Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink.

Number of Employees: 1,100 (Ink World estimate)

Comments: Headquartered in Saitama, Japan, T&K TOKA is a UV-curable ink specialist with operations worldwide. While structural changes in the market environment, primarily due to the continued global shift toward digital communication channels and the corresponding reduction in demand for traditional paper-based media, has had a direct impact on sales volumes, T&K TOKA has found success due to the continued growth in the energy-curable ink and coatings market.

Hirofumi “Zack” Ozaki, department manager of Overseas Dept., observed that T&K TOKA has faced significant cost pressures as a result of global inflation, which has driven sharp increases in the prices of key raw materials and labor.

“In response to these challenges, the company implemented price revisions to partially offset the impact of rising input costs, while also pursuing internal efficiency measures to maintain competitiveness and profitability,” Ozaki said.

In January 2024, Bain Capital Private Equity (Japan), LLC announced that K.K. BCJ-74, an entity which is a indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of K.K. BCJ-73 – a limited liability company indirectly owned by Bain Capital – launched a tender offer to acquire all of the shares in T&K TOKA Co., Ltd. In March 2024, K.K.BCJ-74 acquired approximately 91% of T&K TOKA’s shares through a tender offer. In April 2024, the company’s shares were delisted.

Since then, under the ownership of Bain Capital (Japan), T&K TOKA has been actively working to enhance profitability through a series of strategic initiatives. These include streamlining operations, optimizing the supply chain, reviewing the product portfolio, and strengthening cost controls. In addition, the company is investing in high-margin product segments and accelerating efforts to improve operational efficiency and organizational agility.

In a major personnel move, Nobumasa Ishiai was appointed representative director, president and CEO in September 2024. With a career spanning leadership roles at multinational corporations and leading Japanese companies, he brings a wealth of global business experience and strategic insight. Under his leadership, T&K TOKA is focused on restoring profitability, strengthening its core businesses, and driving sustainable growth.

Ozaki said that as a result of rising energy costs and increasing pressure to shorten delivery lead times, demand is expected to grow for fast-drying technologies, particularly those utilizing Dual-Cure inks.

“Compared to conventional UV inks, Dual-Cure inks require significantly less energy for curing, making them an environmentally conscious and sustainable alternative,” said Ozaki. “Their ability to maintain high performance while reducing energy consumption has garnered growing attention across the industry.

“In parallel, digital printing continues to gain momentum due to its ability to accommodate small print volumes, enable rapid turnaround, support a wide variety of product types, and handle variable data printing,” Ozaki added.

As for potential tariffs, Ozaki said that given the fluid nature of the situation, T&K TOKA is closely monitoring market developments and the responses of other
industry players.

“Should a formal order ultimately be enacted, we anticipate a significant rise in procurement costs,” Ozaki observed. “In such a case, we may need to consider price adjustments in order to mitigate the financial impact and maintain
stable operations.”

Ozaki added that T&K TOKA anticipates that logistics and procurement costs will remain under pressure due to the ongoing instability in Europe and the Middle East.

“At the same time, we expect continued global growth in demand for energy-curable inks,” Ozaki noted. “In response, we are focusing on the development of UV/EB inks that meet increasingly stringent chemical regulations, address environmental concerns, and comply with the legal and regulatory frameworks of various countries. Our goal is to deliver versatile, high-value-added products that align with both market needs and sustainability standards.”

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink, UV inkjet, water-based inkjet.

Number of Employees: 1,100 (Ink World estimate)

Comments: The past year was a huge one for T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness), a UV-curable ink specialist.

On Jan. 22, 2024, T&K TOKA announced its support for the launch of a tender offer by K.K. BCJ-74 Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of G.K. BCJ-73 LLC, all of whose shares are indirectly held by an investment fund advised by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP (BCP) and its group, to acquire all of the shares of T&K TOKA Co., Ltd.

In March 2024, K.K.BCJ-74 acquired approximately 91% of T&K TOKA’s shares through a tender offer.

BCP believes that T&K Toka has a bright future under its new ownership and intends to fully support the company through its consulting approach in designing and implementing growth strategies and business restructuring, as well as through

personnel support.

As for sales this past year, Hideyuki Hinataya, GM of T&K TOKA’s Overseas Ink Sales Division, said the past year was a challenging one, although the UV ink market in Asia is relatively good and is expected to continue to grow.

“In addition to the global slump in demand for general UV inks and other printing inks, it was a tough environment in the USA and Europe due to the ongoing decline in demand for paper-based printing materials due to digitization and the resulting drop in demand for the publishing and commercial printing markets,” said Hinataya. “But demand in Asia continued recovering. On the other hand, we continued to improve profitability through price revisions.”

In an important personnel move, Akihiro Takamizawa, director and GM of the Ink Business Division, was appointed president and director.

Sustainability remains an important aspect for T&K TOKA.

“We are aware that it is our social responsibility to conduct corporate activities in harmony with the global environment, and we will continue our efforts to realize a decarbonized and recycling-oriented society,” Hinataya observed.

