Melbourne, Australia - (April 26, 2004) – Flint Ink, the world’s largest privately owned ink manufacturer, announces the opening of a dedicated news ink plant in Ingleburn, New South Wales, Australia. The 9,000 square-meter facility manufactures coldset ink systems for newspaper printing customers in Australia and New Zealand. With this new plant, Flint Ink is able to offer faster product delivery and response times and enhanced technical service to its customers.  “The Ingleburn news ink plant brings the distinct advantage of local production to our Australian and New Zealand customers, “said Damian Johnson, president, Flint Ink India/Pacific. “Our customers can be assured of local fulfillment and service, while still having access to the global expertise of a market leader in ink technology for newspaper printing.” The Ingleburn plant demonstrates Flint Ink’s commitment to strengthening its number one position in inks in Australia and New Zealand through continual investment in the region. It comes on the heels of the company’s acquisition of Sicpa Group’s worldwide heatset and coldset ink business in 2003. The Ingleburn plant enables Flint Ink to provide the benefit of local service to its new and existing customer base in Australia and New Zealand. The plant will also be able to provide news and directory ink for the Indian and South East Asian markets. Flint Ink’s India/Pacific Research & Development facility and product laboratory are also located in Ingleburn, Australia. Having both the R&D centre and the new ink plant in the same location creates a synergy between product development and scale-up to production. The facilities will work closely together on a continuous basis to produce new ink formulations and evaluate global products for local manufacture.  Since all ink is manufactured from first principles at the Ingleburn facility, Flint Ink will be able to customize ink formulations for specific applications. Other value-added services provided to customers include pressroom audits and press side technical assistance. The Ingleburn facility adheres to worldwide Flint Ink quality standards. It follows the best practices in plant design and complies with safety, health, and environmental regulations. In developing the plant, Flint Ink invested in state-of-the-art equipment and production facilities. Manufacturing processes focus on safety and repeatability of process and consistency and employ automation to provide customers with stable, predictable ink performance.