Profile: Sun Chemical gets its hat on at super-clean ink site

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There’s a joke doing the rounds in ink circles that goes something like this. Two workers at a packaging company are standing outside the factory having a smoke. One of them looks at the other and says: “I hope that cigarette packet isn’t bad for your health.”

OK, so it’s not the world’s funniest gag. But it does draw attention to the increasingly stringent rules on what can and can’t come into contact with products that consumers eat, drink, or, indeed, smoke. High on the agenda in legislation around food contact is ink migration in food packaging – and a plethora of regulations emanating from Brussels ensures that Europe has the tightest rules on food packaging in the world.

To respond to the growing demand for low-migration inks, Sun Chemical has recently invested EUR4m (£3.6m) in converting a conventional ink plant in Frankfurt, Germany to produce low-migration inks. The plant, which was officially opened last month by Sun Chemical chief executive Rudi Lenz, has been dubbed a ‘white-tile’ facility for its extreme levels of hygiene; in fact, it has been built to the HACCP – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points – directives that govern safety in food production facilities. Double-door air locks ensure that the atmosphere inside the plant is not contaminated, all staff wear hairnets and protective clothing and strict rules apply over who within the company is allowed into the production area.

Global hub

The plant was revamped from a conventional ink manufacturing facility and a separate building on the same site still houses a conventional ink production line. Step inside and it’s reminiscent of a hospital – all spotless floors, lab coats and the hush of serious work going on. There’s plenty of work to do; since the facility began producing ink late last year, it has been slowly ramping up towards its maximum production capacity of 2,000 tonnes of ink every year. Exports from the factory, which Sun Chemical says is its most advanced, travel not only across Europe but to the company’s other markets around the world in North and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

It’s a major investment, but one that Felipe Mellado, Sun Chemical’s chief marketing officer, says was the right one. Speaking at the official opening, he says: “Low migration inks represent 20-30% of the packaging inks we produce and we expect fast growth. There’s a trend to use high-end inks, especially in the folding carton market. [Investing in this plant] was a relatively easy decision.”

The company’s New York-based head, chief executive Rudi Lenz, argues that the plant demonstrates the company’s commitment to its printing customers who, he says, are under “tremendous pressure” both in terms of costs and the regulatory environment. And he leaves the door open for a further investment in low-migration ink production – albeit with a caveat. “We’d do it again, absolutely. If the market was there and the regulations were in place then we would invest again elsewhere in the world.”

Plans for growth

That market is not a given outside Europe, however, and, speaking after the official ceremony, Lenz tells Packaging News that he has no plans to move all Sun Chemical’s packaging inks to a low-migration model, even if regulations are gradually tightening around the world. For one thing, he says, the extra cost of the  inks – they are around 50% more expensive than conventional inks – would price the company out of the market. “More segments are coming. But nobody can afford to over-engineer their production,” he says.

Yet growth is still very much on the agenda for Lenz and the $3.5bn-turnover ink giant he has run since 2002. While major markets such as newspaper and magazine printing are in slow decline due to the double whammy of the drift online and the recession, sales in the more defensive packaging sector have held up during the downturn and the industry is seen as an area of opportunity. “The good and bad news is that when people are unemployed they eat more packaged food,” Lenz says.

One angle, he believes, is the intense fight among brand owners to give their packaging shelf standout. “Brand owners’ new business means new effects. For us, that means special effects, metallic inks and so on, at the moment of truth. Everyone is trying to make something special with that seven seconds.” Another opportunity is in geographical reach, with Latin America and eastern Europe particular targets.

Finally, new technologies such as digital print and printed electronics and non-print markets such as supplying pigments for cosmetics give Sun Chemical reason to feel positive about the future – however bad the packaging jokes.

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FACTFILE

Owner DIC, Japan

Turnover $3.5bn (£2.3bn)

Chief executive Rudi Lenz

HQ New Jersey, US

Employees 10,000-plus

Key geographical markets Present in 56 countries across North and Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa

Key customer markets Packaging printers, newspaper and magazine printers, general printers

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