The London business newspaper and website published the ‘exclusive’ interview with George Haddaway, director for Western Europe at document management firm M-Files, yesterday. 

As part of his pitch for organisations to ditch paper-centric practices in favour of a “more modern and digitised approach” – unsurprisingly precisely what is offered by M-Files – Haddaway appeared to conflate some of the costs and issues that are specific to office printing and office document management as being relevant to the entire printing industry. 

Beneath the headline ‘UK print industry on brink of collapse, warns info management guru’, Haddaway stated: “The print industry is feeling the full force of external pressures, as its incumbents face a challenging few months they will be fortunate to emerge from unscathed. “Soaring costs thanks to rampant inflation, material shortages, and high-interest rates, plus a contraction of demand due to the current economic climate, has left the sector reeling and on the verge of capitulation.”

He asserted that there was unlikely to be government support for “industries deemed less important”.

“This spells disaster for the print industry, where optimism is at an all-time low and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest this will change.”

He also said that taking steps to reduce paper consumption “should also be a goal for businesses looking to operate more sustainably”, but without providing any context in terms of the environmental impact of digital media storage and e-waste. 

Industry business leaders reacted with outrage to Haddaway’s assertions, with the article viewed as essentially being a sales pitch for his firm’s services. 

BPIF CEO Charles Jarrold said he would be contacting City A.M. about the article.

“George seems to be confusing electronic archiving with the overall shape, size and performance of the UK print industry, with his comments on the latter being, to put it politely, debatable.

“I hope and imagine that he knows more about the former than it appears he does about the latter. Office archiving doesn’t have much to do with the print industry more generally, which a moment of reflection would have made clear – he could even have contacted us for some real facts and figures, and, if he’d done so, he’d have learnt that the UK industry is a massive £11.6bn sector, covering everything from packaging through to books, magazines, direct mail, and more. 

“Far from 'capitulating', the sector’s vibrant, and plays a vital and effective role in communications and marketing.  He might even have found out that we employ over 100,000 people and have world class apprenticeship training programmes too.”

Jarrold noted that he would agree with the point about UK-wide concerns, and not just print, in respect of energy prices.

“Our sector has a long history of adapting, but energy prices are particularly challenging at the moment for everyone, which is why we’re engaging with government to look at what happens beyond the current short term support for UK business, and it’s so important that companies support their trade associations in that information gathering process.”

Lucy Swanston, managing director at Nutshell Creative and chair of the Strategic Mailing Partnership, said: “Where do I start with this article? First and foremost what evidence have they got in terms of their own sustainability story? For him to claim a sustainability angle when we in print and paper have so many credentials… where are his credentials?

“And then to make such a sweeping statement about printing being on the verge of collapse – is he aware of the size of our industry and how integral it is to society?”

Jeremy Walters, CEO at Paragon Customer Communications, stated: “I’m not sure he understands regulation, customer preference and client systems! It’s going to be tough but it’s always been tough.”

Mike Roberts, managing director at print management firm PMG, commented: “What a dubious article that is – takes threads of truths and embellishes them.

“Without doubt the UK print industry is facing huge challenges together with UK industry as a whole – being a large consumer of energy, and facing spiralling material costs – but to claim that the industry is on the brink of collapse I would suggest is naïve!

“Yes operational print activity has changed, and digital forms do have their part in streamlining business processes, but in the wider print industry across marketing there is clear proof of the relevance and need for print. Personalisation builds trust and increases response rates and loyalty – clever execution is the key.”

Paul Manning, managing director at Rapidity, described the piece as “nonsense”.

“So the printing industry is on the verge of collapse so please don’t photocopy anything?! What a load of nonsense.”

The City A.M. article can be read in full here.