For the coming year, Hinataya said that T&K TOKA anticipates instability on the distribution due to unrest in Europe and the Middle East, with the resulting cost increases are a concern.

“Although the commercial printing market is expected to continue to face a challenging situation, we look forward to sustained growth in the energy-curing ink market,” added Hinataya.

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink, UV inkjet, water-based inkjet.

Number of Employees: 1,122

Comments: T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is primarily focused the UV-curable ink segment, which remains a growth area for printing. Hideyuki Hinataya, GM of T&K Toka’s Overseas Ink Sales Division, said that T&K Toka, continues to see growth ahead after a fairly stable year in 2022, adding that the UV printing market was the strongest performing last year.

“Revenues from printing inks, including general UV inks, are forecast to increase as sales expand, mainly in overseas markets, and revisions are made to appropriate selling prices,” Hinataya observed. “Functional materials are expected to see a recovery in demand for pigment dispersions for color filters in connection with the recovery of the FPD (Flat Panel display) market. In response to the increase of various costs, we continued to revise sales prices for a wide range of products in regions.”

T&K Toka had an eventful year. Zhe Jiang T&K Toka Finechemical Co. Ltd, which manufactures and sells colorants for FPD color filters and other products to the Chinese market, commenced full production in August 2022. In a key personnel move, Akihiro Takamizawa, who was formerly GM of the Overseas Ink Sales Division, was appointed president via director and chief of Ink Business HQ on June 23, 2023.

Raw materials remain a concern for T&K Toka.

“Raw material prices increased compared to the previous year due to the war in Russia and Ukraine, and remained high,” Hinataya noted. “In addition, the supply of some raw materials was unstable during the lockdown in China. It is necessary to be mindful of raw material procurement restrictions, logistics disruptions and continuing price hikes.”

Hinataya noted that sustainability remains front and center for T&K Toka.

“Towards environmental and social sustainability and the sustainability of customers and the own company, we are building a value provision model combining ‘products + services,’ and are expanding the range of environmentally friendly products, such as energy-saving, biomass, and EB inks,” Hinataya concluded.

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink, UV inkjet, water-based inkjet.

Number of Employees: 1,171

Comments: A global leader in UV inks, T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) had a solid year in 2021, led by growth in the packaging segment.

“Sales in 2021 are up 5.3% year-on-year,” said Akihiro Takamizawa, chief of ink business HQ for T&K Toka. “The packaging and energy-saving UV printing markets are growing, and sales of UV inks were able to be expanded to every region.” Takamizawa added that business is recovering well, though not to pre-COVID levels.

Takamizawa reported that much like the ink industry as a whole, T&K TOKA is facing a difficult raw material situation.

“Raw material prices are expected to rise further due to the situation in Ukraine, the Shanghai lockdown and the weak Japanese yen,” Takamizawa noted. “Not only raw materials, but also logistics costs, packaging materials and the energy for production all keep rising, and the continuous impact on ink prices is expected. On the other hand, the logistics are not as disrupted as it was in the second half of 2021. We think the potential risks still exist and it takes more time to have stable supply.”

Takamizawa said that T&K TOKA is developing new UV/EB formulations to meet regulatory changes.

“T&K TOKA will develop UV/EB inks for both general-purpose and high-value-added products in response to the recent issues on plastics, related chemical regulations, environment and legal regulation in various countries,” Takamizawa noted.

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink, UV inkjet, water-based inkjet.

Number of Employees: 2,000

Comments: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted virtually every ink company, and T&K Toka, a global leader in UV inks, was no exception. Still, T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) reported solid results in 2020, seeing growth in North America as well as from the Royal Dutch Van Son acquisition.

“Our business expansion in North America went well,” said Akihiro Takamizawa, GM, Overseas Ink Sales Division for T&K Toka. “Van Son’s presence is contributing to sales expansion of our printing inks.

“However, restrictions on economic activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic posed negative impacts on demands for printing, mainly for commercial printing,” added Takamizawa. “Also, demands for offset printing ink in Japan and other Asian regions remained sluggish. In addition, a change in global demand structure, such as demands for hygiene and home use, have affected some of supply chains, leading to soaring shipping costs and raw material costs.”

UV ink is T&K Toka’s core market, and its emphasis on environmental excellence is paying off.

“Sales of our UV-curable inks with a full 100/100 score in the INGEDE-standard deinkability test continued to expand,” Takamizawa reported.

COVID-19 had a major impact on raw material pricing and availability.

“As for raw materials, it is not only the pandemic which had an impact on it,” noted Takamizawa. “Countless factors such as environmental regulations, logistics and weather-related problems all have a role to play. We are facing difficulties with rapid increases in costs and adjustments in our production plan, for example. As for stabilization, we are estimating that things will settle down at the earliest by the third quarter this year.”

T&K Toka has introduced some interesting new products, beginning with bio-based UV-curable inks for flexographic, offset and letterpress printing, and rice ink for sheetfed offset printing. Takamizawa noted that the rice ink uses inedible rice brand oils, which are normally treated as industrial waste, and it does not contain cobalt and phenol.

