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General => General Discussion and ??? => Topic started by: inkbrigade on July 15, 2011, 10:33:55 PM
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I got an email today saying Qcm was bought out by Rutland and the Kent WA plant is being shut down.
I called the QCM number at 3pm pacific and got a message saying i called after business hours, which they are PST so they should have been open.
Does anyone know if QCM is still going to be produced?
If not we need to start the search for a new white ink again.. ugh. Colin where are you buddy?
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I was wondering the same thing. Should we stock up on stuff now or are the prices going up or is the line going away.
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When the same thing happened with Union, the brand and line remained.
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Didn't Wilflex's parent company (PolyOne) purchase Rutland several years ago? You would think that the buyouts would come from PolyOne and not Rutland.
I could be wrong on PolyOne having bought Rutland. I think they also bought Nazdar 5-7 years back also.
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I think that you are thinking of the Rutland-Union marriage that I brought up.
Same owner, two distinct lines (now three?)
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I got an email today saying Qcm was bought out by Rutland and the Kent WA plant is being shut down.
I called the QCM number at 3pm pacific and got a message saying i called after business hours, which they are PST so they should have been open.
Does anyone know if QCM is still going to be produced?
If not we need to start the search for a new white ink again.. ugh. Colin where are you buddy?
Hey,
Yes, QCM has been bought out. Just the ink division for screen printing. Colin is still around, just not with QCM. That dude has helped us a lot and continues to and I am sure many others. From what I hear/understand QCM's ink is not going anywhere for some time. Eventually I am sure there will be changes but it will hopefully be the combining of the best of both ink lines. We have used QCM for plastisols since day one since a lot of our larger clients require "clean" inks when using plastisol. Don't sweat it. However, it never hurts to have a back up plan!
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I got an email today saying Qcm was bought out by Rutland and the Kent WA plant is being shut down.
I called the QCM number at 3pm pacific and got a message saying i called after business hours, which they are PST so they should have been open.
Does anyone know if QCM is still going to be produced?
If not we need to start the search for a new white ink again.. ugh. Colin where are you buddy?
Ah, so the email has gone out. I'll have to change my post at SPOF to reflect this.
Yes, Rutland has purchased QCM. All production of QCM inks will be done at the Rutland facility in Pineville N.C. They will be using the same formulas that QCM has used. Nothing is going to change.
Dan: If I remember right, Rutland is owned by Rutland Holdings. And Wilflex has been for sale for several years from PolyOne.
Have a great weekend all, off to the hot tub!
edit: Thanks for the Kudos Brandon!
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Hope they don't muck up the formula (except for that batch of 158 from last fall that was too stiff). Little by little I've been replacing Union inks with QCM.
It's like going to the bank. Before you know it, there will be only The Bank after all of the mergers. I guess eventually we'll be getting our ink from Ink, Inc.
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Didn't Wilflex's parent company (PolyOne) purchase Rutland several years ago? You would think that the buyouts would come from PolyOne and not Rutland.
I could be wrong on PolyOne having bought Rutland. I think they also bought Nazdar 5-7 years back also.
Dan: To the very best of my knowledge PolyOne has absolutely no ownership of Rutland, and I know with total certainty that they have Zero interest in the ownership of the Nazdar Company.
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I got an email today saying Qcm was bought out by Rutland and the Kent WA plant is being shut down.
I called the QCM number at 3pm pacific and got a message saying i called after business hours, which they are PST so they should have been open.
Does anyone know if QCM is still going to be produced?
If not we need to start the search for a new white ink again.. ugh. Colin where are you buddy?
Dan: If I remember right, Rutland is owned by Rutland Holdings. And Wilflex has been for sale for several years from PolyOne.
Colin: I don't know where you're getting your information on PolyOne, but I can tell you that the Wilflex inks division is not for sale at this time. You can take it for a fact that I know of at least one company that has an existing and very significant relationship with Wilflex (like being their biggest distributor in the world) that would be first in line to make an acquisition of Wilflex "IF" PolyOne ever decides to spin them off.
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I've been talking to a few reps and my question is, what does this all mean to the price of inks? How much of an increase are we going to see? I've heard anywhere from 20-300%. Is everything being made going to be compliant with the new regulations? I was told Wilflex isn't going to make anything but the Epic series. I should probably stock up on the basics, even the economy brand inks like Triangle have a huge increase coming.
So Rutland owns Union and QCM - they should marry it and only make one brand = Qrution
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is it a far fetched idea that a company buys the others and then since controls a majority decides to raise prices...
maybe like broder tried doing?
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If all the american ink companies merge and jack prices up, you can bet a company from overseas will fix that problem real quick.
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is it a far fetched idea that a company buys the others and then since controls a majority decides to raise prices...
maybe like broder tried doing?
Since we were little kids playing board games on "family night" we learned that having a Monopoly and squeezing every last penny out of everyone else's purse and pockets was the goal of all red-blooded Americans, didn't we?
You some commie creep or sumptin'? :o
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I've been talking to a few reps and my question is, what does this all mean to the price of inks? How much of an increase are we going to see? I've heard anywhere from 20-300%. Is everything being made going to be compliant with the new regulations? I was told Wilflex isn't going to make anything but the Epic series. I should probably stock up on the basics, even the economy brand inks like Triangle have a huge increase coming.
