Flint Group Commercial, Publication and Sheetfed Inks (CPS) are announcing price increases across their Sheetfed Inks and Coatings throughout North America. Along with many other suppliers in to the printing industry, Flint Group has been faced with cost increases across the full breadth of the supply chain, from raw materials to logistics. The industry is facing an extremely difficult set of circumstances, aggravated by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The industry has seen considerable pressure placed on its supply chain due to a number of global shortages for key raw materials used in the ink manufacturing process, such as pigments, resins and chemicals. Furthermore, the disruption caused to global logistics caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has led to rising freight costs and availability, as well as a shortage of the raw materials for packaging further driving cost increases.

Flint Group CPS has worked to offset the rising costs where possible, implementing a number of internal improvement processes, as well as working closely with its supplier network, however, Flint CPS cannot absorb the full upturn in cost and must now regrettably pass on some of these increases in order to continue to service our customer base effectively.

Flint Group CPS’ main driver at this time is to continue to support our customers where possible during these unprecedented times. We have taken steps that support our business model, inventory holding capabilities and standard operating procedures in managing any potential delays due to shortages in the supply chain, however, we cannot control all eventualities, for example, recently there have been upstream force majeure announcements and the acute global freight imbalance is impeding some corrective actions.

The increases will be active for all Sheetfed Inks and Coatings sold and will be effective April 1st 2021 or by contract. Your local sales representative will be in contact to discuss the effects of these adjustments in due course.