T&K Toka has also expanded its lineup of deinkability score 100/100 products by launching a new UV-curable ink which can be used in UV/H-UV/LED system, with ERPC’s 100/100 deinkability score in INGEDE Method 11 test.

“T&K Toka will contribute to improvement of production efficiency and reduction of waste prints by designing trouble-free products with even higher performance,” added Takamizawa.
Takamizawa said that T&K Toka anticipates that the ink markets will improve as 2021 continues on.

“A drop in demand for commercial printing arising from digitalization and economic impacts caused by COVID-19 pandemic has been continuing,” he observed. “However, we are expecting that UV curable ink demand will recover in Asian markets, which is starting to move, as well as in other regions.”

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is a global leader in UV inks, which is a blossoming market. The company reported solid results in 2019, noting sales of $448 million, with North America being particularly strong.

“In 2019, T&K TOKA’s business was going well in the North America region,” said Kazuhiko Shigesu, department manager, global business management department for T&K Toka. “However, in Japan and the Asia region, sales of offset ink were weak, resulting in annual sales of ¥48 billion, which is lower than the previous year. Due to the impact of coronavirus, we are seeing a contraction of economic activity, which is having an impact on our company’s various activities.”

T&K TOKA acquired Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son in 2017, adding to T&K TOKA’s production and distribution capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas. Shigesu noted that this has helped the company grow in these regions.

“In terms of sales, some of the highlights are our business growth in Thailand and sales expansion in Europe and North America, which took advantage of Van Son’s sales channels,” said Shigesu. “In terms of internal affairs, despite being affected by a rise in the cost of raw materials, we worked on reducing total production costs and launched new products with a balance between cost and performance.”

Shigesu observed that against the backdrop of environmental problems, the global trend in the printing industry is to realize environmentally friendly inks which will also improve productivity and quality of printed materials.

“T&K TOKA’s energy-saving UV ink and powder-free oil-based ink KIREINA will fulfill such requirements at the highest standard, and we provide our products to the printing companies all around the world through T&K TOKA and Van Son’s sales network,” Shigesu added.

Understandably, COVID-19 will have a huge impact on the rest of 2020.

“We expect that the severe business environment will continue due to the coronavirus’s impact on the world economy,” Shigesu noted. “Despite the difficulty in achieving our sales plan, we will strengthen our company structure and business fundamentals by continuing to accelerate global expansion in the EU and North America, improving the added value of ink, and reducing total costs.”

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy-saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: The world’s largest UV printing ink specialist, T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) has a good year in 2018, with sales rising 3.5% to ¥49,638 million ($450 million).

In 2017, T&K TOKA acquired Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son, which was the 16th largest global ink company in Ink World’s 2017 Top International Ink Companies report, expanding T&K TOKA’s production and distribution capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas.

“Last year’s highlight was to establish a foundation, including the integration of VanSon and the establishment of TOKA USA, to capture market share in the US and Europe,” said Kazuhiko Shigesu, manager, global business management for T&K TOKA. “We will seek to expand our market share based on this activity in this fiscal year.”

Shigesu noted that T&K TOKA’s top-flight R&D team is developing new products, with an emphasis on inks that meet stricter environmental standards.

“For environmentally friendly products, we have developed a new UV ink which complies with EU health hazard guideline and also is considered de-inking property for recycling,” Shigesu reported. “In addition, we intend to focus on selling the powder-free conventional sheetfed offset ink KIREINA, which contributes to reducing the total cost of printing by effectively using existing equipment. There are various chemical regulations in each country, and in recent years, new regulations have been created in more and more countries. T & K TOKA will respond promptly, work to reduce burdens on people and the environment in each country, and provide easy-to-use inks.”

Higher raw material costs and availability issues are a concern throughout the ink industry.

“The environmental regulations and explosions of raw material plants in China influenced the supply and price of raw materials,” Shigesu observed. “Securing raw materials is a priority issue to maintain for us, as it affects user activities.”

The company anticipates further growth in 2019, as T&K TOKA will expand the market share of its competitive products, such as powder-free ink KIREINA and power-saving UV ink.

“We aim to increase our sales mainly in Europe and the US where Van Son is based through its sales channel in more than 70 countries,” Shigesu concluded.

Major Products: UV offset; UV flexo; UV letterpress; energy saving UV ink; UV waterless ink; conventional offset ink; powder-free conventional offset ink; waterless offset ink.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: T&K TOKA (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is the world’s largest UV ink specialist. The company had a stable year for revenue, with sales of ¥47,942 million ($425 million), flat from 2016.

However, the major news was T&K TOKA’s December 2017 acquisition of Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son, Hilversum, Netherlands, which last year was the 16th largest global ink company in Ink World’s Top International Ink Companies listing, with estimated sales of $130 million. The acquisition includes Van Son Holland Ink Corporation of America, its US-based subsidiary. This move expands T&K TOKA’s production and distribution capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas.

Kazuhiko Shigesu, manager, global business management for T&K TOKA, sees great opportunities for the addition of Van Son to the T&K TOKA family.

