That meant rather than sending work out to those with kit you didn’t have, you would just buy in the kit yourself. 

Yet here we are, when all that in-housing should have been completed, and we find that the trade print sector, rather than making its last stand, is in fact thriving. 

In fact, for a stand-out success story we need look no further than PrintWeek’s reigning Company of the Year, Dundee-based Tradeprint. 

Owner Paul Anderson says: “At Tradeprint, we feel it’s a very exciting time to be in print. The needs of our customers are evolving and it’s important that we evolve with them. We often hear from customers who they appreciate that we manufacture locally so products are delivered to them as quickly and efficiently as possible.  

“They also value ‘high touch’ customer service which is why we assign account managers to serve many of our customers. Perhaps most importantly, customers tell us that they want access to a product portfolio that has great depth and breadth, and that maintains the best quality possible.”

And Tradeprint isn’t alone in enjoying the benefits to be found in this space.

“We are attracting new customers every week,” says Lesley Graham, production manager at Wirralco, a trade printer set up in 1988. “Our customers were not investing or replacing machinery. Over the last five years we have had more customers who had made the decision to no longer print in-house contacting us, and also enquiries from customers who are contemplating making the change.”

Other trade printers, who wish to remain more discreet, tell a similar story. And trade printing is now so popular that some of the larger commercial printers are offering trade services alongside their usual services. Harrier LLC, for example, has a substantial photo product business and the largest collection of HP Indigo presses in the UK. It is now offering trade digital services during its quieter periods of the year. Grafenia, meanwhile, has added to its Printing.com business with Marqetspace, a bespoke W2P space for trade printing. 

What happened?

So did the shift to one-stop shops never materialise, or has trade printing reacted and made itself more competitive? Or, alternatively, is the success story not quite all it is cracked up to be?

On the first question, Tony Kenton, brand and marketing director at cross-media company Brilliant Media, says the shift to in-house was definitely a reality for many companies.  

“I think the reasoning behind bringing as much of the work as possible in-house was about having control and speed of turn-around,” he explains. “Another factor was that, generally, runs got smaller and often personalised. Again in this situation, outside finishing became a nightmare, especially if one of the personalised pieces needed replacing. For the trade finishers, the smaller runs were uneconomical.

“Lastly, ‘green button’ technology allows printers to do finishing, designers to print and CRDs to do much of their basic work in-house themselves, the result being that many trade houses lost their bread and butter work, which meant they could not do more of the specialised work that made the print industry into a craft.”

Gary Peeling, managing director at Precision Printing, agrees that avoiding outsourcing definitely became common. 

“Increased demands on quality standards may have been the more pressing issue, but in my view it was more to do with trade services compromising service delivery and therefore not being fit for purpose, or putting it even more simply, they were too slow and difficult to use,” he says. 

However, Julian Marsh, consultant at Harrier LLC, says the in-house shift was not as complete as some expected it to be and, as economic issues continued, it did not last as long as expected either.

“I believe this did happen to a certain extent. But I think there is probably now growth in the trade print area,” he says. “Over the past five years a lot of companies have been slow to turn the capital investment tap back on so as their businesses have grown, or changed direction, they have probably outsourced an increasing amount of print.”

Of course, the shift back to trade may not just be an economical one, there could be ideological reasons for it too. For Brilliant Media, Kenton says it was very much the latter. 

“The reasons we still rely heavily on trade is based upon our own philosophy of not producing anything ourselves that is either highly specialised or a commodity product. For instance: B2 litho, we don’t want to invest, we haven’t got the space, there are plenty of others that do want the business – so it’d be crazy to do it ourselves. While there’s a choice of suppliers, this will remain work we outsource,” he states.  

It’s a pragmatic stance and one that is increasingly common. Why go to the bother of being a jack of all trades when you can specialise in one? 

In other sectors, the story is the same. In wide-format, many of those serving the trade business say the work is flowing in as moves by the litho and digital printers to add wide-format capacity did not always go to plan, and often it is simply easier to farm the jobs out to a specialist. 

In labels, the work is certainly buoyant. Andrew Miller, managing director at Superfast Labels, says his company does a lot of work for litho houses that do not have roll-to-roll capabilities.

Incomplete picture

Yet what about the criticisms made earlier about trade printing? Have they vanished? 

Miller suggests the fault for problems often lies at the printer ‘client’ end rather than with the trade printer.

“We find that many litho printers who contact us have very little information to help us to compile the quotation, he reveals. “They regularly have none of the following when they call: quantity, label size, colours, paper choice, glue preference or delivery date. They will ask for ‘a label to stick on a box’ and then remain puzzled why we can’t quote them.”

That’s not to say trade printers have not improved. A key part of making the whole job of outsourcing easier has been the technological leaps made in the past decade. More robust IT systems, faster internet connections and the wholesale take up of W2P revolutionised print and trade printers did not ignore the developments. 

Wirralco has added W2P options and embraced new markets.

“We added cross-media to the range of products we can offer as a trade service as we see this as a developing market that incorporates print,” says Graham. 

Peeling, whose company invested in trade outfit WhereTheTradeBuys last year, adds that tech has made the trade offering increasingly slick.

“The web, cloud, mobile and automated workflows are transforming how we can deliver services to customers. Combine those with comprehensive output and the opportunities are huge,” he says. 

It’s not only Peeling who recognises the potential in this once-dismissed market. As mentioned earlier, the big commercial players have spotted the opportunity in trade and are keen to benefit.  

Grafenia’s Marqetspace launched last June and chief executive Tony Rafferty says 40% of its customers have print production capacity themselves. He expects sales to be around £10m in two to three years’ time. 

