Originally established in Hull in 1920 as Edward Marsden Printing Inks, the circa £2m-turnover company has changed shape, business partners and owners over its 100-year history with father and son team Rob and Ray Coates heading the firm from its Leeds manufacturing facility for the past two decades.

According to Graphichem director Paul Braham, Coates decided to sell the business after he was made an offer for the firm’s prime site in Leeds, consequently placing it into voluntary liquidation.

Braham, who is joint director of Graphichem along with ex-Flint Group director Scott McGauley, also owns consumables supplier Print Dynamic which was making nearly half of its circa £5m-turnover from Edward Marsden, making the purchase “a no-brainer”.

“We’ve been working together for around 13 years and when Rob offered it to me I said I’d love to buy it,” said Braham. “Edward Marsden was providing 40% of the work for Print Dynamic and with them closing the factory I needed to place the work, so Print Dynamic is now working with another ink company in Leeds,” he explained.

He added that a number of Edward Marsden’s 12 former employees had been placed with its new ink manufacturing partner, which wasn't named.  

The sale includes the brand, assets including various pieces of manufacturing equipment, IP and goodwill of Edward Marsden and Braham said had the potential to increase Graphichem’s turnover by around 20%.

“It will open up the market in places we aren’t in at the moment. We are very keen to grow. We’ve grown year-on-year over the past few years, what seems a shrinking market in some ways is actually growing for us.”

Graphichem was established in 2016 and has sales of around £3m a year. It employs nine staff and supplies inks, coatings and consumables from its manufacturing facility in Middlewich, Cheshire.