Consolidation of an industry sector like this, on this scale NEVER pans out well for end users.
When I first heard of this a few weeks ago I was a bit in denial, but as Rutland was actually a "holding company" by a group of investors it makes sense, they ate up all the little guys than made a huge deal with the only one left. The problem will come when price increases are announced, across the board leaving nobody with viable alternatives.
However if your a small player in the ink business it could be good news as people look for more affordable alternatives. I used to sell Rutland inks and while the quality was great, the prices were unjustifiably high for small shops that never got the huge discounts that the big shops could get. Time will tell but I expect that in the coming year there will also be a major shakeup in who can be a distributor as well.
