Conciliator submits settlement proposals for UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac

Sole Source Capital LLC, an industrial-focused private equity firm, announced today that its portfolio company, I.D. Images (“IDI”), a premier provider of product identification solutions, has made three significant acquisitions over the past five months. IDI’s acquisitions of Digital Printing Concepts, Multi-Action Communications, and Valley Forge Tape & Label Company have more than doubled the size of the company and extended its reach to several new markets across the U.S. and Canada since it became a Sole Source Capital portfolio company in August 2021. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed. IDI manufactures high-quality durable and graphic intensive labels that address a broad range of product identification needs for a variety of end markets. Digital Printing Concepts, founded in 2003 and based in East Providence, RI, is a manufacturer of custom durable variable data labels that are utilized in warehouse logistics. Headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Multi-Action Communications is a manufacturer of logistics, grocery, track-and-trace, and prime labels to customers throughout Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1993 and operates out of three manufacturing facilities across Canada. Based in Exton, PA and founded in 1962, Valley Forge Tape & Label Company is a longstanding, full-service manufacturer of custom printed self-adhesive labels for the Food and Beverage, Healthcare, and Consumer Products industries.

‘We will offer packaging that does not yet exist’, said Koehler CEO Kai Furler in an interview with the newspaper F.A.Z. at the beginning of 2018. Some readers will have wondered where he got the self-confidence for this bold statement from. On the one hand, it shows great confidence in the company’s research and development. But it also anticipated what was announced a year later, in January 2019: the founding of the Green Coating Collaboration, a joint laboratory between Koehler and Darmstadt Technical University. The name already hints at the institution’s field of activity. The focus is on barrier coatings that can give flexible packaging paper properties that previously only plastic could offer. These include mineral oil barriers, water vapour barriers or barriers for oils and fats, as well as aroma barriers. ‘We are conducting fundamental research in the Green Coating Collaboration’, explains Dr. Markus Wildberger, Head of Technology at Koehler. ‘Our goal is to find and test more sustainable, bio-based raw materials for barrier coating in order to ultimately use them on production line 8. It is important not to use raw materials that could potentially be used as food. After all, our packaging material should not compete with food for land.’

Ahlstrom-Munksjö advances further into the energy storage market by signing a marketing license with Soteria Battery Innovation Group (BIG), allowing the company to proceed with the technical ramp-up to manufacture fiber-based separator solutions to the lithium-ion battery industry. The agreement is an important step in the commercialization of Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s solutions to the energy storage market. “This demonstrates our confidence in our ability to supply the lithium-ion battery market with a safe and efficient fiber-based separator. It is a milestone for our partnership with Soteria BIG,” says Bertrand Rupin, Head of Business Development, Energy Storage at Ahlstrom-Munksjö. Demand for energy storage is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, driven by vehicle electrification, a shift towards renewable energy, an increasing demand in stationary applications and effective electricity supply chain management. Fiber-based materials are widely used in energy storage devices and thanks to its extensive expertise in cellulose, microglass and specialty nonwoven materials, Ahlstrom-Munksjö is developing a complete range of solutions to its customers under the FortiCell® product platform.