Corporate
Profile

[Company strength]
We have been developing and improving various printing inks as Japan’s longest-operating ink manufacturer and have a wealth of technological know-how about ordinary printing inks and special printing inks. We have various unique technologies and can meet various demands for development based on our many years of accepting orders for small lots, which cannot be handled by major ink manufacturers. One of our major products is gravure ink, which is used for printing on plastic films often used for food and sanitary products; the quality of this ink is highly valued in the industry.

[Business description]
We produce and sell printing inks and printing-related materials. We not only produce and sell offset ink, gravure ink, flexographic ink, and various other printing inks for ordinary use, but also develop new printing ink products, improve existing inks, conduct quality control, and implement environmental measures at the R&D departments in our four factories in Japan. In addition, we develop special inks to meet the requests of printing companies and users. We also apply the dispersion technology used in ink production to various kinds of dispersion operation under contract with customers. We have set up a trading division for exporting our products as well as importing printing-related commodities.

[Industry]
Production and sale of printing ink and printing-related materials

[Strength of products/technologies]
We succeeded in producing minute hologram pigments for the first time in Japan. Printed paper, sheets, and other materials using this pigment reflect light from a point light source, such as LED, as rainbow interference colors. We can print or apply any design to materials of any shape at an arbitrary density; our printed products help enhance customers’ graphic product designs. These interference colors are ideal for curved materials. In addition to ordinary application and printing, we can develop new expressions by using pigments in new ways. Our accumulated unique dispersion technologies played an active role in developing this pigment. We can accept requests for various kinds of development using our technology.

[Representative's message]
Since our foundation in 1895, we have been growing together with the Japanese printing industry. We have been supplying printing inks for the major printing methods of offset, gravure, and flexographic printing since the early days. We use the technologies accumulated over the years and add new technologies to create new products in fields other than printing inks, to explore new sales channels. The Great East Japan Earthquake caused serious damage to our Tohoku office and factory. However, we introduced new production equipment for new products and are developing a new industrial model while contributing to restoration in the Tohoku region.



[Company structure for market development/overseas expansion]
We set up the Technical Development Division in 2012 and the Planning and Development Office and Sales Development Department in 2014 to reinforce our internal development system. The Technology Division is in charge of technical matters for ordinary inks. We obtained ISO 9001 certification in 2001 and relinquished registration in 2009. However, we have since been conducting development, order reception, manufacturing, quality control and logistics control using the quality system developed in compliance with ISO 9001. We comply with requests for external audit whenever requested. The Environmental Action Office handles various data on our environmental measures about which we receive many requests. Regarding overseas markets, the Trading Division staff respond to various inquiries.



[Market share/Ranking]
We are the only hologram pigment manufacturer in Japan, and there is only one other company producing the pigment worldwide, in Germany.

[Awards and media coverage]
[Awards]

[Media]
Hologram: Suntory FF can (http://www.suntory.co.jp/news/2009/10594.html) (although our name is not stated). Others include an article in the Nikkei (Sept. 16, 2011) on the disuse of polyvinyl chloride (patent applied, 2011-156045), and an article in Convertec (July 2010) on Opia (patent no. 4498443 and 4460023).


[Authorization/Certification]
ISO 14001 acquired
Registration for ISO 9001 relinquished in 2009. Since then, we have established a quality system in compliance with the above.


[Joint research and development]
Hologram: We formed the Sendai Port Coloring Group Committee, which is actively involved in the restoration after the earthquake and collaboration with the support of the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation Tohoku.
Others: (1) We conducted joint research with Toray on water-free plate litho ink and have since continued joint development with Toray on various chemical products.
(2) We developed packaging paper with HAVI Global Solutions and several other companies to eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride for McDonald’s hamburger wrapping paper. This led to a new era of printing without polyvinyl chloride (article appeared in the Nikkei).