Flint Group announces price hikes

The consumables manufacturer has cited "a highly volatile raw materials market" in 2012 for a 2-6% increase on the price of its printing inks in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The increases will affect all coldset, heatset, publication gravure, sheetfed, packaging and narrow web inks and coatings and press room chemicals from 1 January next year.

It follows a similar move by the Hubergroup last week, although the company has not yet divulged details of by how much its prices will be affected.

Flint Group, which already ramped up its UV, solvent- and water-based ink prices by 5% in January this year, said it had made every effort to mitigate global cost increase of raw materials through "process optimisation and a leaner organisation".

But the firm's packaging and narrow web president Doug Aldred said: "Cost pressure has been constant and the magnitude of the cost increases requires that we pass some of [them] through the supply chain."

The latest increases come as the firm announced that 43 jobs at its Dundee-based pressroom consumables division Day International were at risk as the company looks to reduce losses in 2012 that so far amount to £2.5m.

The company, which employs 167 people at Day International, blamed a "huge downturn in business" as print media consumers continued to switch to online channels.