Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.

The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for food and non-food packaging, commercial, and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheetfed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, screen inks, and fountain solution additives.

Number of Employees: 3,000 worldwide (Ink World estimate).

Comments: It has been a year of transition for hubergroup, as the 260-year-old company was sold to a consortium made up of MAVCO Investments, a private entity belonging to select members of the Murugappa family, and funds managed by Avenue Capital Group. The sale was completed on April 8, 2025.

“We believe in hubergroup’s tremendous potential,” said Vellayan Subbiah, director of MAVCO Investments, in announcing the closing. “By investing in innovation, infrastructure, and talent, we are launching its next growth phase – aligned with our vision as a long-term, multi-generational owner-operator.”

“We are excited to partner with MAVCO to unlock hubergroup’s potential in new and existing markets and deliver robust and profitable growth for years to come,” Pankaj Goel, head of partnerships Asia Pacific, and Rohit Santani, head of India for Avenue Capital Group, added. “MAVCO’s strategic vision and operational expertise combined with hubergroup’s growth potential fits well with our approach to back transformative businesses.”

Premal Desai, previously group CFO, will transition to the role of CEO. He will guide all activities under the close oversight of MAVCO and Avenue Capital. Taner Bicer will serve as chief commercial officer for Chemicals, and Carsten Zölzer will assume the role of chief commercial officer for Print Solutions. Dr. Arup Basu has joined hubergroup as new chief operating officer based out of India.

“As we celebrate hubergroup’s 260-year anniversary this year, the transaction marks the beginning of an ambitious new growth phase under our incoming owners,” Desai said with the completion of the deal. “hubergroup will pursue its strategic growth ambition through its excellent competences in the specialty chemicals market and its established market leadership in print solutions.”

Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.

The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for food and non-food packaging, commercial, and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheet-fed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, screen inks, and fountain solution additives.

The Chemicals Division produces specialty chemicals such as resins, lamination adhesives, additives, and colorants in its facilities in India. In particular, hubergroup Chemicals concentrates on the customized manufacturing and development of radiation curing UV oligomers, polyurethane resins, polyketonic resins, adhesion promoters, modified rosin, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), and pigment concentrates as well as alkali blue.

Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide (Ink World estimate).

Comments: hubergroup had a solid year in 2023, with sales remaining stable. However, the company is undergoing changes through restructuring, a sale of its security ink division and personnel moves.

In September 2023, hubergroup announced a realignment, including the loss of 300 jobs, with the goal of profitable growth in Central Europe, as well as shifting its focus from ink manufacturing to a chemical company. This includes reducing overcapacities and shortening delivery routes.

In announcing the realignment, hubergroup officials noted that the print media market in Europe has declined more than 50% since 2016, and while packaging inks have grown, it has not made up for the decline in print media.

As part of the moves, some production in Celle, Germany will be transferred to Wroclaw, Poland, and existing plants in India by the end of 2024.

In an important move, hubergroup Deutschland sold Gleitsmann Security Inks GmbH (GSI) to IN Groupe for an undisclosed amount of cash. IN Groupe is a French-headquartered identity and secured digital services specialist. Among its services are secure credentials and banknotes; GSI is a specialist in security printing inks and associated auxiliaries.

On the personnel side, there was a major change at hubergroup, with CEO Heiner Klokkers stepping down in January 2024. Taner Bicer, responsible for the group’s Chemicals Division, and Carsten Zölzer, head of the Offset Division, have joined the Management Board of MHM Holding GmbH. Both will also remain managing directors of hubergroup Deutschland GmbH and retain their current responsibilities. Together with CFO Britta Hübner, responsible for the transformation of the group, they will form the Management Board of MHM Holding GmbH.

hubergroup also embarked on some key collaborations during the past year. First, hubergroup signed a cooperation agreement with Koenig & Bauer in July 2023, in which the companies will work together on inks for the Rapida sheetfed press series. hubergroup’s inks are recommended for the Rapida presses, and new inks will be developed.

hubergroup is also partnering with manroland Goss on sustainable packaging solutions for manroland Goss’ web offset presses.

Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.

The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for food and non-food packaging, commercial and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheet-fed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, screen inks, and fountain solution additives.

The Chemicals Division produces speciality chemicals such as resins, lamination adhesives, additives and colorants in its facilities in India. In particular, hubergroup Chemicals concentrates on the customized manufacturing and development of radiation curing UV oligomers, polyurethane resins, polyketonic resins, adhesion promoters, modified rosin, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), and pigment concentrates as well as alkali blue.

