To Our Business Partners Regarding the Global PET Film Shortage,

As you may be aware, Global PET film supply for packaging are in critically short supply.  Rising prices have become a secondary challenge while securing stable material supply has become the primary focus.  Vacumet has been forced to increase prices three times in 2010, with current levels for metallized film approaching unprecedented levels.  Unfortunately we expect this trend to continue well into 2011 and possibly beyond due to a variety of events occurring both regionally and globally.

I am writing today to update you on the situation and Vacumet’s efforts to mitigate the effect of increased prices while securing stable qualified lines of PET supply.

The tight supply condition we find ourselves in today can be attributed to three primary drivers:

• Increased global demand for PET films in non-Packaging applications and market segments.  These include electronics & photovoltaic/solar components.
• Lag in the capitalization & start up of new film manufacturing capacity due to the 2008/09 recession.
• Anti dumping action brought on by US producers of PET film against manufactures based in China, Taiwan, South Korea, India & Brazil, forcing the exit of certain suppliers from the US market place.

Vacumet is not standing still.   Our focus today is on broadening the band width of our PET film supply chain, fast tracking R&D efforts on new metallized barrier technologies and materials and working closely with current vendors to secure credible forward delivery schedules.  In addition we are fast tracking qualification of new materials and suppliers to ensure supply and keep rising prices in check.

I will continue to keep you updated on our efforts and any developments in the local and global situation.  In the meantime, thank you for your continued loyalty and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
Sincerely,

Kent Kisselle
Director, Market Segments

Franklin, MA  — Vacumet of Franklin, MA received a 2010 Premier Print Award for outstanding achievement in the production of Programs. The graphic arts industry’s largest and most prestigious international printing competition, the Premier Print Awards recognizes those responsible for the creation and production of outstanding print communications.  Vacumet won an Award of Recognition for their custom holographic, flip cover entry: WWE WrestleMania 26 and Hall of Fame Program.

Competing against thousands of entries from printing and graphic arts firms around the world, Vacumet received an award, which honors the top finalists in each of the categories of   competition. There were only 208 of these awards out of 3,200 entries, issued in this year’s competition.

“While we pride ourselves on giving every project in our plant the same attention and craftsmanship, it is especially gratifying to be recognized by the Premier Print Awards for WWE WrestleMania 26 and Hall of Fame Program.” said Joe Formosa, HoloPRISM^® Business Manager.  “It’s an honor to be recognized by the industry as a company that produces top quality, award winning holographic materials.”

Michael Makin, president and CEO of Printing Industries of America, agrees.  “Each year, the field of entries attracts impressive work from some of the best printers in the world. Less than 7% received an Award of Recognition in 2010. The craftsmanship and hard work of Vacumet enabled them to produce an award-winning piece in the face of very stiff competition.”

Printing Industries of America hosts the Premier Print Awards. In its 61st year, the annual print competition recognizes those responsible for the creation and production of superior print. The event promotes excellence in print communications and rewards companies and individuals who produce the best in printed media.

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Headquartered in Sewickley, PA, Printing Industries of America is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association representing an industry with approximately 1 million employees. It serves the interests of more than 10,000 member companies. Printing Industries of America, along with its affiliates, delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency and profitability of its members and the industry through advocacy, education, research and technical information.

For more information about the Premier Print Awards, contact Sara Welsh at 412-259-1705.

For more information about Vacumet, contact Kizzie Suriel at 508-541-7778.

The distinctive Presidente Beer holiday promotion consisted of holographic bottle labels, cartons and all point-of-purchase materials, including posters. This campaign marked the first consumer line to use a single custom hologram throughout an in-store marketing campaign. Vacumet’s exclusive line of HoloPrism® paper, renowned for laying flat while maintaining its machinability, was used to produce the bottle labels and coordinating promotional holographic posters.

