX International Ink Co. had a successful year in 2015.
“We had another good year with strong growth again in our packaging segments,” said Rick Clendenning, president and CEO of INX International Ink Co. “The biggest growth in the segment was with our solvent, water and energy curable technologies. We also continued to manage our costs well in 2015. This fact, coupled with our growth in sales, pleased us as our bottom line results were above what we had planned.”
During the past year, INX International Ink has been investing in its operations, expanding its operations in North Carolina, Ohio and the Czech Republic.
“We broke ground on the much needed expansion of our Charlotte, NC manufacturing facility late in 2015,” said Clendenning. “This facility produces our industry-leading metal decorating ink technologies for our 2-piece beer and beverage customers around the world. Twice in 2015, we celebrated by having the official grand opening festivities for our Lebanon, OH liquid manufacturing site and our Prague, Czech Republic inkjet ink manufacturing facility.”
The printing industry is evolving, with packaging doing well and inkjet among the areas making significant gains. INX International is capitalizing on its strengths to make gains in these fields.
“We service all segments in the printing industry,” Clendenning noted. “This year, along with continued growth in the packaging segments, we also grew in our commercial segments as well, which hasn’t happened over the past several years. Our inkjet products also added to our growth by exciting our traditionally based customers as we introduced our inkjet offerings (chemistry, electronics, software) to allow them to present new lines of products to their own existing customers.
“Our strength is that we are well diversified as far as products are concerned, and have many dedicated technology experts that continually improve our product portfolios with new developments,” he added.
Clendenning said that INX’s personnel are working closely with customers on regulatory affairs, visiting them to ensure that they are up to date.
“We not only have dedicated chemists working daily on developing and improving our packaging inks to meet all regulations, but they also are visiting our existing and potential customers and educating them on how to make sure they also comply to the regulations while using our packaging technologies,” he said. “There are so many other factors that can affect a finished package, so our customers appreciate the educational support.”
Ink manufacturers are feeling the impact of the US dollar’s strength in different ways. Meanwhile, raw material pricing and availability remain a concern.
“The strength of the US dollar, although good for us in many ways, has affected some of our international export business, but we are working through this by moving some of our manufacturing to other global locations,” said Clendenning. “Raw material concerns have carried over into 2016 and we will watch things carefully.”
Overall, Clendenning believes INX will continue to be successful as long as the company maintains its focus on the customer. “We are off to a good start,” Clendenning concluded. “I feel that if we remain focused on our customers and their individual needs, we will continue to do well and meet our plan for 2016.”
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Phone: (630) 382-1800
Fax: (847) 969-9758
www.inxinternational.com
Sales: $375 million.
Major Products: A full line of ink and coatings solutions technology for packaging, commercial and digital print applications, including metal decorating, flexographic, gravure, web offset, lamination, corrugated, sheetfed, digital and UV/EB inks and coatings.
Rick Clendenning
Number of Employees: Approximately 1,100.
Operating Facilities: Fifteen manufacturing locations and approximately 190 in-plant locations throughout North America. Three North American R&D Centers: West Chicago, IL (traditional ink technologies), San Leandro, CA (inkjet ink technologies) and Huntsville, AL (inkjet electronics, software and specialty printers).
Kotaro Morita
Comments: Led by its packaging inks, INX International Ink Co. had a successful year in 2015.
“We had another good year with strong growth again in our packaging segments,” said Rick Clendenning, president and CEO of INX International Ink Co. “The biggest growth in the segment was with our solvent, water and energy curable technologies. We also continued to manage our costs well in 2015. This fact, coupled with our growth in sales, pleased us as our bottom line results were above what we had planned.”
During the past year, INX International Ink has been investing in its operations, expanding its operations in North Carolina, Ohio and the Czech Republic.
“We broke ground on the much needed expansion of our Charlotte, NC manufacturing facility late in 2015,” said Clendenning. “This facility produces our industry-leading metal decorating ink technologies for our 2-piece beer and beverage customers around the world. Twice in 2015, we celebrated by having the official grand opening festivities for our Lebanon, OH liquid manufacturing site and our Prague, Czech Republic inkjet ink manufacturing facility.”
The printing industry is evolving, with packaging doing well and inkjet among the areas making significant gains. INX International is capitalizing on its strengths to make gains in these fields.
“We service all segments in the printing industry,” Clendenning noted. “This year, along with continued growth in the packaging segments, we also grew in our commercial segments as well, which hasn’t happened over the past several years. Our inkjet products also added to our growth by exciting our traditionally based customers as we introduced our inkjet offerings (chemistry, electronics, software) to allow them to present new lines of products to their own existing customers.
“Our strength is that we are well diversified as far as products are concerned, and have many dedicated technology experts that continually improve our product portfolios with new developments,” he added.
Clendenning said that INX’s personnel are working closely with customers on regulatory affairs, visiting them to ensure that they are up to date.
“We not only have dedicated chemists working daily on developing and improving our packaging inks to meet all regulations, but they also are visiting our existing and potential customers and educating them on how to make sure they also comply to the regulations while using our packaging technologies,” he said. “There are so many other factors that can affect a finished package, so our customers appreciate the educational support.”
Ink manufacturers are feeling the impact of the US dollar’s strength in different ways. Meanwhile, raw material pricing and availability remain a concern.
“The strength of the US dollar, although good for us in many ways, has affected some of our international export business, but we are working through this by moving some of our manufacturing to other global locations,” said Clendenning. “Raw material concerns have carried over into 2016 and we will watch things carefully.”
Overall, Clendenning believes INX will continue to be successful as long as the company maintains its focus on the customer. “We are off to a good start,” Clendenning concluded. “I feel that if we remain focused on our customers and their individual needs, we will continue to do well and meet our plan for 2016.”
