The Pokemon Company International to Buy Millennium Print Group

By: JustInBasil · Posted Posted onApr 18, 2022 at 7:34 AM · 18 Comments

In an official press release today, The Pokemon Company International has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Millenium Print Group, which has been a partner in the manufacture of cards for the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2015. Millenium Print group will continue to operate independently but will gain “both investment and industry- expertise from The Pokémon Company International.”

The full text of the press release follows below.

Bellevue, Wash. – April 18, 2022 – The Pokémon Company International, the company responsible for management of the globally popular Pokémon brand outside of Asia, has entered into agreement to purchase North Carolina-based Millennium Print Group, a manufacturer and printer of trading cards and associated packaging in the US. The two companies have been business partners since 2015 with Millennium Print Group serving as longtime printers of The Pokémon Company International’s best-selling product, the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

With this acquisition, The Pokémon Company International aims to further develop Millennium Print Group’s capabilities, infrastructure, and scale to become a premier printer of trading cards, serving the broader industry. Millennium Print Group will continue to operate as a separate, autonomous organization, but will gain both investment and industry- expertise from The Pokémon Company International.

“The talented team at Millennium Print Group has been an important partner to The Pokémon Company International for many years, helping us bring the Pokémon Trading Card Game to our fans with the quality they expect,” said Kenji Okubo, president of The Pokémon Company International. “By joining forces in a more meaningful way, our goal is to enhance the ways our organizations work together and continue to bring the highest quality Pokémon TCG products to market. Simultaneously, we aim to develop Millennium into an even better, bigger, state-of-the-art version of their already exceptional organization, benefitting not just Pokémon, but all of their customers.”

“Millennium Print Group has had the pleasure of growing alongside the Pokémon brand and Pokémon Trading Card Game for nearly a decade,” said Terry Pegram, CEO, Millennium Print Group. “In that time, we have had the opportunity to develop an amazing relationship with the expert team at The Pokémon Company International, an organization with a special culture who lives its values every day. This exciting new chapter for Millennium Print Group has tremendous beneficial impact for both our business and its employees. We look forward to continuing to support our team members and customers while growing Millennium to be a premier printer for trading cards in the world.”

To learn more about The Pokémon Company International visit www.Pokemon.com and to learn more about Millennium Print Group visit www.mprintgroup.com.

 

View thread (18 replies)
Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
 
Yaginku said:
Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
Click to expand...
It seems like there'd have to be at least one other printer, given TPCi didn't start working with Millennium until 2015.
 
Yaginku said:
Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
Click to expand...
Probably, TPCi will try to improve MPG's printing capabilities for North (and Latin) American market(s). It will have a considerably moderate impact for other regions, because they has other printer companies, like Copag Amazonia for Brazilian Portuguese products.
 
Tvoretz said:
It seems like there'd have to be at least one other printer, given TPCi didn't start working with Millennium until 2015.
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head, Topps has (or at least had) their own printer, and Upper Deck prints (printed?) their own cards as well. MPG is not the card printer out there – they're also not only a card printing company.

This acquisition is a bit unusual. I would not be surprised if this is at least partly motivated by an interest on TPCI's part in preventing future set leaks/thefts from the print line and/or MPG signalling to the company they were not particularly interested in continuing to fire employees for leaks.
 
DMYSYS said:
I would not be surprised if this is at least partly motivated by an interest on TPCI's part in preventing future set leaks/thefts from the print line and/or MPG signalling to the company they were not particularly interested in continuing to fire employees for leaks.
Click to expand...
After the incident with brilliant stars getting leak way to early, i can see this being the reason of buying the company.
 
Sources tell me they need another printer for all the extra garbage V's and pack filler people have been demanding! ?
 
HershelLayton said:
Sources tell me they need another printer for all the extra garbage V's and pack filler people have been demanding! ?
Click to expand...
If it bugs you so much you could just stop buying the packs and leave them for the people that actually likes that stuff, i.e. kids and set collectors
 
Snowy Lilacs said:
If it bugs you so much you could just stop buying the packs and leave them for the people that actually likes that stuff, i.e. kids and set collectors
Click to expand...
Just because little Johnny is five, it doesn't mean he likes a garbage 3D rendered pokemon over something nicely drawn. I used to in fact be a kid and prefer the nicely drawn cards over the dreadful 3D cards. Next time don't respond in a rude way over a lighthearted comment.
 
I tend to forget how much money the Pokemon Company has, but I am a bit surprised that type of thing hasn't happened before (or at least recently).
 
Ranger64 said:
I tend to forget how much money the Pokemon Company has, but I am a bit surprised that type of thing hasn't happened before (or at least recently).
Click to expand...
Because they don't make as much money as you probably think. They only get a pretty small slice of the Pokemon pie, and TPCi as a subsidiary gets even less of that. This company probably just isn't worth all that much.
 
HershelLayton said:
Just because little Johnny is five, it doesn't mean he likes a garbage 3D rendered pokemon over something nicely drawn. I used to in fact be a kid and prefer the nicely drawn cards over the dreadful 3D cards. Next time don't respond in a rude way over a lighthearted comment.
Click to expand...
You're telling me you didn't like Keiji Kinebuchi's Grimer?
 
DMYSYS said:
You're telling me you didn't like Keiji Kinebuchi's Grimer?
Click to expand...
I think those cards had an odd charm, but even during gen 3/4 I disliked the awful 3D models used for some Pokemon. It got particularly bad in gen 5 with those bland backgrounds used for holo pokemon in the first few sets
 
Mimikeon said:
Because they don't make as much money as you probably think. They only get a pretty small slice of the Pokemon pie, and TPCi as a subsidiary gets even less of that. This company probably just isn't worth all that much.
Click to expand...
You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
 
Ranger64 said:
You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
Click to expand...
I believe his post was more of a comment on the value of TPCi as a holding company, and not so much a comment on the value of the franchise.
 
Ranger64 said:
You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
Click to expand...
You're mistaken on one major part of it though: not all of that revenue goes to The Pokemon Company. In fact, most of it doesn't. The company and IP are not the same entity. If you look up their revenue in 2020, which was a record year for them, they made $1.1 billion in revenue. The IP has an "average" (yes, I know, mean is bad, but there's no source with exact info) annual revenue of $4.4 billion, means that TPC doesn't even get a quarter of the revenue most years. TPCi, a subsidiary, would get a portion of what the company proper gets. Trust me, this wasn't a huge billion-dollar purchase by a longshot.
 
Either way, Pokemon cards printed in the US have some very serious quality issues compared to ones printed in Japan. That's my only real concern here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.