Pokémon TCG printer, Millennium Print Group, acquires expansive new manufacturing facility in North Carolina, USA

A major leasing contract has been finalized between Trinity Capital and Starwood, owners of the Spark LS manufacturing campus in Morrisville, North Carolina, and an “undisclosed tenant,” which local industry press has identified as TCG card and packaging printer Millennium Print Group. Millennium Print Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Pokémon Company International (TPCi), having been acquired in 2022 after working with TPCi as a printer since 2015.

Details are sparse on the transaction, and in fact, Trinity Capital and Starwood are not identifying the tenant beyond a “Morrisville-based global company,” which Millennium Print Group is. This expansion aligns with The Pokémon Company International’s stated goal at the time of acquisition, being “to further develop Millennium Print Group’s capabilities, infrastructure, and scale to become a premier printer of trading cards…” This agreement sees 1.27 million square feet of space leased to Millennium Print Group, 400,000 square feet of which already exists at Spark LS and 866,000 square feet of which will be "built-to-suit" the manufacturer. It’s being described as the largest manufacturing lease of the year in the US by Trinity Capital and Starwood.

Millennium Print Group is the largest Pokémon card printer in the US and operates several facilities in the Morrisville area with over 1000 employees, in addition to its facilities located in The Netherlands. The Pokémon Company International does not offer specific statistics for how many cards it prints, but a since-privated video from Millennium Print Group states that they can print 26.62 million cards in a day. TPCi reports that more than 75 billion cards have been printed during the life of the card game.

It remains to be seen if this expansion will affect the consistent scarcity of Pokémon cards. Earlier this year, the release of Prismatic Evolutions saw such scarcity and scalping issues that TPCi made statements about reprinting cards and upping capacity. “For new Pokémon TCG expansions launching in the future, we are maximizing production to increase product availability upon release…” the company stated.

The new facility at Spark LS is expected to be at full operation in 2028. Millennium Print Group is the same card printer which, in 2023, offered major layoffs during unprecedented Pokémon TCG sales.