iMS, Colorite join forces for trans-Tasman branding alliance

Australia's iMS Group of Companies and New Zealand's Colorite Group have announced a strategic alliance to provide a one-stop “creative-to-shelf” branding service for FMCG customers across the Australasian market.

IMS, based in Sydney and with offices in Melbourne and Shanghai, specialises in visual branding solutions for predominantly FMCG clients. Colorite, for its part, boasts printing expertise and technology for packaging applications.

The chief executive of iMS, Mark Mahoney, told PKN the alliance would enable the two companies to share their respective packaging design, pre-press and printing expertise to provide value-added services for customers.

“It enables us to expand our design footprint, and Colorite's back-end services, to offer customers a fairly unique offering in the creative space all the way from initial design through to the product appearing on the shelf,” he said.

“And, of course, it extends our geographic footprint, giving each other an enhanced presence in each other's home market.”

He said the combined strength of the two companies would enable better use to be made of their respective production and print services and give the ability to streamline the delivery of brand projects across the supply chain.

He said the companies would also be able to pool resources to offer consultancy services for FMCG partners, as well as provide iMS access to the latest technology in graphic workflows, proofing and printing plates.

“The iMS-Colorite partnership will also help create the platform for a cost model to enable competitive enhancements at all levels of the global market place,” Mahoney said.

"Together with Colorite CEO Rene De Wit, we look forward to the opportunity to talk to current and potential customers about how we can deliver to them the value and synergies the new relationship will bring."

Mahoney told PKN the partnership had already attracted positive results for both companies despite only being officially in operation since the start of September.

“It's already had an immediate affect on both our businesses, which shows what a great match it is,” he said.