Quebecor and its customers had "prospered" from its acquisitive strategy, which has seen it become the worlds largest commercial printer after buying 85 businesses in the past 15 years.

It would continue to balance investment in existing businesses with more acquisitions, Dickin added.

Dickin told the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) annual meeting in Barcelona this week that the number of UK printing companies had dropped by 10% in the last five years, many of which had fallen prey to consolidation.

Polestars creation merged the two largest UK gravure printers, Watmoughs and BPC, and the group has since bought the Spanish gravure operation of Hachette Filipachi.

Dickin said the structure of the European gravure sector, with some publisher/printer groups, large printers and smaller independents, "lends itself to consolidation".

"Publishers will continue to want to invest in their products, not in high-cost capital equipment," he added. "Overcapacity will undermine the viability of independent printers whether large or small, while improved performance will add to capacity problems, as will newcomers. And gravure is a European market despite strong domestic markets in Germany, Italy and France."

Falling advertising revenues and circulation had hit demand. The only growth area had been retail.

Prices in publication gravure had fallen to unsustainable levels, particularly in Germany, where substantial investment in wide-web presses had forced firms to "vigorously" market their services in the UK and Scandinavia.

The market would also be hit by new capacity from 48pp and 64pp heatset webs, plus 3.5m-wide gravure presses.

But consolidation brings benefits from supply-side cost savings, lower capital expenditure as plants can be more specialised, operating synergies and lower management, finance and administration costs, he said.

It also creates increased market share, "which often comes from growth in demand from larger customers", and from offering international and global solutions.

Story by Gordon Carson