David Taylor, senior, vice-president, Lightning Source "The capital costs are high and in this day and age obtaining finance is never easy. It’s a fiercely competitive market and there is a lot of downward pressure on prices. The technology will change and you have really got to know what you are doing and be careful about the decisions that you make. I agree that we will see more consolidation, partly because of the cost of technology, but also because of other developments, such as the e-book market and the amount of business that is transferring to e-book revenue."
Tony Chard, chief executive, MPG Books Group "Clearly the entry costs are high and there is a dichotomy between investing in the future and having enough volume to justify the investment. For an installation that could cost £3m, I can’t see a future for companies with a turnover of around £10m – you have to have the volume to justify the investment. However, some investments can save money in areas such as floorspace, energy and headcount. You have to weigh up the pros and cons and if you think that you should invest, justify it internally and then move on."
Gerald White, managing director, Berforts Group "I do think the cost is proving prohibitive.Even if you’re looking at a black and white model with some optional extras, the cost can be as high as £1.5m and for many companies that is simply not an option. If this technology is to be a viable alternative to litho then that will have to change. Most customers are looking at these machines and asking how they are going make money from them. Of course there will be early adopters, but if manufacturers are asking you to put 20m pages through a month, that makes things problematic."
David Taylor, senior, vice-president, Lightning Source "The capital costs are high and in this day and age obtaining finance is never easy. It’s a fiercely competitive market and there is a lot of downward pressure on prices. The technology will change and you have really got to know what you are doing and be careful about the decisions that you make. I agree that we will see more consolidation, partly because of the cost of technology, but also because of other developments, such as the e-book market and the amount of business that is transferring to e-book revenue." 
Tony Chard, chief executive, MPG Books Group "Clearly the entry costs are high and there is a dichotomy between investing in the future and having enough volume to justify the investment. For an installation that could cost £3m, I can’t see a future for companies with a turnover of around £10m – you have to have the volume to justify the investment. However, some investments can save money in areas such as floorspace, energy and headcount. You have to weigh up the pros and cons and if you think that you should invest, justify it internally and then move on."
Gerald White, managing director, Berforts Group "I do think the cost is proving prohibitive.Even if you’re looking at a black and white model with some optional extras, the cost can be as high as £1.5m and for many companies that is simply not an option. If this technology is to be a viable alternative to litho then that will have to change. Most customers are looking at these machines and asking how they are going make money from them. Of course there will be early adopters, but if manufacturers are asking you to put 20m pages through a month, that makes things problematic."
