FOR A SECTOR SUPPOSEDLY squeezed by rising costs, printing inks has been lively of late. Consolidation across the globe has left Sun Chemicals and Flint as the dominant players with Huber (Stehlin Hostag in the UK), Toray and some others as strong regional players. There are speciality manufacturers for security inks, packaging and so on, and there is a gap for a service-led approach that the large companies can no longer afford to provide. This is the prognosis that has led Graham Frost to return to an industry he had stepped away from, becoming non-executive chairman – but éminence grise – behind ICE, a company formed to fill this gap some 15 months ago.

While Frost is not involved in the day to day administration, his son Nick Frost and John Allanson run the business. Alistair Hayes is sales director and James Poyner completes the team as technical director.

The original idea was to bring in inks from the Far East including Toyo Inks via Druckfarben, the company established by Grant Penfield, who like the older Frost is a veteran of the 20th-century inks business. There was immediate success with a contract to supply the ink needs of the Anton Group, which helped the company to reach sales of £4 million in the first year of trading. As it got underway there was a realisation that there was an increasing demand for uv inks and that the world’s largest ink companies were the dominant suppliers. Alternative suppliers existed in niche areas, but not across the board. To rectify this, ICE began to import uv inks from Arets in Belgium. “The factory started to realise that we were selling a lot of uv ink,” says Frost senior; more ink perhaps than Arets UK, its existing subsidiary, was bringing over.

He continues: “We had a meeting, the outcome of which was that we would buy 100% of Arets UK and Arets Graphics would buy 50% of ICE Incorporated. The result is a new company, ICE-Arets UK, where there is joint ownership and where Nick and John are joint managing directors. We expect sales to reach £6 million this year.

“At the moment a UK printer wanting to use uv inks has limited choice. We are a real alternative because we are the new player on the market, with the support of the most up to date manufacturing plant in Europe.”

The alternative approach covers a group of 25 people with blending plants in Leicester, Leeds, London and Laindon in Essex. Spoiling the alliterative approach to its locations, the company is now looking for premises in the Newcastle area or perhaps further north in Scotland where the drinks labels business is dominated by uv printing, and where there should be opportunities to expand. Other independent ink suppliers offer some uv inks, for food packaging or label presses for example, but not the complete range, which for Arets includes a coldset uv ink for newspaper printing.

Nick Frost adds: “We are offering a full package of uv and conventional inks backed by a full range of consumables. It’s a true one-stop shop approach.” Indeed the model is taken from the service-first strategy that worked for Gibbons Inks before its sale to Sun Chemicals. Since those halcyon days, the development of faster presses and the growth of interest in uv has meant a greater need for technical back-up, as well as the sales story. But that said, the strategy is very much based on what was appreciated in those days.

ICE is pitching for a gap that the consolidation of inks supply into two hands has created in reaching the mid-sized printers. The big companies are adept at serving the biggest users directly and using distributors to reach small companies. Those in the middle perhaps miss out, looking for a direct approach, but lacking the critical mass to achieve this. This is where ICE is aiming, with its network providing the infrastructure to service print groups as well as independent print companies. It’s a ‘same day’ or ‘within 24 hours’ service.

It’s a strategy that will take the young company up against Stehlin Hostag, which also targets the middle ground, though without the extensive line-up of uv products.

The print and packaging groups are showing interest in the uv product, which according to the ICE chairman “is showing that the Arets technology has an edge over the other inks in the market at present”. It’s also the fact that the duopoly of supply leaves these groups restricted in striking deals that meet their needs. Consequently, as ICE demonstrates, an alternative supplier is a welcome addition, particularly if there is a product on offer with a technological lead.

This lead is manifest in the formulations used for printing on plastic sheets used in display work. “There has been a big improvement in scratch resistance and adhesion,” says Nick Frost. “These properties mean that these inks can be run like a conventional ink. The printer no longer has to have concerns when asked to print on a plastic material.” In food packaging areas, low-migration inks are tackling concerns about contamination of the inside of the pack by the ink.

And uv is no longer the area for specialists that it once was. When uv printing first became possible, the UK led the adoption of this new way of printing. But in recent years, Europeans have begun to catch up. Now new developments in cold cure lamps and LED lamps are promising a new interest in uv printing. Uv was everywhere at Drupa, from inkjet inks for large format and labels to sheetfed and webfed litho presses. There are environmental advantages from minimising VOC production and the great advantage that a printed and cured sheet is immediately ready for further working. “Why would you spend millions on a new press with all the aids for fast make ready and fast turnaround print and then have to wait hours for the sheet to be dry enough to handle?” Graham Frost says.

However, the company is not neglecting its conventional inks business, with cleaners, blankets and other pressroom products to provide the complete package. At Anton, the company also took charge of installing pumping equipment and has set up a mixing unit within the huge Anton factory. ICE is clear, though, that it is looking to acquire business through its quality and service, not price cutting. For one thing, when it started it simply could not afford to cut prices. Hayes adds: “We are very well aware that customers have an alternative, which means we have to try to be flexible especially when dealing with the smaller companies. It’s all about response. The large groups use distributors and agents which are not as big as we are, so cannot offer the same level of service.”

And for printers looking to achieve the colour consistency that ISO 12647-2 demands, the Toyo Ink has been shown to have 97% compliance with the standard. “The fact that we have these ratings for the Toyo Ink is bringing in interest from those companies being asked for ISO compliance,” Hayes adds. Around the corner is the Toyo Kaleidoscope ink, which is a very wide gamut set introduced at Drupa to widespread acclaim.

The two flagship brands ensure that ICE is not coming to market with a second-best product. It is promising old-style levels of service with the experience that its management team brings and it is promising not to slash prices to win business. But ICE is promising to be extremely competitive in just about every other way. It’s a challenge that the entire ICE management team is champing at the bit to take on.