Number of Employees: 3,300 worldwide

Comments: Despite the challenging environment, hubergroup had a good year in 2022. While the economy faced hurdles in terms of raw materials, transportation costs and some declines in the print market, sustainability is a key opportunity, especially for hubergroup.

“In my opinion, there were two dominant topics in 2022: The market situation and sustainability,” hubergroup CEO Heiner Klokkers observed. “The market situation in the printing inks market remained very tense in 2022. The costs of raw materials, freight and energy remained at a high level while the volume decreased. Accordingly, it was also a challenging year for hubergroup Print Solutions.

“In view of this difficult situation, we are satisfied with our performance,” he added. “The market has continued to move towards sustainable packaging, and we can see growth in mono-material packaging. Thanks to our sustainable portfolio, we were therefore able to stabilize our position.”

The decision to branch out its raw material operations into hubergroup Chemicals Division in 2020 has proved to have been a wise one.

“Our Chemicals Division, which was launched in 2020, successfully established itself on the international market and has gained many international and regional customers in the chemical, coatings and printing ink industries in 2022,” Klokkers said.

Klokkers noted that Asia has been a strong region for hubergroup, particularly India.

“Asia, in particular India, is the market with the strongest growth in all business segments,” Klokkers said. “In 2022, hubergroup was also able to achieve good growth in North America, especially in the folding carton market with our sheetfed and UV offset portfolio. In Europe, we saw a strong shift in converting from Central Europe to Turkey.”

hubergroup had plenty of highlights to report for 2022, beginning with the emphasis on continuously working on improving its portfolio to make printing processes and products more efficient and ecological, beginning with its UV range.

“We place particular emphasis on providing customers with a holistic portfolio whenever possible and on always supporting them with our customer service during the realization of their projects,” Klokkers reported. “Within the last year, we had a special focus on our UV portfolio. As a consequence, we are relaunching our UV flexo portfolio under the brand iray, which now convinces with an even better performance. Additionally, we added primers, adhesives and low-migration printing inks as well as varnishes for food packaging to the portfolio to cover all products necessary for UV flexo printers.

“Similarly, we revised and strengthened our UV offset portfolio for non-absorbent substrates,” he added. “The portfolio includes printing inks, varnishes, and fountain solution additives that are optimally matched to each other and thus enable a smooth printing process. Thanks to intensive development work, the globally available food and non-food ink series NewV poly (MGA) and NewV tin (MGA) as well as the varnish series NewV lac (MGA) are now also formulated to be sensorially neutral and PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)-free.”

hubergroup also introduced new web offset inks for food packaging.

“With paper packaging becoming increasingly popular in the food sector due to its good recyclability, our mineral oil-free and low-migration ink series MGA FOOD NEWS and MGA EVOLUTION offer a new opportunity,” Klokkers said. “While web offset printers can build up another business segment, the food industry has a new option to design sustainable paper packaging in a colorful and creative way.”

The hubergroup Chemicals Division is also growing, with new facilities being added on the UV side.

“With regards to our chemical business, we are delighted to share that we have implemented two new facilities at our production site in Vapi, India: Our new monomers and oligomers manufacturing facility increases our manufacturing capacity to 4500 MT/A for UV monomers and oligomers,” Klokkers reported. “Our new UV oligomers facility will play a crucial role in expanding our production capabilities by 800 MT per year.”

The company also implemented a number of sustainability initiatives which cover the gamut from improving energy development to providing health care in rural communities in India.

“Last but not least, we made some advancements in the areas of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, which are very important to me,” Klokkers said. “For example, we implemented a trigeneration plant for more eco-friendly production at our site in Bolzano Vicentino, Italy, we launched and expanded a rural healthcare initiative in India, and hubergroup Deutschland was awarded with the EcoVadis silver medal. We also have a number of projects planned for the future to further improve our environmental footprint and support the communities in which we operate.”

Klokkers said that the emphasis on sustainability will continue to serve hubergroup well in 2023.

“The decreasing printing market and the high costs for raw materials, energy, and transport will continue to be a major challenge this year. Nevertheless, we can and want to actively drive an eco-friendly printing world. That’s why we will continue to focus on designing our products and processes even more sustainably,” Klokkers concluded.

Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.

