Sharing the stage with Xerox chief executive Anne Mulcahy at the NEC Forum were Heidelberg chief executiveBernhard Schreier, Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert and Edward Carr, business affairs editor at The Economist.

Hibbert said print was "a buyers' market" at present and greater consolidation and capacity were needed.

Schreier added that it is the same for equipment and technology suppliers. "Just as it is a buyers' environment for printers, it is also a buyers' environment for suppliers," he said.

Mulcahy said the key to success isn't necessarily being able to predict the future, but being adaptable to trends.

She added that Xerox invested not just in technology, but in helping clients with business development and even marketing.

Paxman said: "Printing seems to be a business in which you have to invest a huge amount of money to enter an increasingly crowded market with increasingly low returns."