Hi Tech Inks Become an Independent Cooperative

October 17, 2010 (Press-News.org) After a successful year and the launch of a new, temperature sensitive packaging solution, Hi Tech is set to leave Speed Bird group and venture into an independent future.

As one of the few South African ink manufacturers with its own R&D facilities Hi-Tech recently launched Thermotech, an ink that changes colour according to temperature. The customer can choose the temperature threshold, so the colour of the label on a beer bottle will change if it gets warmer than it should be: vital for South Africa's beer drinkers and with obvious implications for food safety.

"We are now working on a dual thermochromic ink which will show you if a product is overheating as well - it is colourless at normal temperature, blue when chilled or red when it gets too warm."

Firmly established in South Africa as the leading supplier to the packaging industry, but with limited expansion likely in the outlook period, Hi-Tech is looking outside the borders of South Africa for significant growth in the future. "Currently we export about 10 percent of our production but we have an aggressive programme to increase that to 25 or 30 percent of our total volumes."

So Hi-Tech Inks is poised for some very exciting developments, and as it contemplates these, its CEO and founder Graham Palmer has decided on a radical move. Before the end of this year he plans to take the company out of the Speed Bird Group and give every Hi-Tech employee a share in the equity, moving it to an independent cooperative or John Lewis model. "Speed Bird has always run the treasury in the past but we do have financial backing from the banks and we are ready to go!" says Jones.

Read the full report at: http://www.manufacturingdigital.com/company-reports/hi-tech-inks-pty-ltd

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