The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for packaging, commercial, and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheet-fed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, security inks, screen inks, transfer inks and fountain solution additives.

The Chemicals Division produces speciality chemicals such as resins, lamination adhesives, additives, and colorants in its facilities in India. In particular, hubergroup Chemicals concentrates on the customized manufacturing and development of radiation curing UV oligomers, polyurethane resins, polyketonic resins, adhesion promoters, modified rosin, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), and pigment concentrates as well as alkali blue.

Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide

Comments: hubergroup enjoyed a solid year in 2021, with sales up slightly, particularly in the packaging segment. Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the Management Board at hubergroup, observed that the company’s emphasis on sustainability is playing a pivotal role in its growth.

“After the striking market decline in 2020, we have seen some recovery in 2021,” Klokkers noted. “Globally, the packaging market is growing in the areas of rigid carton, folding carton, and flexible packaging. The market has continued to move towards sustainable packaging, and we can see growth in mono-material packaging. Thanks to our sustainable portfolio, we were therefore able to stabilize our position. In addition, we successfully established our Chemicals Division, which was launched in 2020.”

Klokkers noted that hubergroup has continued to drive its sustainability strategy forward by launching diverse eco-friendly products.

“Sustainability is a major issue for us, which has led to various product improvements and innovations such as the enhanced recyclability of our products or our new HYDRO-LAC GA Oxygen Barrier Coating, which protects packaged food from oxygen and thus enables mono-material packaging,” Klokkers said. “Consequently, the packaging is easier to recycle and can be returned to the material cycle.

“We also relaunched our ink series RAPIDA ECO and have designed our processes even more sustainable which reflects in various Cradle to Cradle certifications,” Klokkers added. “Further highlights for us were the announcement of our sheetfed offset series MGA Contact, which is suitable for safe printing on the inside of food packaging, and the launch of our digital print folders.”

hubergroup also was actively adding new facilities that will extend its reach in Europe.

“We increased our production capabilities in Europe thanks to a new plant in Poland, and moved our headquarters to a modern office building. In this context, we have also invested a lot in our new, state-of-the-art lab facilities so that the conditions for analytical services are even better now. So, we have had a quite exciting year,” Klokkers noted.

Raw materials continue to be a major concern for the ink industry.

“The availability of raw materials as well as raw material, energy and transport costs continue to make for an extremely tense market situation,” Klokkers reported. “We expect the tense situation to continue at least until the end of this year.

What happens after that will heavily depend on the political circumstances.”

As for 2022, Klokkers said that the year started off well, but there are many challenges ahead.

“We started the year quite well,” Klokkers continued. “Especially in Europe, however, the outbreak of the conflict in the Ukraine is creating a tense situation. The tight commodity situation as well as the high costs for raw materials, energy, and transport will continue to be a major challenge this year. Thus, we expect further price increases to come up, even though we are working hard to minimize them by using our global supply network, examining other sourcing methods, and using alternative raw materials. To our customers, please be assured that we are working hard to deliver best products on time.”

Major Products: hubergroup is offering customized, high-quality services and technologies around printing inks as well as print-related products for commercial, newspaper, packaging and security printing. Main products include sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

In the Chemicals Division, hubergroup manufactures UV-curable oligomers, polyurethane resins, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), modified rosin resins, PVB, ketone resins and polyamides as well as pigment concentrates, alkali blue and adhesion promoters.

Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide

Comments: With $779 million in sales in 2020, hubergroup is one of the leading global ink manufacturers, and the company took major steps to bring its expertise into chemicals with the launch of its new Chemicals Division in 2020.

“The highlight for hubergroup was, of course, the launch of our Chemicals Division in July 2020,” Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the board for MHM Holding GmbH, said. “This new division produces and markets raw materials such as pigments, resins, and additives. It primarily aims at the printing and packaging industry, the paint and coatings industry, and at chemical companies. Our Chemicals Division perfectly complements our Print Solutions Division, which produces and sells printing inks and aids for packaging and commercial printing.”

Klokkers said that COVID-19 affected the company in a variety of ways, in particular raw materials.

“COVID-19 had a major impact, especially on the commercial printing market, which heavily declined due to lockdowns,” he noted. “Business in the packaging market was stable. However, there were strong disruptions in the overall supply chain, which had effects on all markets. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unfortunately still being felt. We are fortunate to be able to supply our customers, but this goes along with a great effort and therefore also with massive cost increases. An improvement of the situation is currently not in sight.”

