MACtac THE COMPANY – Now you know!

Without sounding smug! I would think the majority of you Sign Makers in the U.K. are aware of the name “MACtac” and familiar with our MACmark range of signage vinyls. But do you know much about MACtac as a Company, our background and product portfolio? Possibly not – so let me fill you in. Whilst I am at it – I will also introduce you to the U.K. Subsidiary and to the Sales and Marketing Team.

So – you may or may not have wondered how we got our name? Well, the Company was founded by Burt Morgan and was known as MORGAN ADHESIVES COMPANY – hence the MAC and “tac” because we make sticky stuff!

Burt Morgan began manufacturing self-adhesive medical and masking tapes back in the 1940’s. Burt had a “vision” in mind for a broader product portfolio and prepared plans to set up a large plant in Ohio, U.S.A. and his first letterheads read “Morgan Adhesives Company, World’s Greatest Producer of Adhesive Products” before the factory had even started production! He wasn’t wrong was he?!

His financial backer at the time was BEMIS – and they are now our parent Company. BEMIS is now recognised as the largest producer of flexible packaging in North America.

Since those days, MACtac has moved forward in self-adhesive technology and its products are available worldwide. MACtac now operates manufacturing facilities in the U.S.A., Mexico and in Belgium.

In Belgium we have 8 production lines – line 8 is the latest addition and is fully automated with “state of the art” manufacturing and finishing equipment and is said to be the “jewel” of the self-adhesive industry. Line 8 is dedicated to media for the sign and digital markets.

We also have research and development labs and its research staff includes experts in all adhesive technologies, release systems and topcoating technology. MACtac also employs staff dedicated to environmental issues to ensure the best products for the industry are also the best choices for the environment (eg: papers that can be recycled to environmentally friendly adhesives).

MACtac has 3 distinct product Divisions – Dedicated to specific industries: DECORATIVE, PRINTING (roll label stock and flat sheet) and TECHNICAL TAPES (double sided carrier, foam and free film tapes). The Decorative Division includes the MACscreen (screen printing films), MACmark (plotter films), PERMACOLOR (mounting and laminating films) and the IMAGin (printing and finishing films for wide format inkjet printers). So anything self-adhesive – we will most likely have it somewhere in one of the ranges!

MACtac Europe has wholly owned subsidiaries all over Europe and Asia of which MACtac U.K. is one. We are based in Northampton and headed up by our Country Manager who manages a team of Marketing, Sales, Warehouse and Accounts personnel. Note – I did not put these disciplines into Departments! Because we have an open plan philosophy and work together very much as a team.

As far as the Decorative Products Division are concerned – these are sold through National Distributors and the names you are probably familiar with: ANDERSONS, AMARI PLASTICS. ANTALIS VISUAL COMMUNICATION, ALL PRINT SUPPLIES, PARAGON, PYRAMID DISPLAY MATERIALS, PRINTALL DISPLAY LTD., SPANDEX and we are now represented in Ireland by GACIER PRINT SUPPLIES based in Dublin.

One of the fast-growing technologies being adopted by Sign Makers is the wide format digital printers. MACtac dedicates a lot of time in this sector and our IMAGin range of products includes printing products for solvent, eco-solvent inkjet and water based inkjet as well as compatible over laminates and also mounting films for non-adhesive prints. We also offer an economical laminator ideal for the first-time user. We have Product Overview Brochures giving full details on all the products and we are continually adding ICC profiles for our media. These profiles will soon be down-loadable from our web-site which is undergoing an overhaul at the moment to make it even more user-friendly.

As a result of full colour durable digital imaging – Car wrapping is becoming quite a demand these days and I receive a number of requests from experienced applicators wanting to get into this. As a result MACtac U.K. is planning to run training courses this year, the first of which is taking place in February (course now full). I will let you know how we get on.