“The web makes any market more efficient and that is true of print also,” says Rafferty. “For sure there is still a place for ‘traditional’ trade printers but that’s probably for higher value orders. The sweet spot for Marqetspace is urgent, awkward – such as embossing or spot UV – low run length or low value orders; typically under £100.”

Also getting in on the trade action is Harrier LLC: “We offer commercial customers solutions and consultancy, trade customers commoditised ink on paper,” says Marsh. “We are focused on giving our trade customers even better value. We are developing software tools that will make dealing with us easier and quicker so saving valuable admin time.”

Wirralco’s Graham says the arrival of the big commercial companies has had little impact on the company’s business. 

“I’m not sure why direct companies are offering trade, other than to fill the presses and that they may find it more cost-effective than hiring another salesperson,” she says. “Even though we are coming across more and more printers offering a trade service this has not had any impact on our business. It’s basically down to customers trusting you with all their customer details, which they are giving you on a daily basis every time they place an order.

What Graham is hinting at is that the trade-only operators, such as Wirralco, benefit as many commercial printers don’t want to outsource to a printer that could try and go direct to the customer and cut out the middle man. Kenton would certainly be wary of using a trade printer that also offers commercial services.

“Many firms that offer this service also pitch – sometimes in a different guise – directly to the client. As far as I was aware, that is the cardinal sin of a trade house. We only use trade houses that make it a policy not to go for the client directly,” he says. 

Yet while this may be the case for many trade print clients, so the level of work itself might not be impacted, price is certainly going to be affected by more players in the market. 

“I’m not surprised people are outsourcing more as the trade print side of the industry is coming up with frankly ridiculous pricing,” reports one commercial printer, who doesn’t want to be named. “I don’t see how a lot are making any money at all, certainly not enough to survive.”

Marsh admits that pricing has become a concern: “I see people offering cheaper and cheaper prices all the time. Of course it worries me a bit as some people only buy on price,” he says. 

Focus on service

And yet there are ways to combat this. Marsh talks up the customer service angle as a reason to ensure people don’t just buy on price and Graham says it is the same for Wirralco. 

“More trade W2P companies offering competitive prices are sacrificing customer service,” she says. “Wirralco, while having W2P, recognised that there was still a need for an experienced and knowledgeable customer service department. 

“We are attracting new customers every week and this is partly due to having experienced staff at the end of the phone – and a high percentage of our new customers are from recommendations. Levels of knowledge of print vary with our customers and some need more support than others, often asking our advice on the best solution for their customer. We also offer help with our free marketing support services to enable our customers to promote their business.”

Clearly, the sector is going through a lot of changes and companies are having to adapt to survive. And it looks like there will be more adaptations required in the next few years. 

“As the ‘professional’ commercial market grows, the need for good trade houses will increase. It is no longer a viable proposition to do everything oneself. The big question is – who will be the customer? A printer may not be the answer. It may be creative agencies, cross-media firms or even other trade houses. The danger is that as a trade house, I for one wouldn’t want to do too much business with the typical ‘print’ company, not unless I got paid upfront,” says Kenton. 

Peeling adds that technology will play even more of a role.

“Think Uber: resources better utilised via the cloud, clear value on cost and a transformed experience for the client. Why is that interesting? Because I am willing to bet as we get better at this there will be more print projects not fewer. Because getting a print job will be easy and we will all be buying and selling without so much as a phone call,” he says. 

Against this positive outlook, though, Marsh warns that prices will continually come under pressure. 

“As companies start to reinvest I guess there will be more excess capacity being thrown into the market place at silly prices,” he says. 

That may well be, but considering some had the pen poised over the death certificate of trade printing five years ago, on the whole, the story is a positive one. Services have improved, work has increased and, on the whole, trade printing is thriving.  

CASE STUDIES

The established player: Wirralco

Wirralco is an independent family-owned company established in 1988 on the Wirral. It offers everything from leaflets to calendars on a range of kit including a HP Z6200 and an Xerox iGen4 digital press.

“Investing in an iGen4 means our customers can offer short-run presentation folders or landscape brochures and A4 6pp, which they cannot produce in-house,” says production manager Lesley Graham. 

Graham says the key to the company’s longevity is continual investment and great customer service.

“Trust, reliability and service are key,” she says. “When something goes wrong (and it will, no one is 100% perfect) it’s about how you address the problem and put it right. We work very closely with our customers with the aim of meeting the end-user demands and have built up excellent working relationships.”

The new kid on the block: Harrier LLC

Harrier LLC is one of the UK’s largest digital and photo gift printers. It also has the largest fleet of HP Indigo presses in the UK. Producing photo gifts means production can peak at certain times of the year, mainly at Christmas. So the company offers its digital presses to trade customers in quieter periods. 

“Harrier has a number of unique propositions,” says Julian Marsh, a consultant to the company. “For example, thanks to the IT capabilities we have in place for our photo peak period we are able to handle very complex variable data work throughout the year. Our set-up and scale means we can profitably offer very competitive pricing. 

“We also have a lot of quite specialist finishing equipment bought in specifically for our photo business. We are one of the few digital printing companies that are capable of finishing up to 40,000 hardback books a day – and every one different if required.”

He says the key to successful trade printing is simple: “I have said it many times before and I stick by it – mutual respect! The buyer needs someone to produce their jobs, the seller needs orders to keep their equipment running. The relationship is interdependent. Both buyer and seller can vote with their feet so for a relationship to be successful both must feel they get a fair deal. Communication is key.”