In a letter seen by PrintWeek from Tim Ohnmacht, senior vice president of sales and marketing, the company said it had been experiencing "continued inflationary pressure" related to material and freight costs.

It has also experienced hikes in the cost of polypropylene and UV coated materials, which have led to additional material-related price increases that took effect from 1 June.

The increases, will have been applied to current pricing, include a 20% increase for heat-set web offset and sheetfed inks, a 20% increase for polypropylene, 10% for UV coating material and 10-20% for transportation.

In the letter Ohnmacht stated: "While we have worked diligently to offset these costs, supplier actions taken earlier in the recession have resulted in reduced supply, and gradual improvements in the global economy have increased demand, resulting in sustained increased costs from our suppliers."

He added the challenge to offset these costs was expected to continue as economic activity increased and the company experienced increasing competition with other industries for many of the necessary raw materials.

The company was unavailable to comment further at this time.

News of the European price hikes comes as the UK heatset web offset market is undergoing a spell of rapid consolidation, which has led the bosses of the top three UK web printers to warn that price rises will be needed to maintain the remaining capacity.