“As one of our business strategies, we acquired 100% share of Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son at the end of 2017, and Van Son has started its business as one of TOKA Group companies since Jan 1, 2018,” Shigesu observed. “Its’ long history, high recognition of the brand and wide sales route of Van Son and TOKA’s technologies will make a huge synergy in the business.”

“Van Son is one of the leading ink manufacturers in Europe,” Ryuichi Kurimoto, managing director of TOKA’s Sales Department, said at the time of the acquisition. “The company is known for its high quality inks with excellent consistency. The acquisition will raise our profile as a full scale ink solution provider to the printing markets, especially in Europe and the US.”

With an eye on growing its presence overseas, T&K TOKA established its new Global Business Management Department from the beginning of its FY2018.

“Our business has been expanding not only in Asia, but also in Europe and America,” said Shigesu. “Each region has its own market, and we cannot ignore the individual market’s situation, and also we cannot grow more if we just do as we have done.”

“But at the same time, if each subsidiary acts just as they want, the efficiency will be lost,” he added. “Therefore, we established our new department for Global Business Management, and its function is to absorb all information and requirement from subsidiaries and to support them to be based on such information and requirement, and also to manage the business of each of our subsidiaries.”

Keeping up with higher raw material costs and concerns over availability are a problem throughout the industry, and T&K TOKA is no exception.

“It is really, really tough for us that the cost of materials has been increasing,” Shigesu pointed out. “We have been trying to absorb it by our own effort, however, it is very difficult now. Therefore, we would have to ask for price increases from our customers. However, at the same time, we are considering group purchasing.”

Being in the energy curing ink field is ideal, as it continues to grow well.

“We are looking that the trend to move to energy curable cannot stop, and from our point of this view, we are also expecting that the market of UV ink will be growing more,” Shigesu said. “We have been asked about our LED curable ink a lot recently.

However, no matter what it is, LED, H-UV or conventional UV, TOKA is always there, and T&K TOKA will be always the best and finest ink manufacturer of energy curable ink in the world. It is the reason that T&K TOKA exists in the market.”

Shigesu said that ultimately, as long as T&K TOKA focuses on its philosophy and listens to its customers, the company will continue to thrive.

“It is very important to listen to the market,” Shigesu concluded. “And it is also important to provide the products which are the most appropriate to the market. We believe that we can do it with our technologies. However, the most important thing is that any things have to be based on our philosophy, T&K (Technology and Kindness). We believe that this is the core and unique identity of us to survive in the market. This is not to some specific market. This is to all markets which we are focusing on.”

Major Products: UV offset, UV flexo, UV letterpress, energy saving UV ink, UV waterless ink, conventional offset ink, powder-free conventional offset ink, waterless offset ink.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: The largest UV ink specialist, T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) had a fairly strong year in 2016, with sales of ¥48,030 million, an increase of 2.7% from last year. Still, the year had its challenges.

“I would have to say that it was a tough year,” said Hiro Iida, T&K Toka’s overseas sales manager and sales representative in charge of America. “Though the US economy was good, it seemed that it did not link to the print market in the US. Also, we had a tough time in price competition of conventional ink. The good thing was that we had increased a number of users of our UV ink, including energy saving UV, not only in the US but also in other regions. Our lifeline is UV technology, so the trend which a lot of printers have been switching or considering to switch to UV/LED-UV/H-UV is fair wind for us.”

Iida pointed to drupa 2016 and Kireina, the company’s new powder-free conventional ink, as major highlights for T&K Toka.

“It was our first time to exhibit at drupa and we had a great success,” Iida reported. “During and after drupa, we have had a lot of inquiries about UV ink and Kireina inks. And actually it gave us a lot of opportunities to do business with new customers.

“Since drupa, we introduced Kireina to the market, and we have had a lot of inquiries about Kireina from both the US and Europe,” Iida added. “And actually, Kireina receives a good valuation from printers who use it. It changes a press room environment drastically better because of no powder, and it dries very fast. It saves time to clean up presses and the print room, and makes productivity higher.”

T&K Toka has a major presence globally. In China, Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture, is the second-largest ink company. The company also has subsidiaries in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, as well as distributors in the US (Top Level Ink), Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Argentina, and Colombia.

During the past year, Iida noted that energy saving UV systems are doing quite well. “It is not recently started, but the market has kept paying attention to energy saving UV system,” he said. “We have a lot of inquiries about it and I am pleased that many printers use our energy saving UV inks.”

Overall, Iida anticipates an excellent year ahead for T&K Toka.

“I believe that it will be a good year,” Iida said. “The trend is UV and energy saving UV, and our strongest point is UV technology. Also, we will be exhibiting Print 17 to promote our UV ink. We are looking forward to this opportunity to show our value to the market.”

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products; synthetic resins.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is the largest UV ink specialist in the world. The company had a fairly solid year in 2015, with sales declining slightly, notably in its domestic market.

