Inks giant DIC acquires Pacific Inks to grow packaging share

The takeover of Pacific makes the combined company into "a complete supplier to the packaging industry", said Ian Johns, DIC Australia and New Zealand managing director.

According to a statement from DIC Group: "This acquisition will enable DIC to add water-based flexo inks to its portfolio and strengthen its operations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where environmental awareness is increasing rapidly.

"This, together with Pacific Inks’ proprietary Accubatch system and DIC’s own extensive range of products and global network, will position DIC to respond effectively to expanding demand for packaging inks."

Johns told ProPrint the deal "suits our objective of becoming a major player in the packaging marketplace".

He explained that Pacific Inks' operations would not be affected and its brands would still be sold.

"We bought the company because they're very successful at what they do."

Johns added that DIC had retained all of Pacific Inks' sales, technical and manufacturing staff as they had a lot of specialised industry knowledge.

"The reason we've done this is to retain the high standards for service and quality that Pacific Inks have delivered," he said.

However, the statement said DIC would be "rationalising existing facilities and plants newly acquired from Pacific Inks in the Asia-Pacific region".

The two parties had been in discussion "for a considerable time" before the deal was signed on 1 December.

Pacific Inks has a mother plant in Auckland and subsidiaries in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Singapore, Malaysia, China and the UK.

DIC Group has 200 regional offices in 60 countries, and is the parent company of printing inks giant Sun Chemical.