The export sales director of a Belgian group has come under fire for suggesting that the weak euro mantra was an excuse for UK printers not providing the desired quality.


Stephen Brayden said Mercator Printing Group had established a strong presence in the UK high quality commercial market in less than a year because it offered an infinitely better quality of 48pp printing than UK rivals.


He also said European gravure printers, particularly Mondadori, offered far higher quality than Polestar in that sector.


St Ives web managing director David Emeny defended UK printers. Its a fairly arrogant statement to make, he said. With the technology available we can all print. You can get a 25% price advantage just by going to the continent.
Look at the quality of firms like St Ives and Jarrolds theres nothing better in Europe.


Polestar chief executive Jim Brown also told PrintWeek that UK printers had suffered from the weak euro. We need to see the value recover, he said (see analysis, p28).


But Brayden said: If the UK is in the euro in, say, two years, we will not go away. We are building up a base of customers who are working with us and are not going to buy solely on price.


We are not here just to ram-raid and the UK reading of European printers in that light is up for a reality check.


European printers have become increasingly competitive in the UK with Jarrolds suffering more than most after losing the contract to print catalogues for RS Components and Farnell to Denmarks Stibo Graphic last year.


Jarrolds managing director William Mills said: "In all my time in the industry I've never heard of a job going to the continent for quality reasons."


Brayden said Mercator had been more successful than expected in its first year of UK sales. The former Polestar East Kilbride chief started the groups sales push last March (PrintWeek, 24 March 2000).


Story by Gordon Carson