“It was a tough year for us, especially as the market of Japan has shrunk a lot. But the market of energy-saving UV has been growing significantly in everywhere, and our ink have received a lot of good valuations from printers in this segment., so we expect that we will enjoy 2016,” said Hiro Iida, sales representative in charge of America for T&K Toka.

T&K Toka exhibited at drupa for the first time and introduced its UV inks, particularly inks for low energy UV system like H-UV and LED. Aside from its high-quality UV inks, T&K Toka launched Kiriena, its next generation conventional powder-free ink.

“Kiriena has been being used by more than 200 printers in Japan,” Iida said. “We had a lot of inquiries about Kiriena during drupa 2016. Kiriena changes a lot of things. Because there is no powder needed, the press room will be clean, the press itself will be clean, and trouble related to spray powder will be avoided in advance and the print sheet surface will be smooth.

“Also, I am proud of our UV inks, including H-UV ink, LED ink etc., because of their fast curing property and higher stability on the press,” Iida added. “This is a very common thing, but printers who convert their press from conventional to UV face the difference of runnability between conventional ink and UV ink, such as stability, window for water, etc. I believe that our UV ink is very easy to handle on press just like conventional ink, so I hope printers who just switch to UV from conventional will try our ink for the smooth start-up.”

Printing is evolving, with energy saving technologies making gains worldwide.

“The impact of digital printing is huge and this situation will not be changed,” Iida observed. “But, at the same time, energy-saving UV system such as H-UV and LED have been changing the printing industry. Our position is to provide the suitable ink to let press achieve 100% of its potential.”

T&K Toka has a major presence worldwide. Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture, is the second-largest ink company in China. The company also has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh.  During the past year,  T&K Toka established a new subsidiary, Toka (Thailand) Co., Ltd., in Bangkok, Thailand.

Iida noted that raw material prices remained stable for the most part.

“The decline of oil prices did not affect material costs, so the situation of the material cost is still tough,” he reported. “Also, now oil prices are rising, we have to consider that material costs will be at least kept the present in a short term, and is expected that it will be increased more. As always, we will try to make a best effort to save costs and expenses as much as possible.

“However, we will never change our philosophy of T&K, stands for Technology and Kindness. It is our lifeline to provide the strongest customer services and to keep the highest product quality,” Iida added.

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products; synthetic resins.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: The largest UV ink specialist in the world, T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) had another excellent year in 2014, with sales growing approximately 5% to ¥48,659 million yen ($405 million), although an accounting change that took place in the third quarter of 2014 decreased the total sales.

“We had a good year, especially the UV ink segment,” said Hiro Iida, sales representative in charge of America for T&K Toka. “In the USA, because of strong economic growth, we had very good results. And in Asia, the region has been growing year by year, so it is an important market too.

“I saw that the low energy UV systems were paid attention much more than previous years,” Iida added. “Although it has not been a big topic since several years ago, it seems that low energy UV systems were one of the hottest topics in 2014, and I saw many printers who were pleased to install it.”

T&K Toka has a sizable global presence. Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture, is the second-largest ink company in China. The company also has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In addition, T&K Toka has a U.S. distributor, Top Level Ink, in Dallas, TX, as well as distributors in Spain and Brazil. UV printing has enjoyed growth worldwide, as companies are adding UV capabilities to their portfolio.

“Basically it has been a big trend in the USA for years to switch from conventional printing to UV printing to obtain efficiency, job speed, environmental cleanliness, etc., and now, there are more reasons to switch to UV printing,” Iida observed.

When printers look to switch over to UV, cost and job efficiency are typically the first topics discussed, but there is much more value to printing with UV.

“Those reasons are very attractive to the printers, but I would also say that the valuation of the business will be wider,” Iida said. “In the case of UV printing, printers can print plastic too. There are more ways to add values on printed matters. As the world’s leading manufacturer of UV inks, we would like to share more ideas with printers.”

T&K Toka works closely with its customers to ensure that the inks and presses are perfectly in tune.

“Always our most important mission is to provide valuable UV inks to the market,” Iida said. “If the ink is not suitable to the press, UV system, substrates, etc., or if the ink quality is unstable, the press cannot achieve 100%. Our mission is to provide the ink that brings out the press potential 100%, no matter if it is for regular UV system, H-UV system or LED system, no matter if it is printed on paper or plastic.

“Another important responsibility is technical support,” Iida added. “No matter where the printer is, we will make a color,or customize for them, even it is a request for one can of ink.”

Raw material costs remain high, which is a challenge for all ink companies.

“Material costs keep increasing or remaining at a high level,” Iida said. “This is always our and all ink manufacturers’ concern, and we cannot be optimistic about the future. We have been trying our best to get higher efficiency and considering the materials we use, but still, we have been spending a lot of time over these years about the material cost increasing.”

T&K Toka’s R&D teams are renowned for their formulation skills, and the company has turned its attention to the narrow web flexo field.

“We have new UV flexo inks that we developed last year,” Iida reported. “Our new UV flexo ink, UV Flexo MCS Type, combines good price and Toka quality. It is fairly new for us to work in the narrow web market in the USA, and we are proud of this product. Since the UV flexo press and printing supplies have been improved very much, the printing quality is greatly increasing, which is the reason why UV flexo is a very hot topic now. Our ink will be very suitable for this direction.”

