Learning from the oldies of Hi-Tech Inks

Alf McCreadie, Alwyn Pretorius and Hayley Palmer are the owners of High-Tech Inks. Hi-Tech Inks is one of the companies within the Speed Bird Investment Holdings Group – a group that traces its origin back to 1968, when Allan Peters, Glenn Peters and Alfred McCreadie identified a gap in the local market for decorative coatings.

After 37 years in the industry, Speed Bird diversified to include the production of paints, inks, colourants, liquid dispersions, master batches and dry powder pigments.

Hi-Tech Inks as a division was actually established in the late 1980s when Graham Palmer, also a partner in Hi-Tech Ink, joined the group with his company. It is interesting to note that the two pioneers of the group, McCreadie and Palmer are still running Hi-Tech Inks to this day.

The company now has production facilities in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Its core business is producing flexographic and gravure inks for the wide-web flexible packaging industry, water-based inks specifically for narrow-web label printers, and UV flexographic inks.

Hi-Tech Inks has recently signed an agreement with Tokyo Ink in Japan. This allows Hi-Tech Inks to supply local lithographic printers with a revolutionary four-colour ink set. In addition, Hi-Tech Inks has moved into the security ink industry.

Accounting for 40% of the Speed Bird conglomerate turnover, Hi-Tech Inks has become the crown jewel within the group. Hi-Tech Inks has over the years enjoyed enormous success and won many awards in the local as well as the international arena.

What are Hi-Tech Inks’ future plans?
Hi-Tech Inks is on a mission to extend its operations by opening satellite plants throughout Africa and other strategic regions.

Hi-Tech has purchased Polymer Printing Inks, an ink manufacturing plant in Mumbai, India. Performance Masterbatch and Custom Colour have been acquired too and have been incorporated into another Speed Bird Group company, Polymer Colour Systems.

“The company is also planning to tap into the East African market as there seem to be a high demand for high quality ink. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are some of the countries that were identified by Hi-Tech Inks for the expansion,” says McCreadie.

So far, Hi-Tech Inks has opted to establish a plant in Dar es Salaam. The company has invited a Tanzanian partner into this project. The company is also contemplating a similar operation in Nigeria.

“These expansions have all taken capital, and it was for this reason that we became involved with Standard Bank as an equity partner to pursue these ventures,” says Pretorius.

“We have banked with Standard Bank for many years and they like the way we do our business. Undoubtedly, this equity partnership shows a strong confidence in our business, and we are proud of that,” continued Pretorius.

This expansion programme and growing exports to other African countries has given Hi-Tech Inks good international exposure and opened other opportunities. The directors have identified the need to establish a cost-effective production facility for certain ink products in order to become more competitive on export markets.

While the company has been acquiring other businesses, the directors thought it was wise to centralise administration. And for the integration the wealth of skills, experience and industry knowledge, the acquired companies, will also be controlled by Speed Bird’s primary manufacturing division in Meadowdale, Gauteng.

What is Hi-Tech Inks’ management philosophy?
Hi-Tech Inks’ management philosophy is based on change management. This enables the company to adapt and capitalise on fast changing market conditions. The company also believes in empowerment.

“We would like to structure our organisation in a way that will encourage empowerment and innovation amongst our staff,” Pretorius.
Hi-Tech Inks can be contacted at +27 11 372 4600