The Pokémon Company International, the company that manages the Pokémon brand outside of Asia, has signed the purchase of the Millennium Print Group. Based in North Carolina, the company specializes in printing trading cards and their packaging. It produces Pokémon cards in particular.
Last year, Japan's The Pokemon Company sold a record number of cards with 3.7 billion Pokemon cards sold in fiscal year 2020/2021 (to the end of March 2021), compared to "only" 1.6 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The cards are produced in several printing plants around the world, each measuring 6.3 cm x 8.8 cm. Since the launch of the card game in 1996, The Pokémon Company International has sold more than 22 billion copies worldwide, excluding Asia.
Millennium Print Group has been producing Pokémon cards since 2015. They are printed on Komori UV presses. The U.S. company also has a large finishing fleet, and automated production lines to package playing cards and several direct mail lines.
"With this acquisition, The Pokémon Company International plans to further develop Millennium Print Group's capabilities, infrastructure and scale to become a leading printer of trading cards." says the Tokyo-based group. Millennium Print Group will continue to operate as a separate company, but will benefit from the investment and industry expertise of The Pokémon Company International.
