Strategic agreement combines Mark Andy’s pressroom expertise and narrow web market reach with Sun Chemical’s global leadership in ink formulation, adhesive technology, color management, regulatory support, and packaging R&D

Mark Andy, a leading global provider of printing and label solutions, has entered into a strategic distribution agreement with Sun Chemical under which Mark Andy Print Products will serve as the North American distributor for Sun Chemical inks, coatings, adhesives, and color management solutions serving the narrow web tag and label market. 

Under the agreement, Mark Andy Print Products will offer Sun Chemical’s portfolio of UV, UV LED, water-based, and specialty narrow web technologies. The expanded offering includes SolarFlex Max D, SolarWave, AquaVerse™ solutions, SolarLam UV laminating adhesives, and SunLam solvent-free adhesives.

The agreement provides converters with a single source for inks, coatings, adhesives, plates, anilox rolls, doctor blades, mounting tapes, and other critical pressroom consumables supported by the combined technical expertise of both organizations. 

“This agreement significantly expands the level of support we can bring to the pressroom,” said Ralph Jenkins, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Mark Andy Print Products. “Converters are managing tighter color tolerances, shorter runs, a broader mix of applications, and increasing pressure to maintain consistency across jobs and facilities. By combining Mark Andy’s narrow web expertise and customer reach with Sun Chemical’s technical and formulation capabilities, we can help customers address those challenges through a more complete and coordinated approach.”

Sun Chemical is the world’s largest supplier of printing inks and coatings, with extensive research and development capabilities supporting packaging applications across flexographic, gravure, offset, and digital printing processes. Its technical resources include expertise in low-migration UV LED inks, UV laminating adhesives, solvent-free adhesive technologies, color management, regulatory compliance, and formulations developed for demanding label and flexible packaging applications.

“We are excited to partner with Mark Andy, a company that shares our commitment to innovation, technical excellence and customer success,” said Dennis Sweet, Vice President, Narrow Web Tag and Label, Sun Chemical. “Together, we can help customers achieve greater color consistency, productivity, streamline operational efficiency and address increasingly complex label and flexible packaging requirements. This partnership creates a stronger, more comprehensive support platform for the narrow web market.”

The agreement comes as the boundaries between label and flexible packaging production continue to narrow. Label converters are increasingly adding pouches, sachets, stick packs, bags, shrink sleeves, and other unsupported-film applications to their production mix, while traditional flexible packaging producers are evaluating narrower inline platforms to produce shorter runs more efficiently.

Sun Chemical’s experience in wide web flexible packaging, low-migration chemistry, coatings, and laminating adhesives will give Mark Andy Print Products additional resources to support converters entering these markets. The companies will work together to evaluate substrates, ink and coating requirements, curing performance, migration considerations, regulatory requirements, and other technical factors that become increasingly important as converters expand beyond traditional pressure-sensitive label applications.

The partnership also creates a broader platform for improving color consistency across jobs, production runs, presses, and facilities. Mark Andy customers will gain access to Sun Chemical’s SunColorBox® ecosystem, an integrated set of color management tools and services designed to support color communication, matching, formulation, dispensing, and production control.

SunColorBox will complement the Mark Andy Print Products Color Smart Program, which evaluates the interconnected pressroom variables that influence repeatability. During the Color Smart audit, fingerprinting, and calibration process, MAPP specialists review how plates, mounting tape, anilox rolls, doctor blades, ink, and press settings work together to affect color performance.

By combining Mark Andy’s pressroom evaluation, fingerprinting, calibration, and operating standards with Sun Chemical’s color formulation, matching, dispensing, and production expertise, the companies can provide converters with a more comprehensive approach to achieving repeatable results across operators, shifts, presses, and multiple production facilities.

“Color does not begin or end with any single pressroom component,” Jenkins said. “Bringing ink formulation, matching, dispensing, prepress, fingerprinting, and documented operating standards into a coordinated process gives us a much stronger foundation for helping converters achieve repeatable results.”

As the relationship develops, Mark Andy and Sun Chemical also plan to introduce ink dispensing technologies at Mark Andy facilities and selected customer locations. These systems will allow spot colors to be produced closer to the point of use, helping converters streamline color matching and ink delivery, reduce excess inventory and waste, and dispense the quantities required for individual production needs.

The companies are also collaborating on high-speed flexographic applications, including low-migration ink performance and curing at elevated press speeds. The work combines Mark Andy’s press and web-handling expertise with Sun Chemical’s ability to develop and refine ink chemistry for specific equipment, substrates, curing systems, regulatory requirements, and end-use applications.

Mark Andy and Sun Chemical will formally introduce the agreement to the broader market at LOUPE Americas 2026. The companies are planning coordinated technical content, demonstrations, customer programming, and educational activities focused on ink performance, color consistency, pressroom productivity, and the continued convergence of label and flexible packaging production.