After a 10 year track record of success, the hubergroup USA, Inc. and GFI Innovations are embarking on the next chapter of their partnership. The companies have entered into a preferred dealer agreement that benefits hubergroup’s brand network of customers for both offset and flexographic inks in the U.S. and Canada.

hubergroup provides a wide range of products – including ink-mixing systems – for commercial, news and package printing applications. The company has a global sales network of over 150 offices and 40 regionally operated ink manufacturing companies.

“Our relationship with GFI Innovations extends more than 10 years. Recently we have been very successful in the packaging inks market in the USA and Canada,” says Martin Weber, group managing director for hubergroup USA, Inc.. “Especially in this market segment, we see strong potential for our cooperative efforts with GFI by offering printers integrated solutions for in-house color mixing. Our business has also been more active on the flexo ink side and the market is growing.”

“The hubergroup has been great to work with. It is hard to believe that it’s been 10 years already that we’ve been associated with them; time goes by fast,” adds John Borkovec, VP of sales and marketing for GFI. “This preferred dealer agreement signifies how well our two companies work together. I hope we both have another run as good as the first 10 years.”

hubergroup uses GFI’s AccuBlend-HV for offset litho inks and the new AccuBlend-LV for flexo applications. Both offer hardware and software systems that improve control over the ink mixing process, schedules and workflow.

“It is an advantage to work with GFI,” says Weber.  “We have a good network of service centers and a sophisticated color matching and mixing system. We rely on our branches for large volumes and GFI for smaller runs and spot color work. They are very advanced in this category and have helped us enjoy success, especially in the packaging segment.”

Weber explained how other intangibles that GFI brings to the table makes a difference. “GFI fulfills what we need and we work very well together. Their machines cover a lot of work in an in-plant environment, so it is very helpful from a time management perspective. This equipment provides us a better link to our customers. Our technical service and support give us an edge. Our service is more individually focused on the customer and better than what else is available in the market.”