InnoMark Communications’ purchase of commercial silk-screen printer ImPak Graphics Inc. was years in the making, an InnoMark owner said earlier this week.

InnoMark — a producer of retail visual merchandising materials with operations in Vandalia and Springboro — said the purchase expands its graphic capability by adding silk-screen printing to its large-format digital and lithographic printing capabilities.

Silk-screening is a capability InnoMark’s principals eyed for a long time, said Paul Molyneaux, one of three InnoMark owners. Possible silk-screen products can include back-lit retail signage, he said.

During the recession, assets that normally weren’t available suddenly became ripe for the picking, Molyneaux said.

“We’ve tried to add that (silk-screen) capacity for many years now and have not had the right chemistry, the willingness of targets to sell,” Molyneaux said.

ImPak will be renamed InnoMark Communications Screen Print Division and will continue operating in the same Edgewood, Ky. location, InnoMark said. Molyneaux would not disclose purchase terms.

Privately held InnoMark has nine facilities in six states. The Fairfield-based company has about 480 full-time employees total, including about 50 through the ImPak acquisition.

In June, the company bought Vandalia’s C&O Printing, with about 65 employees. (About 20 of those jobs have been added since the acquisition.) InnoMark also has about 200 Fairfield employees as well as some 150 Springboro employees.

Purchasing companies and adding employees in a recession isn’t necessarily counterintuitive for companies with cash, Molyneaux said.

“We have always been a very conservative company,” he said.

“So going into this recession, our balance sheet was in very good condition.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.