And yet, persistently, the notion that print buyers are looking to stick all their print eggs – be that wide-format, digital, litho, specialist finishing, POS, DM or other – into one basket seems to be taken as read.

This is surprising as it has far-reaching consequences: if buyers are opting for a single print supplier to give them efficiencies and cost savings in the supply chain, then printers are going to have to increasingly look at adding new print services as well as a range of non-print services to their repertoire to cater for that.

They are also going to have to try and offset the risk of basing a large chunk of their turnover on just one client – something that is also a worry for the buyer. Just as important, if the rumour is not true, then there is a risk those already investing to meet this supposed demand may be wasting their money.

According to Gurdev Singh, managing director of direct channels at Communisis, the trend of buyers shifting to a single supplier is real and his firm has invested significantly to ensure that it can serve that market. The reason for the trend is clear, Singh believes: it comes down the need to streamline operations and cut costs.

"There’s definitely a trend in this direction," he explains. "Consolidation of spend and reduction of costs are helping to define that trend. The more you spend with a particular venture, the more chance you have of maximising your cost savings. Around half our clients in the direct mail sphere use us as a single source as a result."

Singh believes that, for marketing campaigns in particular, a single supplier just makes sense. It reduces complexity in the communication chain, it means all the elements of a campaign are in one place and it simplifies the process for the client. He explains that Communisis has all the tools for a targeted marketing campaign, from concept to delivery, and so there is no need to go elsewhere.

Part of the mix
The point is that we are not just talking about print here: the single-supplier remit covers a much broader media gamut of which print is just one part.

If a printer can prove itself adept in all these fields – data management, SMS and email marketing, website design, etc – some print buyers are willing to take a leap of faith, according to Rob Kelly, marketing director at St Ives. He argues that print is benefiting from a "more hybrid model" of satisfying clients’ broader needs.

"This model is tailored towards needs across the wider multichannel arena, so as well delivering print, they want that same supplier to tackle data management, field marketing and other services linked to traditional print. Markets are becoming tougher and larger businesses want to gain more from their suppliers," he explains.

That said, many buyers still prefer to place work with specialists in each individual field. There is a school of thought that believes suppliers should avoid trying to be jacks of all trades if it means being master of none; they cannot possibly hope to do everything well – indeed, there’s a danger that the core print product will suffer as a result of the broader focus.

For Mark Cruise, head of print management at BSkyB, the reason for using a mix is more about practicality. He would argue that Singh’s assertion that print buyers are moving to single suppliers en masse doesn’t hold true, especially for those bigger firms where you’d think there would be most benefit from the shift.

"Using one supplier could well pay for smaller to medium-sized companies but not a large company doing as much as we do on POS and direct marketing," explains Cruise. "There is no single company that suits our needs for the amount we do. For a large company with large runs, it’s just not a viable option."

BSkyB has a marketing budget of around £17m and Cruise has a roster of 13 suppliers, including printers Montgomery Litho Group and GI Solutions Group, as well as paper and envelope firms. Every print job pitches two or three suppliers together to ensure BSkyB secures a competitive price. Could Cruise be tempted to ditch all those printers for one monster supplier?

"Categorically no. You can become too large a part of their business and contributing 40%-60% of their turnover is not a healthy place to be. Let’s say I was with Supplier X for all my print and I’m coming to my year-end. I’ve got millions of pounds of direct mail and door-drops. Something happens at the factory, maybe a fire or a power breakdown.

"Suddenly they can’t deliver. I’m fairly sure I would be out on my ear in seconds and rightly so. Just think of the reputation damage to myself and the team? It doesn’t bear contemplation; it makes me shiver."

Richard Owers, director of Pureprint Group in East Sussex, agrees that it tends to be buyers with a reasonable rather than substantial spend, SMEs in the main, that are attracted to the single-supplier format. He says the buyer realises they get ease of communications and can build up a knowledge base from putting all their work in one place, while also benefiting from familiarity and intimacy from working with one trusted supplier.

"It can also be more productive than choosing several suppliers for each item individually," he adds. "I would say it is good for SMEs – in some cases the smaller you are the more likely you are to have staff specialising in just a few areas. Negotiating deals with a range of suppliers could be confusing, while using one company for everything may be more attractive."

That said, the concerns of BSkyB’s Cruise are not lost on Owers: "I don’t think the large companies would use one print or marketing company. Possible downsides are it is harder to control costs throughout the contract. If you have two or three preferred suppliers you get common understanding and competitive pricing between the three suppliers."

Singh disagrees, in part. He explains how Communisis has achieved great results for both large banks and nationwide retailers through being a single supplier. It’s his view that, regardless of size, the benefits of a single supplier are clear, but he agrees that it can be the smaller firms that benefit the most.