Hubergroup is a leader in developing sustainable solutions, and the company continued to make significant strides.

“Sustainability is the central issue for us as well as for our customers,” Klokkers observed. “Thanks to intensive research and development work, we were able to announce several success stories in this area over the past 12 months. For example, we now offer a complete Cradle to Cradle Material Health Gold certified portfolio for commercial and packaging offset printing and our UV inks received deinking certificates.

“Another highlight is the launch of our HYDRO-X GA Water Barrier Varnish,” he added. “The water-based varnish protects against water and, thereby, replaces a polyethylene (PE) film lamination as water barrier. As a result, it enables cost-effective and eco-friendly mono-material paper packaging as an alternative to laminate structure packaging. Moreover, we have teamed up with other companies of the printed films value chain in an initiative called PrintCYC to investigate the influence of printing inks on the mechanical recycling of packaging films. One of our findings so far is that polyurethane (PU) based inks such as our Gecko Platinum series can be processed to a high quality recyclate similar to virgin material.”

So far, 2021 has seen good things for hubergroup, although there are still concerns.

“We started the year quite well, but the lockdowns are still having an impact,” Klokkers reported. “The situation in India is currently causing us the most concern. We hope that the situation will now ease very soon here as well. The tight commodity situation will continue to be a major challenge this year. With the progress in vaccination, we expect the overall situation to improve and are already seeing first enhancements in North America and Europe.”

Major Products: hubergroup is offering customized, high-quality services and technologies around printing inks as well as print-related products for commercial, newspaper, packaging and security printing. Main products include sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

In the Chemicals Division, hubergroup manufactures UV-curable oligomers, polyurethane resins, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), modified rosin resins, PVB, ketone resins and polyamides as well as pigment concentrates, alkali blue and adhesion promoters.

Number of Employees: 3,700 worldwide.

Comments: hubergroup is an international leader in a wide range of products, including packaging, commercial and publication printing inks, coatings and pressroom auxiliaries. At $863 million, sales held fairly steady
in 2019,

Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the board for MHM Holding GmbH, noted that hubergroup and its more than 30 subsidiaries worldwide are constantly evolving to meet the needs of
its customers.

“In 2019, we recorded an improvement from the previous year, but it was still challenging,” Klokkers observed. “As the market is constantly changing, we have made some strategic changes, which are structural in nature. The implementation of these decisions will continue into the current fiscal year.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to take stock of its operations, and Klokkers said that hubergroup has maintained its supply chain.

“2020 started off quite well,” said Klokkers. “The COVID-19 pandemic strongly affected the commercial and newsletter printing business. Packaging printing was not affected. We haven’t even seen a slight growth. The pandemic demanded high effort from supply chain management to secure the supply of goods, but the measures taken have paid off, and therefore we have had and still have a stable supply chain situation.”

“The raw material situation for solvents is still difficult because of the increased demand in the packaging sector,” Klokkers observed. “Raw material shortages worldwide have led to a significant price increase – also at hubergroup. In other segments, the situation is tense, but not critical.”

hubergroup was active in R&D for packaging and commercial applications.

“We had some good product launches in the flexo/gravure segment like our Gecko Xperience series, which are characterized by their wide range of novel haptic effects,” Klokkers noted. “They are opening up a new dimension of creative packaging design, as is our Gecko Platinum products for high-performance lamination flexo printing, which are free of monomeric plasticizers. Another product highlight was our MGA Natura launch, a fast-setting sheetfed offset series for printing organoleptically neutral print products on cardboard and other absorbent substrates.”

Klokker sees excellent opportunities ahead for hubergroup.

“Packaging printing performs still on a high level and it might further grow, whereas commercial printing continues to decline,” Klokkers concluded. “We expect growing business due to the launch of our chemical division.”

Major Products: hubergroup is offering customized, high-quality services and technologies around printing inks as well as print-related products for commercial, newspaper, packaging and security printing. Main products include sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,800 worldwide

Comments: With its 40 subsidiaries, hubergroup is a global leader in packaging, commercial and publication printing inks, coatings and pressroom auxiliaries. The company had a solid year in 2018, generating sales of $890 million despite the continued decline in the commercial and news ink markets.

