Tower Products Europe, a manufacturer of environmentally sensitive pressroom chemistry, has enjoyed a strong start to its second year of business after exceeding sales expectations and celebrating a milestone.

The announcement has been made as the European manufacturer, which is known as TPE, also celebrates the 200th printing press to be transferred over to the Tower Millennium fountain solution – all its moistening additives are either ISEGA or Fogra certified. Habo DaCosta in the Netherlands, which achieved the landmark deal, is converting to alcohol-free printing with TPE products manufactured in Europe.

TPE is a joint venture company set up in August 2018 by Wifac in the Netherlands and Tower Products Incorporated in the USA.

Two years ago, Wifac acquired RGP Green Solutions, a representative of Tower Press Chemistry for the Benelux. The sale of the Tower fountain solution, detergents and cleaners went so well that in 2018 it was decided to set up the joint venture company in conjunction with Tower Products Inc, based in Easton, PA. The recipe comes from Tower and the production takes place in the Netherlands.

“This is going well, even above expectations in terms of number of customers and turnover,” says Perry Theijn, manager of Tower Products Europe. “The situation now is that most Wifac customers in the Benelux have been converted to our own Tower products. Now we are working hard to convince even more of the graphic companies across Europe, as well. The results in both the heatset and the sheetfed printing plants in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France are undoubtedly good. Customers praise the lower time spent on printing, the shorter washing intervals, the cleaner printing press and the better quality of the printed matter.”

Theijn adds, “It was a calculated and logical step to start producing press chemistry ourselves. Customers want direct contact with the producer and thus influence the supplies they use. Our customers increasingly demand environmentally friendly production, which we provide. They also want to do business with a partner that knows all the ins and outs of the graphical production process and the interaction between the various supplies and the press variables. By using Tower Founts, the use of alcohol during the printing process can be reduced or eliminated. This enables printers to produce more sustainably and profitably.”