Its latest Printing for Profit survey shows margins after finance charges fell below 4% for the first time since the survey began in 1997.

Director of corporate and external affairs Cicely Brown said finance costs were increasing at an alarming rate. The average company experienced a 9% increase between 2001 and 2002, she said.

Its mirroring whats happening in the consumer marketplace, she added. Finance is available very cheaply and people are rushing out to get it.

Brown said that the reliance on finance put printers in a vulnerable position; a bad month or a rise in interest rates could prove disastrous.

Finance wasnt necessarily a bad thing if you can invest cash more lucratively elsewhere, however the slim returns indicated that this was not happening very often in the industry.

Story by Lauretta Roberts