Betsy Price June 17, 2022 Business, Headlines

Fujifilm president Ian Wilkerson, fourth from left, and are dignitaries cut the ribbon for a new water-based ink plant.

While Fujifilm celebrated the opening of the first of its two new ink manufacturing plants in Delaware Thursday, its president said Friday it may need more.

“There might not be enough capacity,” Ian Wilkinson said. “So we need to think about what we do next.”

Its 20-acre New Castle site will be home to Fujifilm Imaging Colorants Inc.’s first dispersion ink manufacturing facility in the U.S.  The $19 million investment will create more than 21 new professional, managerial, engineering and skilled labor jobs, on top of its current 90.

The jobs are rooted in the science of producing water-based digital inks, which allow printers much more flexibility in using the products. They are aimed at large commercial jobs.

Analog printing, Wilkerson said, usually requires a big order to make setting it up worthwhile. But digital inks allow companies to specialize by item.

That means a printer can put a  person’s name on a single pair of new sneakers or alter food packaging to include symbols related to a specific geographic area to attract buyers in a store, he said.

While the commercial process of printing may be the same as those used in a home printer, the sizes of the machinery and quantities of ink needed are huge.

Wilkerson held up a desktop printer cartridge he’d just changed.

“You’ve got kind of five milliliters of ink inside that, maybe, and it costs you $40, $50 or something like that,” he said. “Here in this facility, our capacity for water-based inks is the equivalent of eight Olympic sized swimming pools.”

Many people over the age of 40 may think of Fuji as a film company that sold rolls of film or single-use cameras, competing with Kodak back in the day.

Now, Wilkerson said, it’s a multi-faceted company that’s largest income stream is from the medical sector.

When it became obvious in the 1990s that digital cameras were going to take over the photography business, Fuji decided to leverage its core competence of imaging and imaging technology, Wilkerson said.

In the medical sector, it sells magnetic resonance imaging machines, among other things.

Fujifilm bought into the inkjet business in 2005, Wilkerson said.

Until now, the pigments used in Fujifilm’s water-based inks were made only in Scotland and had to be shipped around the world from there. Oil-based inks are made in other places using other kinds of specialized equipment, he said.

Having plants in Delaware gives the company many advantages, Wilkerson said.

The new investment allows them to shorten supply chains and save money on freight while increasing the company’s sustainability, he said.

Fujifilm will make its own concentrate and then pump it into its own factory just feet away. That allows the company to ship more easily and quickly throughout the United States and Latin America.

“So we needed the volume because things are going very well,” he said. “But we also needed the geography.”

This Fujifilm rendering released in March shows what the New Castle facility was expected to look like.

Wilkerson said the company considered several sites for its ink facility, but settled on Delaware after finding local officials to be cooperative, pro-business and happy to be adding skilled jobs.

The 8,100-square-foot plant adds to Fujifilm’s current 40,000 square feet of occupied manufacturing space at the site, which employs 90 people.

The building now under construction will add another 11,000 square feet. It’s expected to open in March.

Like other companies, Wilkerson said that hiring has been slower than it would have been three years ago, but he expects no problems in filling the new 21 jobs.

He’s also happy to say that Fujifilm is seeing a kind of full circle moment now.

While most people stopped using cameras in favor of their smartphones early in the 2000s, some young people have stopped using phone cameras in favor of cameras that operate like Polaroids.

They take a photo and a small square of emulsion-covered paper shoots out. When the ink self-develops, there’s a photo. People are tacking them up on walls as part of decor, he said.

As this trend has been spreading in popularity, Fujifilm bought the Instax company and now is manufacturing cameras and photo film again.

“Fujifilm is always evolving,” Wilkerson said. “So even in an area that disappeared almost, it’s come back around again. It’s a more diverse company than people realize.”

Wilkerson said that the world market for ink is probably not growing, but it is changing.

One example of change, he said, is newspapers, which are losing circulation and moving to digital sites.

He believes Fujifilm is well placed because of its high quality inks and patented technology. and expects it to expand.

Wilkerson said he’s not sure the company would want to grow on its current site in New Castle, which it’s owned since 2006. Part of the property is wooded with obvious wildlife and the company wouldn’t want to lose that, he said.

In the meantime, he’d like Delawareans to be more familiar with the company.

To that end, Fujifilm has asked its team to be ambassadors for the company. They participate in public events, such as river clean-ups, and on Saturday Wilkerson is headed to the Delaware Art Museum to participate in its Beyond Juneteenth Egungun Festival, of which Fujifilm is a key sponsor.

“We want to become more active in the community, and we need people to come and work for us,” Wilkerson said. “So we’re looking for opportunities to support the community.”

Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.