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products; synthetic resins.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is the largest UV ink specialist in the world. Although its overall sales for 2013 don’t reflect the company’s growth due to a change in accounting procedures, T&K Toka continues to grow along with the global UV market, reporting sales of ¥52,556 million ($500 million). Without the accounting change, T&K Toka would have recorded nearly 8% growth.

“Actually, we had a good year in 2013,” said Hiro Iida, sales representative in charge of America for T&K Toka. “Though the competition in the market and the situation in raw materials were so tough for us, we did our best to get higher efficiency and provide higher service and quality. I believe that the market accepts our service and quality, and it led to the good result. Also, the UV market is very active, and it was the biggest key for us to perform well.”

T&K Toka has a major international presence. Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture in China, is the second-largest ink company in China. The company also has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and a U.S. distributor, Top Level Ink, in Dallas, TX, as well as distributors in Spain and Brazil.

Raw materials remain a concern for the ink industry.

“Raw material prices keep increasing, and we cannot be optimistic about it for the future either,” Iida said.

“So far, we have been making our best effort to minimize the impact, such as through operating efficiency, negotiations with our suppliers, consideration of formulation sand so on. However, it is difficult to absorb these raw material price increases by our own effort, so we have announced our own price increases recently.”

Product development is a hallmark of T&K Toka, and the company has been developing state-of-the-art systems, such as H-UV inks for Komori’s presses.

“H-UV from Komori Corporation is becoming very popular in the U.S.,” Iida said. “I think that the many printers have understood this well and accepted the strong points of H-UV, such as energy savings, easy to install, cost savings, green etc. So, as a top UV ink manufacturer, we have a UV ink for the H-UV system whose quality and price are suitable for the U.S. market.”

In an important move, T&K Toka is expanding its efforts in UV flexo for the narrow web marketplace,

“So far, our main field is the offset market, but we have developed our new UV flexo ink,” Iida said. “We see that the narrow web market is as big as the offset market, and changing to UV is the trend in the narrow web market, too, so we developed an appropriate ink, quality and price for this market.

“Other than ink, we manufacture the synthetic resins for flexo/gravure ink, hot melt, epoxy curing agents, etc.,” he added. “We are going into this new segment with the know-how from ink production.”

Inkjet printing is also making significant gains, and T&K Toka is using its expertise to develop inks for digital printing as well.

“The digital market is progressing rapidly,” Iida noted. “I guess the volume is still much smaller than present print media, but the digital market has already become one of the core markets for the printing industry, so we developed a new UV inkjet ink (for both regular UV and UV LED) for the market.”

Ultimately, T&K Toka’s expertise in UV inks is the key to the company’s success.

“The UV market is very active,” Iida said. “In the UV market, the packaging area is very active, and it is a great opportunity for us to share our high-end product with the market. As always, our UV ink is manufactured under the policy of T&K (Technology & Kindness), as shown in our company’s name, and we consider the printer’s convenience first always.”

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products; synthetic resins.

Number of Employees: 1,600

Comments: Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness) is the largest UV ink specialist in the world. As the market for UV grows, so does T&K Toka: the company had a spectacular 2012, with sales growing 9.4% to 53,042 million yen.

“We had a good year,” said Hiro Iida, sales representative in charge of America for T&K Toka. “The trend of the market goes to UV printing, and our ink quality and support are accepted by the market.

“As our company name shows, ‘T&K’ represents Technology, which means high and stable quality, and Kindness, which means specialized customer support, and these are very important factors to do business in the UV market,” Mr. Iida added. “If the ink is not good, the press cannot work to its potential. If the ink does not have quality, the printer cannot select many substrates. If the ink quality is not stable, the printer cannot have good production efficiency. If the ink manufacturer cannot provide a good support, for example, color matching, trouble shooting, consulting, etc., there is no reason for printers to install a UV system.

“In the case of UV printing, all aspects of printing, such as the press, operator, substrate, chemical, ink, etc., have to cooperate, and then new business will be developed,” Mr. Iida concluded. “I think the market accepts the hard work our company and our distributors do, which leads to our good results in 2012.”

Raw materials are a concern, and while prices stabilized during the past year, they leveled off at a higher rate than in the past.

“Material prices have been kept in a higher range through the year, and it is forecasted to increase more in 2013,” Mr. Iida reported. “Even though we had worked very hard to reduce all of our costs and asked customers about price increases, we will have to work harder to do the same in 2013.”

To meet the growing demands for energy curing products, T&K Toka’s exceptional R&D team continues to develop cutting-edge inks. During the past year, T&K Toka launched a new conventional high intensity black ink, an efficient UV ink for Komori H-UV systems and conventional fluorescent colors.

