VPK France invests in Sun Chemical’s renewable inks

VPK France is a family-owned business evolving into an international privately-owned packaging supplier, with over 65 plants across 20 countries. 

While the first site Lille has already switched to the new Sun Chemical’s SunVisto AquaGreen range, the remaining sites are planned to be converted sequentially by mid-2021. The inks are being used across many industries, including food, dairy, automotive, e-commerce, cosmetics, and wine packaging. 

The SunVisto AquaGreen water-based flexo inks are intended for printing on paper, corrugated, board, polyethylene-coated board, and treated film. They are formulated with higher levels of bio-renewable resin content, compared with other previous market offerings, while still exhibiting equal or superior print performance. Sun chemical currently offers a full range of Pantone standard colors within the new range as finished inks or colored bases with a technology varnish for in-house blend schemes.

‘Sustainability is our company’s core value, and our staff are equally passionate about it. We are always looking for new ways to enhance our environmental credentials further still, and Sun Chemical’s SunVisto AquaGreen ink range was an obvious investment choice for us,’ commented said Philippe Tran, managing director of VPK France. ‘With the use of these inks, we will be able to reduce our carbon footprint by up to 30 percent and through this small step, we hope to influence and encourage our whole market to become greener. Like Sun Chemical, we have our own sustainability goals, and we are delighted to say that this partnership is supporting us to reach them, helping to protect the planet for both current and future generations.

‘We have found that these inks also ensure maximum freshness of color and brightness, improved coverage and lay-down of the ink, resulting in a smoother surface and better dot definition. Although you pay a premium for the technology varnish, our interest is in value, and the cost is quite easily offset by the better coverage and strength the inks provide. What’s more, with the inks’ good printability, visible stability on press, low foaming and smoother cleaning, we have seen significantly improved quality and efficiency in our print processes. These make the ink cost neutral in use. Overall, we could not be happier with them.’

Nicolas Betin, director of product strategy for EMEA and global sustainability business leader at Sun Chemical, added: ‘Sun Chemical is committed to contributing to a more circular economy and is dedicated to supporting the paper packaging industry to becoming more sustainable, both in terms of products and processes. This project is the result of an excellent collaborative work between experts and operational teams of both companies, and we’re delighted to continue to partner with VPK to develop innovative solutions for improved functionality and enhanced ecological value within the corrugated market.’

‘Sun Chemical has been our trusted supplier for many years. After a short break, VPK renewed this partnership in 2019, with the focus on SunVisto AquaGreen ink technology, which we intend to deploy across all of our packaging applications throughout our French sites. Our previous supplier did an adequate job, but the relationship was not as strong, and we did not get the same sense of having such a solid shared vision – particularly around issues of productivity, sustainability and environmental responsibility,’ concluded Tran.