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Photo courtesy of Delaware State Fair. The Delaware State Fair has announced its final two headline acts for the 2022 Delaware Lottery Summer Concert Series at the M&T Bank Grandstand. Country music star Trace Adkins and Dominican bachata artist Frank Reyes will top off the star-studded list of acts that already includes Hank Williams Jr., Sam Hunt, Nelly, Toby Mac, ZZ Top, and, of course, the annual demolition derby. The 103rd Delaware State Fair will be held from July 21 to 30, 2022. The theme is “Summer Nights & Carnival Lights.” The jam-packed lineup is refreshing news for devoted fairgoers. In 2020, all concerts were canceled because of the pandemic. Acts would have included country musicians Dierks Bentley, Hank Williams Jr. and comedian Jim Gaffigan. In 2021, the concert lineup originally featured TobyMac, Sam Hunt, Hank Williams Jr. and Vanilla Ice, but they all pulled out because of uncertainty surrounding Delaware’s COVID-19 large gathering restrictions. Delawareans can expect to see the following performances during the 2022 State Fair: Sam Hunt on Thursday, July 21 @ 7:30 p.m. Halestorm on Friday, July 22 @ 7:30 p.m. Nelly on Saturday, July 23 @ 7:30 p.m. Demolition Derby on Sunday, July 24 @ 6 p.m. Trace Adkins on Monday, July 25 @ 7:30 p.m. TobyMac on Tuesday, July 26 @ 7:30 p.m. ZZ Top on Wednesday, July 27 @ 7:30 p.m. Harness Racing on Thursday, July 28 @ 7:00 p.m. Frank Reyes on Friday, July 29 @ 7:30 p.m. Hank Williams Jr. on Saturday, July 30 @ 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $99 and can be purchased at this link.

The state will offer up to 10 days of pay for teachers who must quarantine, isolate or care for family members.   The state of Delaware will fund up to 10 days of paid leave for teachers who need to take time off their jobs to deal with COVID-19 and will pay for substitute teachers needed to cover those classes. A Sept. 7 letter from Cerron Cade, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to school districts and charter schools says local school boards must adopt the to make sure teachers and the agencies get the funding. The issue of teachers forced into quarantine, having to self-isolate or having to take care of their own affected family members, has been rising in urgency as students returned to classes. Traditionally, all kinds of communicable illnesses rise about two weeks after kids return from school during the summer and holidays and essentially swap germs. In the South, where schools began in early August, and may without mask mandates, teachers have complained that they keep having to quarantine and have to use their own paid leave to do it. Asked about that last week, Delaware Department of Education spokeswoman Alison May said whether teachers had to use their own sick leave in the case of quarantine would be a local decision, “though the state is working with districts/charters on a consistent policy.” State health officials hope Delaware’s mask mandate for schools will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and also mean that entire classes don’t have to be quarantined after a positive case is discovered, if masks have been worn properly. Cade’s letter said that an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Delaware is now coupled with a continued need for teachers to quarantine, self-isolate, become vaccinated or care for an affected family member. “The state will fund up to 10 days of paid COVID leave for any LEA whose local school board adopts a policy to provide this leave to its employees,” the letter said. That includes part-time and casual/seasonal employees. Cade’s letter said school boards could adopt the policy retroactively to the first day of their 21-2022 school year, which has ranged from late August through this week for Delaware districts. If the policy is adopted, Cade’s letter said, “funding from the state will include costs for substitutes that are needed to cover absences due to COVID.” The letter also said that the funding will end Dec. 31, 2021. Stephanie Ingram, president of the Delaware State Education Association, a union for teachers and educators, praised the state’s decision. “DSEA is thankful that State stepped up to cover 10 days of COVID leave in districts where they have adopted a leave policy,” she said in a written statement. ” She said members get very few days of leave a year, and are faced with losing pay and all of their days just for quarantines if the districts don’t adopt the policies. “The extra support from the state helps educators to save their sick days for when they are actually sick or need to care for a family member,” she said. “We urge every district to adopt a policy and support the staff that they put on the front lines each day.”          

Rep. David Bentz, D-Christiana Concerned citizens will have a chance to offer public comment on a marijuana legalization bill after all.  Multiple lawmakers walked out of the House Health and Human Development Committee Wednesday after the majority of the committee’s members voted to release the bill without first hearing public comments.  During the meeting, a House attorney said rules do not specifically require the committee to hear public comment, but she believed it was implied and suggested that the motion be withdrawn. The committee’s chair, Rep. David Bentz, D-Christina, said a motion had been made and seconded and would need to be resolved before the question of allowing public comment or not could be answered.  “I’m going to move forward with a vote on the motion and then we will come back to the bill if we can find some sort of resolution,” he said. That didn’t happen after the lawmakers walked out. By Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus announced that the bill would be reconsidered by the committee and people would be given a chance to be heard.  “HB 371 has been reported released from the Health Committee,” said Drew Volturo, communications director for the House Democratic Caucus. “Tomorrow, the bill will be…reassigned back to the Health Committee to allow the chair to hold a full hearing on the bill with public comment. That likely will take place after the spring recess.” Volturo said Bentz would issue a statement on the matter from the House floor during session Thursday.  Rep. Ruth Briggs King, R-Georgetown, called the situation a “flagrant violation of the rules.”  She said after the hearing Bentz personally apologized to her and her colleagues, and House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, assured her the bill would receive a full hearing.  A separate bill – House Bill 372 – was also released from committee Wednesday, although it did include time for public comment. HB 371 would legalize marijuana and HB 372 would allow it to be grown and sold in Delaware.

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