“We developed a supreme intensity conventional black ink, and bluish and neutral types are available,” Mr. Iida said. “They have stronger intensity and deepness of color than previous dense type blacks. Regarding our new H-UV ink, we have developed a more suitable, efficient UV ink for overseas, as each region has its own printing conditions, and the H-UV system is completely different from ordinal UV system.

“We also developed new conventional fluorescent color inks, called Viva DX,” Mr. Iida noted. “Viva DX offers good density, and printers can get enough density even with one impression. If it is printed with two impressions, it will not be so glossy, and it will have a high fluorescent effect. Further, Viva DX has a wider water tolerance, so even it is printed high volume, because of the higher density and wider water tolerance, printing will be trouble-free.”

T&K Toka has a major global presence. Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture in China, is the second-largest ink company in China. The company also has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and a U.S. distributor, Top Level Ink, in Dallas, TX. Mr. Iida noted that T&K Toka brought in new distributors in Europe (Spain) and Latin America (Brazil).

“Although we have excellent ink and technology, the important thing is to be closer to the market,” he said. “Therefore, we are glad that we established a new relationship with our new distributors, Anagraf in Spain and Resino Flexo in Brazil.”

T&K Toka has branched out into the field of synthetic resins, now offering polyamide resins for gravure and flexo inks among other new products. Mr. Iida said this will help the company successfully develop new inks. The company also brought in Jun Wada, an experienced sales representative for synthetic resins, to be sales representative in charge of synthetic resins.

“Our main business field is in the printing industry,” Mr. Iida said. “However, we are getting into a new market with our knowledge and technology which we have cultivated through our ink business, and we think that the new knowledge and experience from a new market will be transferred back to our ink business to allow us to provide a much higher level of printing ink.

“As a manufacturer of the finest quality UV printing ink, the present movement completely matches our policy, T&K (Technology & Kindness), and we are confident that we can be a part of the development of the printing industry,” Mr. Iida concluded.

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products.

Number of Employees: 1,500 (consolidated).

Comments: The market for UV inks has been one of the bright spots for ink manufacturers, and T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness), a UV ink specialist, had a strong year in 2011, as the company’s sales grew 2.8% to ¥48,484 million. However, higher raw material costs impacted profitability.

“Our total sales amount increased, but profit dropped significantly in 2011 compared to the previous year,” said Hiro Iida, sales representative in charge of America for T&K Toka. “This is because of worldwide material price increases as well as the tight raw material supply in Japan due to the earthquake that occurred in March 2011.

“Further, because of tough competitions for cost savings among printers, raising the selling price of printing ink was extremely difficult, and therefore it negatively affected the profit,” Mr. Iida added. “We are afraid, but we will have to keep asking our customers about price increases, and we hope they will give us a kind understanding. On the other hand, there are many printers and partners who cooperated us with the pricing. We are very grateful for them, and we would like to ask them for their continued support.”

Mr. Iida noted that T&K Toka had strong sales of printing inks in Japan, Asia and North/Latin America, especially in the UV ink area. He also said that the efforts of T&K Toka and its partners throughout the supply chain showed the resolve of the company during the March 2011 earthquake

“We believe that this proves that the market trusts our quality of printing ink, service and support,” Mr. Iida said. “Also, we kept supplying our Japanese-made high-end printing ink with our pride and responsibility, even when we were in the toughest situation ever with the impact of the earthquake.

“We know that there were a lot of rumors and thoughts about Japanese-made printing ink going around the printing industry just after the earthquake,” Mr. Iida added. “However, we were able to keep supplying all printing ink with Toka Quality even in such a situation. We believe that Toka Group, our partners and printing companies cooperated very well with manufacturing, logistics and stock control so that we were able to get over the disaster, and we thank them again about all cooperation. Overall, 2011 was the toughest year ever for Japanese companies; however, it was great in that we showed the spirit and pride of ‘T&K’ to the market.”

The UV market has become one of the most profitable niches for printing, and because of their expertise, T&K Toka is perfectly positioned in the field

.

“All printers seem to be trying to be more specialized, especially with UV technology, and we believe that

we are the best company for UV technology,” said Mr. Iida. “This change is like following the wind for us. We will keep emphasizing our development, and we will keep providing our highest quality printing ink to the market.”

Mr. Iida noted that the number of inquiries about new technologies and higher value printing has been increasing, and that it looks that a lot of printers have been trying these technologies out, such as H-UV printing for packaging.

Ink manufacturers are struggling with the rising cost of raw materials and the impact on margins, and T&K Toka is no exception.

“Increasing material costs are a very serious situation,” Mr. Iida said. “We increased our sales, but our profit decreased a lot. We have been considering changing the materials we use without changing the quality, but it is really difficult to do, so we have been strongly asking our customers about increasing prices.”

T&K Toka has a major presence worldwide. Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture in China, is the second-largest ink company in China. In 2006, the company opened a new plant at Hangzhou Toka Ink. The company also has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and a U.S. distributor, Top Level Ink, in Dallas, TX. Mr. Iida noted that T&K Toka will be providing more professional support for its European and American dealers.

“We will send exclusive sales representatives to our main dealers in Europe and America to provide our customers much faster and more specialized service by cooperating with our dealers in each region,” Mr. Iida said.