“In general, the printing ink market is globally affected by the downturn of commercial print and newspaper print,” said Franziska Niedermeir, global corporate communication, MHM Holding GmbH. “Although the packaging market is still growing, this is not offsetting the decline in commercial print. In combination with the volatile raw material market, 2018 was a challenging year for the hubergroup. We haven’t seen any significant changes in this trend at the beginning of this year.”

hubergroup has put significant resources into creating environmentally friendly inks. For example, the company noted that hubergroup was the first manufacturer to globally launch a wide range of Cradle to Cradle certified ink series and coatings for sustainable offset and gravure print products by mid-2017. In 2018, hubergroup further strengthened its commitment for sustainable inks; for instance, the Gecko Green Line Premium series received the Cradle to Cradle Silver Material Health Certificate. In 2018, hubergroup also announced its partnership with Carlsberg.

“Sustainability is an integral part of product development at hubergroup,” Lutz Frischmann, global product director flexible packaging at hubergroup, said. “Motivated by our customer Töpfer Kulmbach and by Carlsberg’s project ‘TogetherTowardsZero,’ hubergroup has widened its effort to design a specific solvent-based product portfolio. I am proud that our efforts are bearing fruit and that we are now offering the first solvent-based flexo and gravure inks carrying the Silver Material Health Certificate. We are already experiencing a high level of customer interest as a result.”

In addition, Koenig & Bauer and hubergroup announced a cooperation on conventional sheetfed offset inks in May 2018. Thereby, Koenig & Bauer recommends the use of conventional sheetfed offset inks from hubergroup for its high-performance Rapida presses. The aim of this global partnership is to offer joint users the optimum complete service and quality package.

In April 2019, hubergroup presented NewV cure, a new solution for measuring the curing degree of UV inks. “This method will revolutionize UV curing since it is the only objective, science-based, and patented method for determining UV curing,” said Niedermeir. “It will help to increase security in packaging production and to reduce waste as well as rejects due to incomplete curing.”

Raw materials remain a concern for the ink industry, and hubergroup is coping with raw material pricing and availability through its vertical integration.

“hubergroup is one of the few printing ink specialists that manufactures the majority of the key ink components in-house to be able to set its own quality and environmental standards,” Niedermeir observed. “The integrated supply chain offers a high degree of independence from sub-suppliers, especially in the fields of pigments and resins. Nevertheless, the high fluctuations in raw material prices affect the hubergroup. Therefore, the company needed to adjust its ink prices due to higher raw material prices in 2018.”

Niedermeir sees a bright future ahead for hubergroup.

“In 2019, hubergroup will continue its commitment to driving sustainability in the printing ink sector,” said Niedermeir. “While hubergroup will adjust its structure to the declining offset printing market, the leading ink specialist will expand its commitment in conventional and UV sheetfed as well as in flexible packaging and the required raw materials for these product categories.”

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide

Comments: An international leader in printing inks, coatings and pressroom auxiliaries, hubergroup’s 40 companies serve the packaging, commercial and newsprinting segments. The company enjoyed a successful year, recording $990 million (€820 million) in sales, although it was a challenging year due to raw materials and the decline of print media.

“The main topics for us were the raw material cost increase for all products and the continuing downturn of the print media markets,” said Heiner Klokkers, hubergroup’s chairman and CEO. “We expect 2018 to continue in that mode, with rising costs for raw materials in all segments and the requirement for price adjustments, on top of the severe market disruption with photoinitiators for energy curing systems.”

In major news, hubergroup announced its new leadership structure, with long-time chairman Ursula Borgmann retiring. Borgmann had been a leader at hubergroup for more than 30 years. Klokkers became chairman of the Management Board on Jan. 1, 2018. Taner Bicer will take over the technology division within the group.

“Heiner Klokkers knows the strengths of hubergroup and the market for printing inks like no one else,” said Klaus Greger, chairman of the advisory board of the printing ink manufacturer. “The owners and the advisory board therefore place their trust in him to strategically position the hubergroup as a long-term oriented family-owned company for the next decade and to design the necessary measures to meet future challenges.”

“In 2017 we laid the groundwork for our new leadership structure with our chairman, Ms. Ursula Borgmann, handing over her chairmanship and the directorship of technology,” Klokkers said. “The ongoing structural changes are also very important to us and will further strengthen our business relationships. A particular highlight was the acquisition of Alden & Ott. With its awesome team we were able to create immediate growth in our US business.”

