Inkmaker Group has rebranded as IM Group with its own distinct identity to better compete in the marketplace as a ‘Total Solutions Provider.’ The comprehensive rebranding comes after years of acquiring several companies combining expertise, intel, technology and hardware. Inkmaker’s strategy is to consolidate all its brands under a single holding group brand, known initially as Inkmaker Group.

“The decision to rebrand Inkmaker Group as IM Group stems from the group’s vision, which is to evolve Inkmaker Group as our technology to expand in our fields and adapt, the advantages of our products, to new markets. Since October 2019, Inkmaker has made considerable investments in the acquisitions of Rexson and Valtech in the UK; Tecnopails in Italy; and most recently Swesa, in Germany. The driving strategy behind these acquisitions was to create a reliable, complete supply chain – serving predominantly, but not only the ink, paint, and coatings industry – to sustain our core businesses,” explains Silvio Cimenti, global director of branding, marketing and communications, IM Group.

“This meant restructuring our brands into various specialties, yet to still be one strong force, hence the need to rebrand the existing Inkmaker Group brand, to have an identity of its own, as an autonomous holding brand­ – this is the evolution of Inkmaker Group, which is essentially that of Inkmaker,” adds Cimenti.

With the restructuring of the brands, Inkmaker will focus on ink dispensing and software design; Rexson will be predominantly for paint as well as liquid ink; Vale-Tech will focus on narrow-web and paste-ink dispensing – so UV flexo ink and offset inks; Swesa mainly for food, pharmaceutical, corrugated packaging, cosmetics and more. Teko will remain in POS Tinting and R&D training while Tecnopails for filling solutions.

Inkmaker grew by 25% globally due to the acquisitions. “Considering the current challenges the pandemic has caused, this is still on track with our vision. Now having the holding brand, IM Group – to steer all our specialty brands – we foresee all our brands to grow exponentially,” says Christophe Rizzo, CEO EMEA/Americas, IM Group.

Acquisitions make IM a total solutions provider

“Being a ‘Total Solutions Provider’ is our mission, and this is precisely the reason why we acquired the brands. Our strategy is to create ‘areas of excellence,’ dedicating each of our brands to specific expertise that can come together – like our logo – to form a strong force. Each brand can still work individually with its existing clients in its respective markets and, when required, share their expertise – offering total solutions – for example, on large turn-key plant engineering projects. This guarantees resource optimization and high flexibility to manage projects of all sizes. This was one of the key reasons for forming the holding brand, IM Group, in the first place,” explains Gianluca Incerti, global commercial director, IM Group.

“For example, Rexson and Vale-tech had their respective unique technology. Now that we are one large team, we are consolidating each brand’s strength and combining resources, technology and software, and we can take a tremendous advantage in the integration with Inkmaker to offer state of the art solutions,” says Incerti.

Asia Pacific operations see a positive impact

The group has expanded its Malaysia premises to house its tinting and engineering brand, Teko – together with Inkmaker. In Thailand, this year, it just opened a sales and service office. Its market share in the Philippines is growing. The big one, of course, is China – due to its larger premises, it can now double the number of standard machines shipped monthly, from an average of 5 or 6 units to 10 to 12 ink and paint dispensing systems.

“In Shanghai, we have already brought forward our IM Group expansion plans. In April 2020, we expanded our facilities to double the size of our previous production area. At the time, it was at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but we had to do it to meet the escalation in demand. The move has resulted in being hugely beneficial to us. Bigger premises means we can manufacture more machines and can now offer a greater variety. We are already offering customers the entire portfolio of our brands. So, the new IM Group brand will undoubtedly impact the business positively in China,” says Lau Kar Seng, general manager, Inkmaker Shanghai and board member of IM Group.

Big investment in software and automation division

Another advantage, which has played a significant role since the acquisitions, is Inkmaker’s legendary software. “A considerable investment has been made into the software and automation division purposely to ensure, the brain behind not just a smooth transition with our new brands in the family, but also to increase the level of our technological capabilities. Inkmaker’s software is the essence of our systems and by incorporating them into our newly acquired brands’ machines, we elevate the productivity and performance of these brands to a much higher and more energy-efficient level.

“Inkmaker’s software – now known as IMAESTRO – was designed in-house by our software team and has always defined us as a leader amongst our competitors; therefore, it plays a major role in the operational execution of IM Group’s global strategy. We have since expanded our software line to another one, called IMPRIMO, which we recently released with our ink-transfer/supply system, Inktrasyst, and another three are under development, planned for release by next year,” says Francesco Nesti, global director of software and automation, IM Group.