R.A. Kerley Ink Engineers Inc., is ready to take aim at U.S. newspapers with its own brand of ink products.

 “We’re ready to pursue the market,” Whalen said, acknowledging that the suburban Chicago-based company might face a stiff challenge introducing itself to newspapers unfamiliar with the Kerley moniker.  

But Kerley has been around for more than 70 years, founded in 1932 and incorporated in its current state in 1947, Whalen said.

For decades, Whalen said, Kerley has been content marketing its inks through a network of resellers, providing product to other ink vendors as well as such large commercial printers as Quebecor.

Market ready

The market is now ripe for Kerley to market inks under its own brand, Whalen said.

“We have the technology, and we believe an opportunity exists” to carve out a niche in the market, Whalen said.

In addition to its ink formulations for black and color ink, Kerley offers a Strong Black ink as well as its Radion UV ink, introduced earlier this year.

Whalen said the advent of Berliner and other small-format papers in the United States would require publishers to seek higher quality inks.

“They need to convey the same amount of information (on a smaller page) so typefaces may be smaller,” he said, citing Kerley’s Strong Black as a product formulated specifically to produce the higher contrast that will be needed.

“Opportunity knocks,” he said.