As drupa 2012 showed, the UV inkjet field is growing quickly, and T&K Toka hopes to utilize its expertise in this sector.

“We are now developing a market for UV inkjet ink,” Mr. Iida said. “We believe that our experience and technology in UV ink can be transferred to the UV inkjet market too. If any press manufacturer is looking for a good solution on the ink side, we hope to cooperate with them.”

T&K Toka puts great emphasis on R&D, and the company launched three key products this past year. The first is UV ink for efficient UV systems such as H-UV from Komori, Dry-Star from Heidelberg and LED UV system. The products are called UV K-HS series (for Komori H-UV), UV L-LES (for efficient UV system other than Komori H-UV) and UV OFS-LED (for LED-UV system).

The second new product is UV 171 SW for the Genius 52UV press, which is listed on KBA’s consumable list. It can be also used on regular UV waterless presses, providing stronger adhesion and higher laminated properties.

The third new ink is the UV VP-S series, which, because of its excellent adhesion, faster curing and high gloss, is very popular in the U.S. for plastic stocks.

Major Products: UV offset, letterpress, flexo, news, waterless and screen inks; sheetfed offset inks; web offset heatset inks; waterless offset inks; gravure and flexo packaging inks; water-based varnishes; metal decorating products.

Number of Employees: 664 (T&K Toka); 1,500 (consolidated)

Comments: T&K Toka (the T&K in the company’s name stands for Technology and Kindness), a specialist in UV inks, had an excellent year in 2010 despite the challenging economy, as the company’s ink sales grew 8.8%, and consolidated sales rose 5.7%.

“It was a very tough year in 2010 due to the exchange rate between the dollar and yen, increasing material costs, etc.,” said Hideyuki Hinataya, T&K Toka’s overseas sales manager. “However, we were able to achieve higher sales than 2009. We believe it is because the market trusts our spirit of T&K (Technology and Kindness), such as our quality, higher value and strong customer support to cooperate with our U.S. distributor, Top Level Printing Ink.”

As is the case with every ink manufacturer, T&K Toka is coping with the higher raw material prices, but is striving to add value to best help its customers.

“It is obvious that the impact is huge and it is very difficult to take care of the situation only by our internal effort,” said Mr. Hinataya. “Therefore, we have to ask the market for cooperation on pricing. At the same time, we will add values on the products in order to establish the ‘Win-Win’ relationship with the market.

“The most important thing is that lots of printing companies have kept using our product for a long time, even though there has been tough price competition, the economic crisis and other difficult situations,” Mr. Hinataya added. “We really thank all of our customers for trusting our product.”

T&K Toka has a major presence in China, as Hangzhou Toka Ink, T&K Toka’s joint venture in China, is the second-largest ink company in China. In 2006, the company opened a new plant at Hangzhou Toka Ink. In addition, the company has operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and a U.S. distributor, Top Level Ink, in Dallas, TX. In recent news, T&K Toka merged with Fuji Kasei Kogyo, which is now a totally-held subsidiary of T&K Toka, in February 2011.

R&D is a major focus of T&K Toka’s, and the company has recently developed a range of new products. For example, the company has developed its UV OFS-LED type UV ink for LED curing systems and its UV K-HS type UV ink for the Komori H-UV system.

“Recently we have introduced some value-added inks, such as wider gamut process color called BROAD, a UV ink for news printing called UV NEWS, UV ink for LED-UV system, UV ink for Komori, H-UV ink, and a new type of UV waterless Ink called UV 171 SW,” Mr. Hinataya said.

The new UV 171 SW type UV waterless ink is ideal for the KBA Genius Press, and offers strong adhesion and is good for lamination.

“The competition with the digital printing has been getting harder,” Mr. Hinataya noted. “However, as the pure-play company focused on ink, we will provide the highest quality ink and propose value-added printing to the market which digital printing cannot achieve. Also, the Genius UV waterless press from KBA has been getting popular. We prepared the UV ink for the Genius press.”

By offering its high-end UV products to the printing market, T&K Toka is differentiating itself from commodity offerings.

“The market has been separated between ‘High-end Market’ and “Economical Market,’” Mr. Hinataya said. “The ‘Economical Market’ is very tough. However, we can also approach the high quality market with our technologies. So we think that it is a huge chance for us to show our technologies to the high-end market. We will also aggressively provide the ‘Green’ ink (such as non-VOC ink) and ‘Efficient UV Ink’ (such as UV ink for H-UV system) to support the printing world’s social responsibility and cost effort.”

Mr. Hinataya noted that T&K Toka continues to invest in the ink market, even during the difficult economy.

“We have built a new UV ink factory in Japan on September 2009,” he said. “We might develop a plan on important projects, according to the circumstances.”

All in all, T&K Toka continues to thrive in the UV marketplace, thanks to its quality.

“The economic situation is still tough, but we will keep providing our products and ideas with confidence and pride as the manufacturer,” Mr. Hinataya concluded. “We will try to get more market share by offering high quality products.”