To try to make up for part of the price increases, hubergroup announced price increases in the Americas and Europe is early 2018. The company raised prices for solvent-based inks in Europe in January, all inks and coatings in North America and South America in February, and sheetfed and UV offset inks and varnishes across Europe in April.

“The higher raw material prices have to be passed on to our clients,” said Klokkers. “While process improvements and backward integration for all key raw materials made it possible to mitigate most of the rising raw material cost in the past, this is no longer possible. Among other raw material, the entire ink industry (but also the paints and coatings industry) is struggling e.g. with key products for azo pigments and photoinitiators, as well as with the very important white pigment TiO2.

“The biggest regulatory concern right now is the reclassification or the potential reclassification of some key raw materials like photoinitiators, TiO2 and a few others which are key for our industry,” Klokkers added.

“Key raw materials like azo and phthalocyanine pigments, carbon black and the largest part of our additive portfolio (all ink product lines), MMA-based acrylate resins (water-based varnishes), UV monomers and oligomers, photoinitiators (all UV product lines) have seen increasing prices especially during the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, and this rise in prices will have a significant impact on our raw material costs,” said Dirk Aulbert, head of the Business Unit Europe within hubergroup.

On the R&D front, hubergroup launched Eco-Offset Inks Premium Plus low-migration and low-odor sheetfed offset packaging inks and coatings for conventional offset food packaging printing, as well as inks and coatings suitable for the manufacture of toys. These inks have earned the prestigious Cradle to Cradle Silver status.

hubergroup’s Klokkers sees bright times ahead.

“All in all, it is a challenging times for ink makers,” Klokkers concluded. “Although we have a lot of challenges that will need to be managed during the rest of this and the coming year, we are still optimistic. The continuing growth of our ink business for flexible packaging and UV inks in Europe, Asia and South America is making us happy.”

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide

Comments: With 40 companies and 130 sites, hubergroup is a global leader in printing inks, coatings and press room auxiliaries. With a history dating back more than 250 years, the company serves the packaging, commercial and newsprinting segments. For hubergroup, 2016 was a successful year, with sales of $935 million (€820 million).

hubergroup has been emphasizing environmentally friendly formulations, most recently announcing that all of its sheetfed inks are cobalt-free. This decision was driven by the improved performance of these inks.

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; industrial inks, varnishes coatings and fountain solutions.

Number of Employees: 3,600 worldwide

Comments: hubergroup had a solid year in 2015, as sales grew 1.4% in terms of euros to €847 million ($925 million). hubergroup has completed its rebranding efforts, bringing many of its well known subsidiaries – including Michael Huber München, Micro Inks, Hostmann-Steinberg, Stehlin + Hostag and Tipolit – under the hubergroup name. For example, in North America, the Hostmann-Steinberg name was changed to hubergroup USA and hubergroup Canada Limited Inc.

“Most of our companies are branded hubergroup now and we will continue to strengthen our brand recognition,” said Robert Doerffel, corporate communications Europe for hubergroup.

Doerffel noted that packaging and UV are two growth segments for hubergroup.

“We continue to invest especially in our liquid and energy curing segments, plus the connected and adequate investments in personnel,” he noted, adding that hubergroup introduced a LED-UV ink series and several products for iron doped lamps as part of its NewV product family, CRSmax UV mixing system, and among many other solvent-based products, the weather resistant Gecko Frontal Storm series for printing on PE films.

While hubergroup saw stable results in the publication segment, there still are challenges ahead for that market.

“Print media has stabilized a bit, but is still overall a shrinking market,” Doerffel noted. “Structural adjustments continued to be part of our regular business and have occupied our group quite a bit in 2015. Future activities are aiming to tackle the better performing markets.”

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,600 worldwide

Comments: hubergroup had a good year in 2014, with sales in terms of euros increasing 2.9% to €835 million ($1.015 billion).

hubergroup has more that 40 regionally operating ink manufacturing companies, including Michael Huber München, Micro Inks, Hostmann-Steinberg, Gleitsmann, Stehlin Hostag and Tipolit. In order to strengthen its global brand, the company is consolidating its subsidiaries under the hubergroup name.

“The two German companies, Michael Huber München GmbH and Hostmann-Steinberg GmbH, have merged into hubergroup Deutschland GmbH,” said Robert Doerffel, corporate communications Europe for hubergroup. “Many other companies have changed their name to hubergroup, strengthening the brand’s appearance. Along with that, structures are being adapted to meet the general challenges.”