Homer: All of the screen-printing ink manufacturers are experiencing unprecedented upwards pricing pressure, and limited availability for raw materials right now. The scary thing is, that no one really knows where the ceiling is. If you want to get a feel for what’s driving these increases I suggest that you Google “News On Titanium Dioxide” and you’ll see just how much pressure there is on white ink pricing due to cost increases and limited availability.
You can also Google “plasticizer price increases” and be taken to a page that lists information on increases from BASF and Eastman Chemical the two primary manufacturers that control the supply of these raw materials. I can assure you that PolyOne/Wilflex and the Nazdar Company, and I expect all other manufacturers and suppliers to the screen-printing industry are doing our very best to minimize the negative impact of these increases to our customers.
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It's probably a good bet that the price of a gallon of QCM ink will be a bit more here soon... it having to come from NC now. :(
I had the pleasure of being toured around the QCM facility in Kent, a bunch of years ago.
I met Gary a few years before that at a show and EVERYTIME he saw me after he knew my name, company name, ex-wifes name.
I know he hasn't been with QCM for a while now but when ever I think of QCM I think of Gary... that guy put his heart and soul into every bucket of ink, it seemed to me.
Best of luck Colin, I assume you'll be going with the ink?
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Thanks for the heads up about Wilflex Peter. All those I got the info from treated it like gospel. I hope I have not added further fire to those rumors.
Yes, all ink will be manufactured in N.C. However, Rutland has greater warehousing and production capabilities than QCM. So the ink should be more readily available than when QCM was producing it.
Doug: Gary always cared a lot about the products we made. He put extra time and effort to make sure the ink was always the same and top quality.
Homer: To add to what Peter said. Too many raw materials companies over the last few years have raised their pricing on the world. Many of them by declaring force majeure (act of god). On top of that there are several raw material companies who have shut down, causing further price increases... I do not envy the job of the purchasing agents for major manufacturing companies right now, let alone what the small guys can get ahold of.
As for where I am right now... I've been unemployed since May 20th. Hopefully that will get fixed soon...
If anyone has any questions about what's going on, I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.
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Pass on this question if it's TMI of course but, is this raw materials issue part of what caused all the inconsistencies at QCM? My pricing on QCM ink was always very low and I'd imagine it would be quite difficult to keep the price there and maintain that consistency with the raw materials all in turmoil.
I've seen steady formulations from Wilflex so far but their buying power from their parent corp. is probably much greater and, just as I combined each new bucket with my existing ink when buying QCM to level out the inconsistency, they could surely do a similar thing but in such large quantities that you'd never notice a difference. And it costs about double so that certainly helps fund good q.c. I'm sure. Just wondering how close to the mark that is?
Colin, best of luck man, from myself and everyone here at Zoo City Apparel. Best tech help ever. I've told ya before but you deliver something like Richard Greaves levels of support for printers down here in the trenches.
Whoever picks you up is going to be a lucky ink manufacturer with a bunch of happy printers buying up their ink . You listening Wilflex?
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Whoever picks you up is going to be a lucky ink manufacturer with a bunch of happy printers buying up their ink . You listening Wilflex?
Man Colin, i wish we could hire you to work in our shop... Please someone awesome hire this dude! We love him at Ink Brigade!
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You can take it for a fact that I know of at least one company that has an existing and very significant relationship with Wilflex (like being their biggest distributor in the world) that would be first in line to make an acquisition of Wilflex "IF" PolyOne ever decides to spin them off.
God I hope your not talking about midwest! Those guys can't find their own buttholes ;D
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You can take it for a fact that I know of at least one company that has an existing and very significant relationship with Wilflex (like being their biggest distributor in the world) that would be first in line to make an acquisition of Wilflex "IF" PolyOne ever decides to spin them off.
God I hope your not talking about midwest! Those guys can't find their own buttholes ;D
Mr. Walsh's post leads me to believe he was referring to Naz-Dar... just a hunch ;)
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Mr. Walsh's post leads me to believe he was referring to Naz-Dar... just a hunch ;)
I know, i just like to bust Midwests chops when i can.
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Hi All,
My name is Melissa and I used to work in sales and customer service for QCM Company in Kent, I was Gary's assistant and supported the QCM distributors and end users. I have now been picked up by Rutland to continue supporting QCM Ink distributors and end users. So, QCM company no longer exist, luckily QCM inks does. I had a chance last week to go out to Pineville, NC and look at the manufacturing facility. Colin was right with the larger manufacturing capabilities! Raw materials are also a tough issue, that even QCM struggled with. However, Rutland being a bigger company, they have more purchasing power which helps in a world of rising cost. Just to clarify, they prices have not been changed and from what I see, a stocking distributor can still maintain competitive pricing. Although, let me know if you have some dramatic increase, I would like to look into these transition issues. The formulas are the same that QCM was using so the product should be the same, again, if there is any difference or inconsistencies, let me know and I will look into this also. As of now, all of my QCM distributors have been giving positive product feed back that the ink is indeed the same. I will also give a plug for Colin to the folks at Rutland, 'cause he is awesome! So, if anyone has any feedback on QCM inks or have any questions let me know!! Thanks! 8)
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Thanks for joining and contributing Melissa. We can always use more people with the inside knowledge of the inks we use. I've used quite a few of the standard xolb colors from qcm with good results. I'm sure we all look forward to more posts from you and the gang at Rutland/QCM/Union.