Sun Chemical will increase prices across a broad portfolio of its packaging and commercial sheetfed inks, coatings, and adhesives in North America (also EMEA and Latin America), effective March 15, 2021. A combination of raw material shortages, including petrochemical, vegetable oils and derivatives, dramatically increased international freight transport costs, and demand due to economic recovery, are all contributing factors for the cost increases in Sun Chemical’s raw material feedstocks.

Color Ink, based in Sussex, Wis., is a family business that has never stopped evolving. From its original roots as an advertising agency in the 1970s, to the decision in the 1980s to branch into commercial printing, to the full-service visual marketing services company it is today, Color Ink embodies the concept of convergence in action. “The company was started in 1975 by my grandfather, Jim,” Austin Meissner, sales and sourcing manager for the shop, says. “He decided to start his own ad agency, but because he was brokering out so much print, he decided to get into commercial printing in 1984. In the late ’80s, the company had become successful enough to move into a dedicated space in Hartland, Wis., before outgrowing that and then eventually moving into its current location, with two buildings and 105,000 sq. ft. of space. But just as Color Ink evolved from an ad agency to a commercial printer, it also embraced new technologies and the shifts in the market as time has progressed. Today, Austin Meissner reveals, they see themselves not as being a commercial printer as much as a boutique printer — heavily involved in a wide mix of projects that include everything from event space, pop-up retail locations, and even interactive elements with light and sound.

Flint Group announced the launch of XSYS, a brand-new division, the result of combining Flint Group Flexographic with Xeikon Prepress. Although the two groups have been working closely for some time in support of the flexographic and letterpress markets, this formal alignment will bring even more collaboration and innovation to the group and to its customers. With the tagline Be Brilliant, the new division will work with its customers to honour its claim of Print Solid. Stay Flexible. “With the integration of Xeikon Prepress with Flint Group Flexographic, we are now connecting the dots and are implementing an important step of our strategy to become a full solution provider for the flexographic prepress industry,” said Dagmar Schmidt, President of XSYS. “In forming this new division, we bring together what belongs together: Plates, Processing Equipment (solvent-and solvent free), Imagers, Sleeves and Adapters. And with this move, we expand our expertise towards our customers. The name derives from ThermoFlexX, nyloflex, Xpress and other brands that feature the X, combined with Systems to form the name XSYS.”