Blackmore Group consolidates ink supplier with three year contract

Print Solutions

Newspaper and commercial printer The Blackmore Group has endorsed its confidence in Sun Chemical by placing a contract for the supply of all of its conventional offset, LED and cold set inks for the next three years.

The decision follows a strategic review by Blackmore of its main ink suppliers, which had grown to three since the installation of its KBA Rapida 105 three years ago.

Nigel Hunt, production director, Blackmore, commented: ‘The decision to invest in LED-UV was certainly the right one for us, but it meant that we added yet another technology to our existing press portfolio of cold set web and commercial offset presses, for which we already had separate ink suppliers. We were initially guided down the route of working with yet another ink supplier for the LED-UV, but that relationship worked well at first – as was our aim, we thought we would find a partner with whom we could work together to improve and take the inks further. Unfortunately however, as time went on, that proved not to be the case and instead it gave us the impetus to progress with consolidating our ink suppliers into one.’

Nigel continued, ‘We had been very happy with the quality of Sun Chemical's cold set inks and Sun Chemical had proved to be a very reliable and supportive partner over the years. We also took into account that the Sun Chemical inks are manufactured only an hour away from us – that is massively beneficial as it means that we can work together really effectively to further develop the inks.’

David Bland, sales director, Blackmore, added: ‘We find that, having the global reach and associated expertise they do, Sun Chemical is always one step ahead in legislation. If, for example, there are any impending bans on any chemicals or substances, they always seem to be at the forefront of complying with any required changes. We deal with a lot of high end customers and when we have to compile a tender or are asked for some legislation that the ink conforms to, I have always felt that Sun Chemical takes any request from us very seriously and we always get a positive, confident response from them that allows us to go confidently back to our customers.’