THANET printing ink manufacturer Sericol is being taken over in a £123m deal with the Fuji Photo Film Company.

The company, which is worth $24bn and employs 73,000 staff worldwide, has signed an agreement to acquire the Broadstairs-based business from an investment group led by Saratoga Partners.

Tony Atkinson, Sericol marketing and commercial manager, said: "The agreement is excellent news for the company. It has been confirmed that all of our jobs are safe. We can expect long term job opportunities and career development."

Fujifilm plans to operate Sericol as one of the key business units within its printing business and added that its current management, including chief executive Ed Carhart, will remain with the company.

He said: "We are very pleased and excited with this change of ownership. Fujifilm is a well run, innovative, technology driven company with extensive resources that we will be able to draw upon to continue to grow all facets of our business."

A statement by Fujifilm said: "The acquisition will further expand and develop Fujifilm’s printing business, one of the company’s core businesses into other areas of industrial and package printing which are expected to grow steadily in demand."

Sericol is the world leader in the production of premium inks and other consumables for the screen-printing and narrow web industries. It has also aggressively expanded and taken a leading position in the wide format digital ink market.

As well as Broadstairs, Sericol's other main manufacturing centre is in Kansas City, America. It has other plants in Australia, India, China and Brazil as well as offices in Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Switzerland, Spain and Taiwan. The company has 1,200 employees worldwide.