Buyers must help print companies foot the bill

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t because we too are sick to the back teeth of being the bearer of bad news (although, of course, we are), but simply because it’s the holiday season and inline with our Haymarket sister titles, we’re giving the PrintWeek team a well-earned rest.

Well, sort of. Sadly (for them) the team won’t be lounging around PrintWeek towers sipping Pina Coladas. Instead, they’ll be working hard to ensure that you are kept up to date with all the latest news via the pages and bulletins of printweek.com.

But back to the bad news. For many printers the latest round of swingeing paper price rises are the third this year and mean that they’re paying between 15% and 33% more for paper than they were eight months ago. When you consider that paper accounts for 30%-40% of a print job, then it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that in an industry where typical margins are in the lower single figures – this is a major problem.

Of course, if you’re a printer, all this will be old news, but this obvious observation isn’t aimed at you – it’s aimed at our legion of readers from the print buying community.

So when your printers come cap-in-hand pleading poverty, you have two choices: you can shop around and try to find someone that will do the job for the price you were paying at the start of the year, or you can graciously accept that input prices have risen substantially and that, while you can work with your printer to find alternative ways to keep the job within budget, the harsh reality is that the cost per page has risen.

The first scenario might keep your costs down in the short term, but your supplier base will ultimately be underinvested and will eventually shrink as companies are forced out of business (perhaps leaving one of your jobs in limbo if your cut-price supplier is running at unsustainable margins).

The second should lead to a collaborative, cost-effective and mutually beneficial relationship with your suppliers.
So, dear buyers, do the right thing and support your trusted printer.