“It’s something that we had been looking at for a number of years because we have around 45%-50% of the commercial print market and a lot of our customers have a digital capacity,” said Stehlin UK managing director David Ward.
“We’d looked at different manufacturers in the past, but none of them felt quite right, but we were impressed with Bordeaux, it has manufacturing facilities in Israel and the US and also it’s focused on R&D and innovation – so it felt like a good fit.”
The non-exclusive partnership was unveiled at Fespa and at the moment it is only for the UK, although Ward said that it could be rolled out to other countries where Stehlin’s parent, HuberGroup, has operations, at some point in the future.
Stehlin will distribute Bordeaux’s entire range of solvent, dye-sub, UV and UV LED, and latex inks. The deal also includes Bordeaux’s range of UV and water-based liquid laminates.
The companies began talks last year, with the deal being signed off in early June this year.
Stehlin is currently running trials with a number of customers, including some “high-volume” users. Ward said that a number of technical staff were going to Israel for high-level training at Bordeaux’s manufacturing site and that the company was looking at further bolstering its 22-strong technical team by recruiting some additional digital specialists.
“We’re currently putting together all the service structures we need in place to offer the same level of support that we do with our commercial products,” added Ward.
“Our reputation in customer support is second to none and we need to make sure we offer that same level with the digital inks, such as in colour management.”
He added that at the moment there were no plans to manufacture digital inks under licence in the UK. Bordeaux inks are also available via UK Euroconnect