The campaign’s holographic carton packaging was created using Vacumet’s HoloPrism® holographic plastics masterfully laminated onto a paperboard substrate. Vacumet’s custom hologram visually tied the campaign together to help create a bold in-store marketing campaign that reinforced Presidente Beer’s brand while sparking seasonal impulse buys.

About Vacumet: Vacumet, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scholle Corporation, is the largest commercial metallizing company in the world. Its metallized products are used in the production of some of the most exciting and functional, barrier, cosmetic, labeling and promotional packaging products for major brands across industries and around the world. Vacumet products and processes are representative of its ongoing commitment to sustainable packaging. For more information, please visit http://www.vacumet.com.

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Kizzie Suriel – Creative Services Manager, Vacumet

Wow – cool news, Vacumet was recently notified that our project for El Presidente Beer won an industry award. I should say cerveza as this was a promotion for Dominican Republic marketplace. As lead designer, I know how much work went into this project. A nice sale is fun but it’s also nice to get recognized for our work. This project used a custom holographic design. I alway enjoy helping our sales partners and customers use our products to make great packages and promotions, but a custom design really lets me use my creative talents.

This one was tied to a Holiday celebration. So we reviewed various themes with the client – snowflakes, ornaments, Christmas bulbs, garland and trees and the like. Together we ended up with an elegant snowflake design with the corporate logo (“P”) centered in the snowflake. Classy, bright and shiny, customized, reinforcing the brand – it all came together. Then the project grew.

Not just beer labels, which we are great at, but beverage carriers and point-of-sale posters. Now the project got more interesting as multiple substrates were involved and the design had to carry over into different printing formats. Fortunately, the image was well designed to be suitable for a small label, a larger carton and a mini-poster.

Using the same design tied it all together. This was really the type of project I could sink my teeth into. We have a really strong agent for this region of the world and Hank has great relationships with his printers and their customers. It made for a lot of positive interactions. Me and other team members got involved with all the design aspects, not only of our paper but the customer’s print graphics as well. Multiple designs (silver tone for light beer and gold for the premium brand), multiple format all meant lots and lots of discussions.

In the end, very worthwhile. Lots of nice labels produced, along with good looking cartons and some nice sale posters. And to have an industry association acknowledge our work as an outstanding marketing program makes it all very satisfying.

Each project we work on allows us to grow and prepare for the next one. I have been with Vacumet in this Graphic Design work for nearly 7 years and each interaction with our sales team, their customers and the end users relies on that experience. It is really satisfying when it all comes together.

Franklin, MA – June 2009 — Everything is bigger in Texas – including WrestleMania and its first custom holographic program cover! WrestleMania’s 25th anniversary wrestling extravaganza took place in spring of 2009 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas in front of nearly 100,000 fans. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) created a custom holographic 25th Anniversary program that was a slam down hit with the fans!

Together with Holographysells.com and the Creative Services experts at Vacumet Corp., the Creative Design team at the WWE created a custom holographic collectors program that pinned down the highest sales volume in the history of WWE WrestleMania!

Fans wrestle to get their hands on the holographic WWE Hall of Fame 2009 Program

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania, the World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) most popular event of the year, a new class of elite wrestlers was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. To celebrate this new group of wrestling megastars, a custom holographic program was unveiled to nearly 100,000 waiting fans that night. The WWE Hall of Fame 2009 Program not only paid homage to some of the most celebrated wrestlers of our time, but it also made history- setting the record for the highest program sales ever for a WWE Hall of Fame publication!

With the holography experts at Vacumet Corp., the marketing savvy of Holographysells.com and the insight and vision of the Creative Design team at WWE, this program quickly became a sought-after collector’s edition among WWE fans around the world.