This was also the case in North America, where the Hostmann-Steinberg name was changed to hubergroup USA and hubergroup Canada Limited Inc.

The packaging ink field is continuing to do well for hubergroup, while the publication field is struggling.

“We continue to invest especially in our liquid inks and our UV inks sectors, plus the connected and adequate investments in personnel,” Doerffel said. He added that hubergroup has launched a special UV ink series, as well as introducing its Gecko gravure ink series into the Asia-Pacific region.

“Print media is still shrinking, impacting all ink makers,” Doerffel added. “Continuous structural adjustments are part of a regular process irrespective of regions and markets. Business development focuses on strong countries and product types with growth potential.”

While raw material prices stabilized during 2014, albeit at a high level, European ink manufacturers found themselves with the added challenge of battling the declining value of the euro compared to the dollar.

“The loss of value of the euro compared to the USD was problematic for European ink makers,” Doerffel noted. “Raw material alternatives and strategies for purchasing synergies helped to limit the impact.”

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,600 worldwide

Comments: hubergroup enjoyed a relatively solid year in 2013, with sales remaining stable in terms of dollars.

“Overall, hubergroup’s financial data improved in 2013 compared to 2012,” said Robert Doerffel, corporate communications Europe for hubergroup. “Sales turnover declined slightly only due to significant fluctuations in some exchange rates. Nevertheless, we were able to grow business, especially in packaging offset and liquid businesses. We are not forecasting any major market dynamics in Europe and Americas, but we are predicting volume increases in the Asian region.”

hubergroup consists of 40 regionally operating ink manufacturing companies, with well known names such as Michael Huber München, Micro Inks, Hostmann-Steinberg, Gleitsmann, Stehlin Hostag and Tipolit. The company’s inks cover the full gamut of publication and packaging printing. However, the publication market continues to offer challenges.

“A shrinking print sector is having impact on all ink makers. Continuous structural adjustments are part of a regular process irrespective of regions and markets,” said Doerffel. “In such a competitive environment, quality and pricing are in a harsh battle and none of them may be sacrificed.”

On the other hand, UV packaging printing business offers opportunities for hubergroup. The company’s latest product introductions include the NewV ink series for iron-doped UV-dryers and the Gecko PU ink system for high-quality lamination applications.

“We plan to invest especially in our liquid inks and our UV inks sectors, plus the connected and adequate investments in personnel,” Doerffel noted.

In an important move, hubergroup is working on merging the two German legal entities to streamline processes and increase efficiency, in order to strengthen specific competence centers and reduce complexity of products for the single manufacturing sites. Doerffel added that hubergroup is further investing in its business and its organization.

“We acquired Este Inks, a water-based ink manufacturer in New Zealand,” Doerffel concluded. “We are working on several efficiency projects worldwide, but our main objective is to continue to meet our customer expectations in terms of service and quality and work on continuous improvements wherever possible. For the coming year, we are going to add some more innovative products in our target business areas.”

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: 3,602 worldwide.

Comments: Hubergroup enjoyed 2% sales growth in 2012, with sales increasing to $1.085 billion (€844 million). Hubergroup has 40 regional ink manufacturing companies and a sales network of more than 150 offices, selling a wide variety of inks for commercial printing, news printing and packaging printing. Among the company’s well-known subsidiaries are Hostmann-Steinberg, Gleitsmann Security Inks and Stehlin Hostag Ink.

In spite of the sales gains, the market remains challenging.

“The global marketplaces differ,” Robert Doerffel, corporate communications Europe for hubergroup, reported. “The EU and North American markets were difficult due to volume decline and margin pressure. Latin America and Asia were doing fairly well. Structural adjustments were part of a regular process and also a reaction to raw materials.”

Raw materials remain a major concern for the ink industry and for hubergroup.

“With eroding margins, price increases were necessary,” Mr. Doerffel said. “Permanent research for raw material alternatives is becoming daily routine for keeping the impact on customers as low as possible.”

The company made two key personnel moves, adding Ashwani Bhardwaj, (operations management, Asia) and Heiner Klokkers (operations management, Europe) to its board of directors in January 2013.

Hubergroup’s R&D team added to the company’s innovative inks with its latest addition to the Inkredible series, its Inkredible metal decorating inks. The company also launched its NewV news inks.

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,500 worldwide.

