Business

The Conservative Party is the second largest party in Westminster, but is the largest in terms of public membership. The party has a strong history of using print to its advantage, notably in Saatchi and Saatchi’s famous ‘Labour isn’t Working’ campaign for the 1979 election.

Paul Sorkin is head of print and design at the Conservative Party and the man in charge of the party’s print spend. He has been in the printing industry for over 44 years and has been a print buyer for 20 years.

Sorkin uses print management giant TPF Group to handle the party’s print work. He says he was particularly impressed by the company’s “can do” attitude and its artwork template system which he subsequently christened “Concept”.

He says: “The system instantly produces the final artwork in the form of a PDF and this can be printed either directly by TPF or a third party.”

This flexible option won him over and in 2006, when the Conservative Party signed its four-year deal with TPF Group, Sorkin’s print team doubled in size to six people. The party’s print runs vary from 10 right through to millions. A recent A5 leaflet for Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaign had its print run increased from 40,000 to 1.5m.

Sorkin says that his busiest times occur during elections and in the run-up to the party conference, which took place last October. Items that need printing include posters, leaflets and advertising boards.

The Conservative party remains committed to print and Sorkin is optimistic about its future. He says: “When the internet came in, people said print was dead, but it’s still with us and it’s going to be with us for a long time to come.”