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ABOUT VACUMET, A SCHOLLE COMPANY
Vacumet, a Scholle company, is a global producer of vacuum metalized plastic film, papers and holographic substrates. Our products provide “Package Solutions” as an integral part of major brand owners’ packaging. Our materials provide functional barrier, decorative, point of purchase appeal, security, labeling and promotional applications worldwide. www.vacumet.com

Franklin, MA – October 27, 2008 — Publishing Executive and Printing Impressions magazines, co-sponsors of the Annual Gold Ink Awards, announced that Vacumet Corp. has won both a Bronze and Pewter Award. The Bronze Award winning entry titled TV Guide-Nascar Preview Issue won in the Magazine Covers category. The Pewter Award winning entry titled Monopoly-Disney Pixar Edition won in the Packaging Rigid category.

This year’s Gold Ink Award winners were chosen from nearly 1,500 entries submitted within different categories. Winning pieces surpassed their competitors based on print quality, technical difficulty and overall visual effect.

Contest judges included: Brenda Barozzi, VP of Print Production, Draftfcb; Jane Chero, VP of Production, North American Publishing Co.; Kristina Cunilera, Journals Production Manager, Wolters Kluwer Health; Harris Fogel, Associate Professor of Photography, The University of The Arts; Russ Gazzara, President, Warkulwiz Design Associates; Lori A. Irvine, Book Local Application Manager, Elsevier; Nicole Koenitzer, Graphic Artist, Edmund Optics; Marianne R. Koszorus, Director of Layout and Design, National Geographic Books; Jim Malloy, Art Director, Kappa Publishing; John McGurk, Production Manager, Quirk Books; Gina Montemurro, Group Production Director, North American Publishing Co.; Gretchen Morris, Director, Global Catalog Production, Edmund Optics; Robin Norman, Production Manager, The Jewish Publication Society; Bob Stein, Professor, Illustration Department, The University of The Arts; and Dorlisa Young, Group Production Director, North American Publishing Co.

The Annual Gold Ink Awards Banquet, held to honor the winners, will take place Monday evening, October 27th at McCormick Place in Chicago during GRAPH EXPO 2008. www.goldink.com.

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ABOUT VACUMET, A SCHOLLE COMPANY
Vacumet, a Scholle company, is a global producer of vacuum metalized plastic film, papers and holographic substrates. Our products provide “Package Solutions” as an integral part of major brand owners’ packaging. Our materials provide functional barrier, decorative, point of purchase appeal, security, labeling and promotional applications worldwide. www.vacumet.com

Franklin, MA – September 8, 2008 – Vacumet, Corp., the world’s leading vacuum metallizer, today announced the launch of its new commercially available holographic stock design library. Vacumet’s new library houses over 100 holographic stock designs and represents two years of research and development efforts and an over $2 million investment. Vacumet’s holographic stock designs are being used to create unique, illuminating effects for packaging across industries, including food and beverage, beauty, publishing, home entertainment and holographic security. While maintaining the expanding holographic stock library, Vacumet will continue to offer its award-winning custom holographic design service.

The new library offers an assortment of exclusive stock patterns and utilizes all manners of holographic techniques, including dot matrix and conventional “full wave” holography.

Vacumet’s library represents both traditional and modern patterns, and is currently stocking a variety of “Multiple Dots” patterns, “Cracked Ice/Broken Glass” designs, as well as distinctive lenslet and kinetic plaid designs. Vacumet plans to continually add to this stock library and will announce additional exclusive holographic stock patterns in the coming months.

“Brand differentiation and shelf appeal continue to be important factors in building a successful point-of-purchase sales strategy,” said Joe Formosa, business manager for HoloPRISM® at Vacumet. “With our extensive holographic stock design library, Vacumet can provide virtually limitless packaging solutions than can increase brand visibility while boosting sales.”

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ABOUT VACUMET, A SCHOLLE COMPANY
Vacumet, a Scholle company, is a global producer of vacuum metalized plastic film, papers and holographic substrates. Our products provide “Package Solutions” as an integral part of major brand owners’ packaging. Our materials provide functional barrier, decorative, point of purchase appeal, security, labeling and promotional applications worldwide. www.vacumet.com