New Ink Company Enters Market

by Lisa Rabasca

While consolidation and mergers have claimed a number of equipment and material vendors, the U.S. newspaper industry has a new ink supplier to consider.

The India headquarters of Micro Inks Corp.’s parent company processes resin and other raw materials needed to make ink.

Last February, Micro Inks Corp. of Schaumburg, Ill., entered a market that has been dominated by two giants–Flint Ink of Detroit and U.S. Ink Corp. of Carlstadt, N.J.–since 1998.

Unlike its competitors, Micro Inks produces all the raw materials it uses to make ink, company officials say.

“We manufacture the [black] base product in India, ship it to a facility in Kankakee, Ill., and complete the process there,” says Ron Douglass, vice president of sales and marketing. Micro’s parent company is Hindustan Inks and Resins, one of India’s largest ink companies.

With the capacity to produce more than 100 million pounds of black base a year, “we feel that gives us the ability to supply over half of the black news-ink requirements in the United States,” he says.

By the end of this year, Micro Inks will have the ability to produce more than 400 million pounds of finished inks of all colors, Douglass adds.

The Washington Post, Daily News in New York City and The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., are already clients, says Douglass, and Micro Inks is negotiating with two large newspaper chains, Knight Ridder of San Jose and Cox Newspapers Inc. of Atlanta.

Micro Inks is able to be cost competitive because the company makes its own pigments and resin systems, giving it control over the entire manufacturing process, according to Douglass.

Resin is an expensive component, but because Micro’s parent company makes it locally, the company can control costs, officials say.

“We feel we can be in a cost-leadership position,” says Douglass. “We control all the raw materials, have unique manufacturing practices and can take advantage of low labor costs in India.”