David Savastano, Editor11.21.16
In recent years, consolidation has reshaped the printing industry, with billion-dollar printers such as Quebecor World (acquired by Quad/Graphics) and Consolidated Graphics (RR Donnelley) leaving the field on the publication side and Rexam (Ball Corporation) and RockTenn and Mead Westvaco (merged into WestRock) gone from the packaging field. The supply chain is getting shorter too, as Evonik is in the process of acquiring Air Products’ Performance Materials Division and DyStar purchased five of Emerald Performance Materials’ specialty chemical businesses.
Through it all, the ink industry remained relatively silent up until a year ago. The past 12 months have been completely different, though, as ink manufacturers started to shore up their core markets and move out of smaller segments. After years of quiet, there have been 16 mergers and acquisitions in the ink industry since late 2015. Consider these moves by four of the five billion-dollar ink companies:
• Sun Chemical: Acquired Flint Group’s European publication gravure ink business.
• Flint Group: Acquired Siegwerk’s web offset and news ink business; purchased three North American packaging ink specialists, including American Inks & Coatings, the eighth-largest North American ink manufacturer in Ink World’s 2016 Top 20 Report; and Xeikon, a leader in digital presses and toners in the narrow web and label market.
• Siegwerk: Acquired ACTEGA Colorchemie, a European water-based packaging ink specialist, from ALTANA.
• Toyo Ink: Acquired DYO Printing Inks, the largest ink manufacturer in Turkey.
All of the acquired companies were fairly healthy financially. None of those acquisitions were fire sales. It is also interesting that Sun Chemical, Flint Group and Siegwerk are offloading non-core divisions to each other. I can’t recall Sun Chemical and Flint Group working together on an M&A deal. It shows how each individual company sees its target markets going forward.
Leading ink industry executives discuss these changes and more in “The 2016 Year in Review”. Considering how few M&As the ink industry has made before the past year, one wonders if 2017 will see more of the same.
David Savastano
Ink World Editor
dsavastano@rodmanmedia.com
Through it all, the ink industry remained relatively silent up until a year ago. The past 12 months have been completely different, though, as ink manufacturers started to shore up their core markets and move out of smaller segments. After years of quiet, there have been 16 mergers and acquisitions in the ink industry since late 2015. Consider these moves by four of the five billion-dollar ink companies:
• Sun Chemical: Acquired Flint Group’s European publication gravure ink business.
• Flint Group: Acquired Siegwerk’s web offset and news ink business; purchased three North American packaging ink specialists, including American Inks & Coatings, the eighth-largest North American ink manufacturer in Ink World’s 2016 Top 20 Report; and Xeikon, a leader in digital presses and toners in the narrow web and label market.
• Siegwerk: Acquired ACTEGA Colorchemie, a European water-based packaging ink specialist, from ALTANA.
• Toyo Ink: Acquired DYO Printing Inks, the largest ink manufacturer in Turkey.
All of the acquired companies were fairly healthy financially. None of those acquisitions were fire sales. It is also interesting that Sun Chemical, Flint Group and Siegwerk are offloading non-core divisions to each other. I can’t recall Sun Chemical and Flint Group working together on an M&A deal. It shows how each individual company sees its target markets going forward.
Leading ink industry executives discuss these changes and more in “The 2016 Year in Review”. Considering how few M&As the ink industry has made before the past year, one wonders if 2017 will see more of the same.
David Savastano
Ink World Editor
dsavastano@rodmanmedia.com