Comments: hubergroup had a very strong year in 2011, as the company registered 3.5% growth to $1.03 billion in sales.Robert Doerffel, corporate communications Europe for hubergroup noted that hubergroup enjoyed a number of highlights during the past year, including growth in key markets as well as some new products.

“All the markets are interesting for the hubergroup,” Mr. Doerffel said. “Of course it is easy to surf the wave when a market is growing – and there still are some market segments and some regions growing. South America, India and China are highly interesting markets and we expect to grow with them. But especially the slower markets are a challenge and therefore worth every second of attention and effort in order to succeed in this very competitive environment.”

hubergroup’s excellent R&D team created a wide variety of new products this year across the gamut of printing processes. The company further expanded its NewV UV flexo inks, which are ideal for shrink sleeves, in-mould labels and other labels printed on synthetics, as well as its MGA low migration sheetfed printing ink system for food packaging. hubergroup invested in its manufacturing facilities to guarantee the safest GMP production workflow within the ink industry. To help printers keep up with the growing pressure in the commercial sector, hubergroup strengthened its line of fast drying offset inks. The company also launched its Acrylac water-based coating system.

Mr. Doerffel noted that raw materials remain a concern throughout the ink industry, as higher raw material prices are eroding margins, and cannot be compensated by reducing production costs alone.

“The situation has not significantly improved,” said Mr. Doerffel. “There is still high pressure on pricing and the raw materials are constantly growing in cost. Luckily it seems as if the raw material price increase is losing some of its velocity, but we still don’t expect a reverse development anywhere in the near future. It is more likely that the trend for higher prices will persist.”

Mr. Doerffel noted that the supply concerns over certain raw materials have subsided somewhat.

“One development we saw as a threat has not turned out as bad as we expected: the shortage of some raw materials has vanished more or less,” said Mr. Doerffel. “The situation for the ink industry is kind of similar as with the printing industry. The capacities for production seem to be quite a bit higher than the demand, with negative effect on the pricing structure of the produced goods.”

In April 2012, hubergroup announced major organizational changes within Europe and America. Michael Geiger was promoted to CFO of the hubergroup, succeeding Andreas Leidert, who resigned after 21 yearswith the hubergroup due to health reasons. Mr. Geiger has been with hubergroup since 2004.

“With his background in finance and his experience leading our region in North and South America for several years,” said Thomas Hensel, CEO ofthe hubergroup, “Michael is the perfect fit for this important position.”

Martin Weber succeeded Mr. Geiger aspresident Regional Unit North and South America. Mr. Weber started his careerwiththe hubergroup in Munich in 1989.He has held several managing positions within hubergroup, most recently in Hong Kong, where he developed new markets and new strategies in the Asia/Pacific region

“Martin will add great experience, especially in sales and marketing, to our markets in America,” said Mr. Hensel.

Heiner Klokkers will assume responsibility as president for the Europe region. He joined the hubergroup in 2004 as managingdirectorof Michael Huber Muenchen GmbH, and previously held leadership positions at BASF Printing Systems.

“With the international experience and his know-how, Heiner will successfully enhance our growth in this important market,” said Mr. Hensel.

Major Products: Sheetfed, coldset and heatset offset inks; solvent-based gravure inks for packaging; water- and solvent-based flexo inks for packaging; UV offset and flexo inks; security inks; screen inks; fountain solutions, varnishes and transfer inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,500 worldwide.

Comments: hubergroup had an excellent year in 2010, posting 15% gains in sales to $995 million, which is impressive considering the company’s insistence on providing high quality products.

“Low budget and low quality ink manufacturers have temporarily gained market share,” said Thomas Hensel, CEO for hubergroup. “We are sticking to our high quality products that offer processing benefits, safe operations and reliable service.”

Raw material availability and price volatility are having a serious impact on the entire ink industry, and hubergroup is no exception.

“Steep increases in practically all raw materials, combined with shortages in some, have severely affected margins,” said Mr. Hensel. “Selling price increases so far have only partly compensated the margin erosion. Further price increases are necessary.”

In a major personnel move, Heiner Ringer, hubergroup’s longtime CEO, retired in December 2010. Mr. Hensel succeeded Mr. Ringer.

hubergroup continues to develop new products for its INKredible ink series. The latest offering is INKredible Quickfast. The company is also expanding its MGA product portfolio, packaging inks with traceability of raw materials and free of contamination due to the GMP manufacturing process.