"Smaller firms are interested because they don’t have the buying power of a larger company and don’t always get the same level of service. Working with one supplier gives the buyer leverage because they can offer the printer all of its work and in return a company such as Communisis, which spends £8m on IT hardware alone, can give a premier-league service and innovation that printer may not have had access to before," he says.  

Headaches
For print buyers, then, it is a difficult balancing act. Putting all your print in one place can cause you some headaches in terms of risk and it is not always the most cost-effective option. However, the benefits, especially to SMEs, of the closer relationship, simplification of communication and supply chain and better use of a printer’s resources, may outweigh that risk.

There’s one thing that is missing in this equation, however: do printers really want to be this master of all trades, and if so, can they truly provide that broad service?

Gareth Roberts, managing director at Bishops Printers in Portsmouth, will not tread the single-supplier path as he believes doing one thing well is the key to success.

"Some print companies have sold quite strongly on the back of providing a single-source solution and there’s merit in that. But from our point of view, our strength is selling what we do under our roof: putting ink on paper," he reveals. "We don’t pretend to be a communications agency, so if you want point-of-sale work we will recommend someone."

That said, Roberts says that if a client does specify that they want all their work from one supplier, Bishops obliges, but makes it clear that the extra work out of the core remit will be outsourced.

"We are happy to do more, but we will tell them we will outsource the work," he explains. "That said, our turnover is £18m and our outsourcing spend is around 0.2% of that. This reflects the fact that we mostly sell what we can produce. Most of our work is to the trade, not large blue-chip companies wanting someone to sort it out, so perhaps my sector is less likely to have those kinds of demands."

These "demands" Roberts hints at are mainly driven by the fact that the print buying role is now done by people less familiar with the processes and so don’t perhaps want to deal with its intricacies. They want an arm’s-length delegating responsibility and to leave the finer points to the suppliers. This is obviously a situation easier to engineer if the buyer is working with one supplier. But Roberts says being that supplier can expose both the printer and the buyer to too much risk.

"I’m uneasy about vesting too much in one client," he says. "A printer whose largest client takes up 40% of turnover is in jeopardy. We are often associated with football brochures but it’s less that 10% of turnover, so if we lose some business it’s not fatal. Trying to be a solo supplier to a big company, by implication, is voting for larger exposure – and that hits both buyer and printer."

Third way
There is, of course, a third way that seemingly offsets risk to both printers and buyers: use a print manager. Derek Hodd, project specialist at consultancy Expense Reduction Analysts, says that, in general, the print buying scene is a mixed one, with some buyers preferring a mix of suppliers and some opting to hand over control to just one. A viable alternative to those is to use a print manager, as the company gets the benefits of dealing with a single source that cuts down communication time and strives for the most competitive price, but also the advantages of a range of printers.

"They used to be called print poachers, but that is to misunderstand what they bring to the table," says Hodd. "For a buyer, the print manager is a single source of contact that can handle the print for the company and strive for the cost efficiencies that come from a single supplier, but without the risk of only using one printer. For the printer, working with a PM can give them access to work from companies they would not reach on their own."

Whichever method you believe to be most viable, Singh reckons that using single suppliers is part of the changing, multichannel landscape and though printers may not like it, single suppliers are part of print’s future.

"Change means opportunity and it’s how you handle that change. Death is not the only certainty; change is just as certain, and your ability to do so will define success or failure. There’s opportunity here," he pledges.

Critics will argue that that "opportunity" is not worth the cost. While there is evidence that print buyers are seeking a single supplier, there is as much suggesting they are not – and it’s the same story regardless of the size of the company doing the buying. The risks of over exposure and stretching yourself too far as a printer are clear, but so are the benefits of persuading a customer to put all their trust in you as a single supplier.

What’s clear is that whether this trend becomes the norm will depend as much on the willingness of printers as the inclination of the buyers.

---

University challenge: Pureprint Group

One of the biggest universities in south-east England uses Pureprint Group for all its print requirements – brochures, prospectuses, posters and signage.

The 180-staff printer in Uckfield, East Sussex, makes £25m turnover from everything from large-volume litho work to variable-data digital print. It has spent £12m in the last five years on kit including a six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 105 and two HP Indigo 7500 digital presses.

Director Richard Owers says the university prints "all the time" and wanted a competitive deal for runs of one to 500,000. It needs no procurement team because a framework deal reviews processes and service levels, enquiry response and speed of turning around estimates.

"The university can therefore benchmark performance. If we fall short, which we don’t, it would be picked up in the review process. The college buys around £300,000 worth – 50 to 100 tonnes – of material and is hot on sustainability in print and papers. We have environmental accreditations to ensure they get it."