The panel comprised of Pindar Group chairman Andrew Pindar, Alden Group managing director William Alden, Fulmar chief executive Mike Taylor, Stora Enso sales director Peter Bothwick and journalist Danuta Kean.

In a sector where companies were making on average a pre-tax margin of 2.6%, Fulmar's Taylor said that it was up to the industry itself to make sure that it was rewarded for its costs, enabling companies to make a higher level of return.

"As a public company my shareholders would be appalled at that level of return," he said.

Pindar envisaged there would be more consolidation in the print industry over the coming years.

Alden also felt that something had to be done to shake up the industry to get it back to a point where it is making money.

The issue of training was tackled by Pindar, who said that part of the Vision in Print (ViP) international productivity study analysis had shown that printers in the UK had an average of two days per year allowed for training, as opposed to its European competitors.
"This is abysmal and something needs to be done," he said.

However Taylor said he believed a lot of industry training was going unmeasured.

He pointed to his own subsidiary, Bookmarque, where at least 30-40 staff who had little or no knowledge of printing prior to joining the company had been trained up.

Pindar added that some of the problems were being addressed, through both ViP and proposed sector skills council ProSkills.

Pindar said ProSkills' aim is to encourage each sector of the industry to set its own agenda and assert a proper strategy for going forward.

One of the answers, he said, was to encourage more people into the industry, to increase its appeal to potential employees and make it more attractive.

"Somehow the print industry has to be seen to be something better than a grubby high street outlet."

Story by Andy Scott